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By Les Scammell, December 7, 2009 4:11 pm

The way things are going, Tiger Woods could take on cult hero status, not for golf this time, although it will be for scoring birdies. The US pay-for-scandal magazines are still shaking the trees to see how many more birdies they can get to fall out of the trees.

I mean, p-l-ease – haven’t we heard enough. Men around the world are getting green eyes, women will start to look at him and wonder, and the journalists are going to have a field day. If Tiger Woods wants to go around the world landing birdies and hitting holes in one – let him. What business is it of ours.

And everyone thought that golf was a boring sport. Mind you, those big dollars coming in every time he hits a ball certainly helps.

We are obviously a little short on sport stories – particular juicy sporting stories at present. Andre Agassi has had his run. The Williams sisters have had their spat for the year. There are no Olympics so chasing drug cheats is out. Sorry Tiger – you’re it. The journo’s have hit the bottom of the basket and don’t have anyone else to pick on.

photo credit: Keith Allison

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By Les Scammell, August 11, 2008 12:32 pm

Time for a rant again. The Olympic Games are great and the sportsmanship so far has been pretty good. The performances have been even better. When you start getting world records in heats and semi-finals you know you are going to be in for some great action in the finals.

Unfortunately, one of the things that irks me about big events such as this is the quality of the television coverage. I get really p**sed of when these same coverages then win awards at the end of the season. I can understand that, with so many events happening at the one time, that coverage can be difficult.

However, if I want to sit down and watch the gymnastics, or the equestrian, or perhaps even the swimming, then that is what I want to watch. At present we get snippets. A little bit of this and little bit of that. It can be very frustrating.

I don’t know how much of the Olympics the rest of the world are watching, or in what format. Here in Australia we are very backward when it comes to television broadcasting. Often you need to subscribe to pay tv if you want to watch anything decent.

The Olympic broadcaster for Australia is the Seven Network. I am not sure about the rest of Oz, and I would love to hear from others, but I receive five different ‘channel 7’s’. We get the standard local channel 7 along with channel 7 HD. We also receive the new channel Seven-1, Seven-2 and Seven-3.  Now to my rant. If Channel Seven can split into three broadcasts, why is they are not using this facility to deliver a much fuller coverage of the games.

One channel could deliver their snippet broadcast (as it does now) whilst the other two could be used to deliver extended broadcast of individual sports. Thankfully a second broadcaster is able to pick up some of the sporting events and does broadcast them in full – they even provide a schedule of what is going to be broadcast and at what time – the Seven Network seems to find that a little difficult as well.

The games are about the athletes and that is what I would love to see more of them. To all the athletes – all I can say good luck to them – Ozzie Ozzie Ozzie – oy oy oy – Go for Gold!

Comments (3)

By Les Scammell, April 19, 2008 8:05 am

The Olympic torch has started its world journey and will soon land on our shores where it will spend what I am sure will be an interesting visit. The torch has so far drawn more publicity for all the protests than it has for the Olympic Games themselves.

I have no real problems with the protests. I am a firm believer in free speech and I deplore the human rights abuses that are occurring in  various parts of the world. I do however take issue with some of the protests to date. Human rights are human rights. The Olympic torch and the Olympic Games are international events.

At present the focus is on China, understandable since they are hosting the games this year. However human rights are being abused in many parts of the world with some far worse than what we have witnessed in China or Tibet. We don’t see protests calling on action in these countries.

What is really upsetting my sense of reasoning are the attempts to sabotage the torch and if possible, sabotage the games themselves. As the torch parades along the streets of the various countries, attempts have been made to extinguish the flame or even destroy the torch. The IOC are now discussing the option of no longer having an international leg for the torch.

The reason I take issue with these protests is fairly simple. They are protesting against human rights abuse. I fully agree with them and support them and their right to protest. However, attempting to take the torch away from a child or an elderly person is infringing on their human rights. They have a right to celebrate the Olympic Games as a sport and not as a political event.

