It’s time to ditch the old cliches and to change the way we think about Olympic athletes, who are humans rather than robotsChris Boardman signalled the shift when he summed up British Cycling’s performance at the Tokyo Olympics: “Fewer medals but a better story.” What could he mean? We all know sporting performance pushes forward. Innovation never stops as athletes look deeper and search further to raise their game. The new territory this time is fresh vocabulary, human stories and different thinking.The Paralympics are poised to begin, the Beijing Winter Olympics follow next year, with Paris 2024 not so far away. Olympians of different ages and from different nations are challenging us to shift our mindsets and broaden the lens...
The Olympic journeys of Adam Peaty, Tom Daley and Matty Lee, and Matt Pidcock will inspire so many people back homeThis might sound a touch bizarre but I don’t think I quite understood the emotions that millions went through on Super Saturday until I was poolside on Magic Monday. You know that feeling when there is alchemy in the air, and in a blink of an eye one British gold suddenly turns into three. It was a bit like London 2012 when people thought Jessica Ennis-Hill would win, hoped that Mo Farah would join her, and then my long jump victory became the icing on top of a very large cake. Related: Adam Peaty urges UK after Tokyo gold: ‘Now...
The former Ireland Olympic swimming coach was accused of sexual offences dating back decades and a new podcast series renews hope his victims will finally see justice doneIt’s taken her decades to get here but in conversation at her home in Cork, Tric Kearney could well be discussing the gruelling training sessions she undertook as a talented child swimmer when she matter-of-factly describes the repeated rapes to which she was subjected by her coach. “Two times a day at least, maybe,” she recalls. “And it could be anything and everything. It was pretty severe.”Kearney’s is just one of several extremely harrowing testimonies given by victims of a man known to everyone over a certain age in Ireland. During the 1980s,...
Bitesize varieties of sports are all the rage and this time the revolution is in the poolIn the thoroughly bingeable Succession there is a memorable moment when Roman Roy – lazy scion of a Murdoch-esque family empire – tries to win over the chief executive of a new media company. The CEO asks him what his vision for the future of the industry is. “It’s all about the morsels, man,” says Roman, possibly the show’s ultimate bullshit artist. “That’s where we’re headed. Tasty morsels from groovy hubs …”It was a phrase that came back to me last week as the UK welcomed the International Swimming League, the latest sporting grab for the shrinking attention of Generation Z. It has been...
The young American sprinter, fresh off a record-tying seven golds at worlds, could be in position to become the face of swimming at the Tokyo OlympicsCaeleb Dressel knew the comparisons were inevitable. The 20-year-old University of Florida student had barely toweled off after capturing his seventh gold medal at last week’s world aquatics championships when he found himself cast as the heir to Michael Phelps as the face of swimming in the United States and, potentially, the world.Not only had the American sprinter become the first swimmer to win seven golds at a single worlds since Phelps in 2007, Dressel joined Phelps and Mark Spitz as the only swimmers to win seven titles at any long-course international championship. Related: Adam...