Archive

In 2012, in the count down to the London Olympics, there was considerable press coverage on its sponsorship by McDonalds, highlighting the poor message that this would give for a games that was so focused on health, youth and legacy (1). Little attention was given to the well documented fact that one of the eras […]

Chris Hoy winning a life time achievement award at last nights BBC Sports Personality Awards, reminded me how much I had enjoyed Richard Moore’s book – Heroes, Villains and Velodromes. First published in 2008 and primarily focusing on Chris Hoy, it gives an unprecedented insight in to the secret worlds of track cycling at a time when everything was […]

Swim, Bike, Run might be the ultimate inspiration for would-be athletes and is dedicated “to mum and Dad for everything they have done” – which I think tells you even more….. Swim, Bike, Run is the story of the Brownlee brothers, how two Yorkshire brothers came to be Olympic and World Champion triathletes. Written alternately […]

During the 2012 Olympics gold medal-winning rower Helen Glover admitted that she had only begun rowing four years before, after her mother had seen an advert in the newspaper looking for “tall people”. The advert was for UK Sport’s “Sporting Giants program”, looking for potential athletes who were tall (a minimum of 6’3” or 190cm for […]