The ordinary every day people of China want the Olympics – and why not. Commercial interests aside, their is a lot pride in China surrounding these games. If the games were taken away from China as many have suggested – are we not infringing on their human rights.

Human rights is a huge issue. Human rights covers many different aspects of people’s lives.  The violent protest that we have seen are a form of human rights abuse (on a smaller scale) in the name of preventing human rights abuse. I am sorry – but two wrongs do not make a right.

By all means – protest – let your feelings be known but do so in a way that does not deny others their human rights – in this case, the right to separate sports and politics and the right to celebrate the Olympics as an international sporting event – heaven only knows there is too much politics in the games already.

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By Les Scammell, January 10, 2008 11:32 am

Has the Indian Cricket board destroyed yet another leading umpires career? I hope not.If you’re from the US then you may want to skip this article. If you’re a POME then hay, “where are the Ashes”? If your from the subcontinent then read on. If you’re a Kiwi, WTF are you doing reading a Aussie Blog. Continue reading 'Indian Cricket Destroys Another Umpires Career'»

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By Les Scammell, October 17, 2007 11:55 am

Drugs in Sport? A controversial issue at any time and with the Olympics just around the corner it is sure to rear its ugly head again, and again, and again. myLot User Profile

I wonder if it is really worth the fuss. Athletes, more to the point, drug manufacturers are constantly finding ways to and drug types that can enhance the performance of athletes while beating the drug tests. It would not surprise me to learn that these same drug companies are then developing the testing procedures to discover these drugs – talk about perpetual funding. I would love to own a business like that – earn an income by creating a problem then double that by delivering a solution – wow – cash flow.

The reality is that where money is involved, prestige and public status, people will try to beat the system. The only way to resolve the issue is to stop fighting. Athletes are always going to try and find a better way to perform. The human body is capable of doing so much naturally – drugs are one of the only options available that enable an athlete to push their bodies beyond what it has been designed to do. If we remove the bans on performance enhancing drugs then perhaps we can at least ensure that the drugs themselves do minimal harm.

Even the professional in sport are now starting to come out either in favor of legalizing, or they are at least admitting that winning this battle (substance bans) is a lost cause. Don Talbot, one of Australia’s former leading swim coaches now believes that legalising may be the only solution. You can see his opinions here - http://www.abc.net.au/canberra/stories/s2060567.htm?backyard.

John Fahey, the new president of the World Anti-Doping Authority (WADA) believes that winning the battle is not possible – see his article here – http://abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/10/17/2062092.htm.

The problem with banning performance enhancing drugs is that it is not only the drug itself that is banned – in fact there are really only a handful of drugs that are banned. It is the drugs used to hide the performance enhancing drugs that are also banned that lead to problems. Drugs commonly used for pain relief, contraception, weight control (eg diruetics), epilepsy and even coffee (caffeine in higher than normal doses) are also banned. In fact, some chemicals found naturally in the human body are also banned. One of the common problems some male athletes experience is that of raised testosterone levels – these levels may raised naturally or as the result of illness, over training, injury, sexual activity and many other factors. However these raised levels often lead to problems when it comes to ‘dope testing’.

Athletes have in the past been banned from sport due to high levels of caffeine – because they drank that third or fourth cup of coffee in the morning, pain relief medication – because they had suffered severe pain such as a migraine in the days leading up to competition or testing, or because they had used diuretics to help control weight. It should be noted that none of these drugs are on the banned list because they enhance an athletes abilities. No, they are on the list because they could be used to mask the performance enhancing drug.

I say enough is enough. It is the athletes body. Let them do what they want with it. Do people really care whether the winner is on drugs or not? The answer is yes – but only because of the scandal or because they feel the person that finished second or third should have won. Athletes that have been caught out in the past have been happy enough to give back their medals – you never see them offering to give back the money have made – so really – its not so much the sport these days – its that holiest of holly grails – the DOLLAR.