Olympic Gold, Olympic Shite

I'm not much for watching the Olympics. I like the Winter Olympics but all this running around etc, etc no.

This year, though, the UK or, Team GB, as they seem now to be known, are doing rather well.

There are though a few exceptions.

Yesterdays press was full of how well Team GB are doing. This amounted to a tiny panel for each medal winning participant.

On the following page [and this was actually half a page, as opposed to a few column inches] was a whole big write up apropos how Paula Radcliffe came 21st in some 100 yard dash and how her recent injury had made her shit.

No mention was made of how 20 people were better than she was.

No mention was made of how she was also crap in Athens in 2004. Nor was there word of he cocking up in the London Marathon either.

Ms Radcliffe is famous only for either shitting herself [Athens] or pissing on the street [London] or for being, seemingly, permanently injured when it comes to any international event.

The lack of such talk is a bit of a Brit tradition.

Looking back at recent history [the past 30-odd years] turns up Brendan Foster, David Bedford ET AL.

They were always the best athletes in the world until they came up against anybody else from any other country. They then fell into the same bin in which Ms Radcliffe now resides. "My leg hurt, I injured myself last decade, I was wearing new shoes" etc, etc.

Why, as the non-winning / never winning Brit contender, was this woman given so much coverage and will, ultimately, be better remembered for messing up than those who turned up the goods?