Beijing Targets
UK Sport, the umbrella organisation that distributes Lottery funding to elite sportsmen and women, has given the British Olympic squad the target of finishing eighth in the medal table at the upcoming Beijing games and bringing home no less than 35 medals, including 10 to 12 golds.
The target is an ambitious one, and UK Sport know that. If our team returns home with that many medals it will be our most successful Olympic games (unboycotted Games, I should say) for 90 years. It is, however, an important target en route to the planned position of fourth in the medal table at the 2012 Olympics.
There are many reasons to believe that this target is reachable, and that we may in fact surpass the total of Gold medals that are expected. The cycling team is far and away the best in the world at the moment, and though the results from the World Championships earlier this year can’t be transmitted directly to the Olympics, there is every reason to suggest that our cyclists might be better than the four or five gold medals that they have been discussing.
In athletics there is the hope that we will bring home five medals, four in sailing and rowing and six in cycling.
The thing is, at the moment our good are very good, and the next level may be struggling to make finals. Take Philips Idowu in the triple jump, he is the outstanding favourite to win Gold, and Kelly Sotherton in the Heptathlon is similarly touted, but after that there is no clear medal potential, let alone winning an event.
In the run up to 2012 a record amount of public money is being invested into elite sport, and Beijing really needs to go well in order for that money to be continually justified and to breath life into some of the sports that are not doing so well at the moment. There is nothing so good for a sport as a victory on the very biggest stage and that is what UK Sport’s bosses will be hoping for this summer.
The targets are all very well, but some of the sports that most need the help are those that have not been given targets. Take Hockey, for example, it is one of the biggest participation sports in the country and yet, according to Blue Square, we will be lucky to get anywhere near the podium, let alone a gold medal. It would be great for sport in this country if a team, or a plucky individual, could progress all the way through the rounds and really make an unexpected splash.
There are always stories of sporting heroism from Olympic games, lets hope that one or two of the stories that come back from this one are about our own athletes.
Sports Betting odds provided by Blue Square.
