AS we enthusiastically congratulate Scotland’s curlers for amazingly delivering gold and silver medals at the Beijing Winter Olympics, which represented GB’s total of two medals, we should also congratulate overall winners Norway.
With a similar population to Scotland, the Norwegians miraculously amassed a total of 37 medals with 16 gold medals, being four more than Germany, seven more than China, and eight more than the USA. Regrettably, and perhaps unsurprisingly given the poor performance of GB overall, the BBC and most of the UK mainstream media provided few, if any, updates on the medal table, in stark contrast to coverage of the Summer Olympics held in Tokyo, Rio and London.
READ MORE: Eve Muirhead leads Team GB to gold in curling
More importantly, Norway’s hugely better performance raises questions about the financial support for UK sports, and in particular whether the limited and selectively targeted support provided through lottery funds is sufficient, not only to help win medals across a greater number of sports but to significantly boost participation levels across all sports, especially those sports where at present there may be few prospects of winning medals.
As we all wish for our planet to be made more habitable and we strive as individuals to become fitter and healthier, is it not time for the UK Government to commit more of its resources to maximising the well-being of all of its citizens, rather than maximising the profits of rich friends and party donors?
Stan Grodynski
Longniddry, East Lothian
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