2008 Olympics Updates

I spoke out against GB head coach Peter Suk immediately after my quarter-final defeat at the Olympic Games and then retracted it on reflection in my blog later that day.

Since then, I’ve had more time to reflect and I stand by what I originally said and if a lot of things don’t get better, I will pack it in and that’s not me being a sore loser.

Concerns need to be raised for the benefit of the whole of GB archery - if we can push on, the funding will get there, if not, the sport goes back to no funding and fewer competitors.

The next three or four years are going to be interesting with London 2012 coming up - we should get more input into what we need to become world and Olympic champions.

I know I’m capable of winning Olympic medals, but I need to have the right support.

This is the first year since I turned senior in 2002 that I’ve not won a medal in target or field archery despite shooting better than ever.

That has been down to a lack of confidence and the mental side of things and things going on behind the scenes.

This year, everything was wrong in the build-up to the Olympics with the selections for the World Cup circuit.

If we bombed out in the first round of a competition, Peter would say don’t worry - but confidence gets knocked if you’re not doing well.

We need a do-or-die mentality - put everything in until your fingers bleed.

We weren’t prepared properly.

I have no problem with Peter away from archery, but we have different methods within the sport.

Team morale was low at the Team GB holding camp in Macau but Peter said he expected that because of nerves and that it would be alright when we got to Beijing. But it wasn’t and it was down to the team to try and lift ourselves when we should have been focusing on competing.

Since my quarter-final defeat at the Olympics, I have not spoken to Peter. He left for Korea straight after the competition; there was no de-brief as we have always had after every other event, which was a bit strange.

I have always worked with my own personal coach at home and things have always gone perfectly - I have always been in charge and every medal I’ve ever won I’ve done by learning how to approach different matches mentally.

This year, the confidence has been non-existant and by the time I was knocked out at the Olympics, it was the first time I had lost control in a match situation.

I want to emphasise though that I really enjoyed my first Olympics experience despite the problems.

We’ve got a meeting in October with all the British archers who competed at the Olympics and Paralympics which will hopefully sort some things out.

Before that I’m off to meet the Queen at Buckingham Palace as part of the big parade through London with all the other British Olympians on 16 October, which I’m really looking forward to.

Away from the competition, I had a great time in Beijing, spending time with my mates and going to watch other sports.

The best was watching Beth Tweddle in the gymnastics - we went because we know a few of the gymnasts from training at Lilleshall - I’ve never been to a gymnasium hall, it was massive and the atmosphere was great, particularly when the Chinese were competing.

Beth was unlucky and, even though we didn’t know much about the technical side, we thought her performance deserved third!

The athlete’s village is not as mad as everyone makes out - there were a lot of people there who still hadn’t competed when we had finished, so there is respect for everyone else.

It’s a different story in the city though - the bars were rammed, mainly with Australians! I tended to stick with the archery lads and lasses from Australia, America and Canada as we all know each other through competing across the world - it was a brilliant experience.

Me and Larry Godfrey had a few good days enjoying ourselves but we had the option to come home a day early before the closing ceremony, so we did.

When I got home and saw the closing ceremony and the plane carrying the rest of the team, I thought it would have been nice to be on it, but then it was nice to arrive at Heathrow and slip through unnoticed.

Since I got back to Cumbria, I’ve had a bit of post-Olympics blues - out in Beijing we were living in a bubble and everything was done for you so we could enjoy ourselves and focus on our event.

But when we got back, nobody told us how hard it is to get back to reality.

I was back a couple of days before I resumed training and my next aim is to qualify for the British field archery team for the World Games next year.

Field archery is extreme archery - there is a course with 24 targets which can be up a cliff, down a cliff, or across a ravine and you shoot three arrows at each target. They are all different sizes and on day one you have to guess how far away they are. On day two, the distances are marked.

I use the same bow as for the target archery, just with lighter arrows - field archery has always been at my heart, I was number one in the world a few years back and I’ve won many medals including a World Games silver and World Team silver and I was also European junior champion.

I was hoping to be given a wildcard into the British team for the World Games as I used to dominate the sport, but they wouldn’t accept me, so I’m training hard and I want to bang in some big scores at the first of two qualifiers next weekend in the north-east and prove a point.

Click here for GB team manager Hilda Gibson’s response.

Alan Wills was talking to BBC Sport’s Peter Scrivener.

Here in Beijing, there’s no sign of Olympic fever abating. Chinese Television is still re-running highlights from the Games; crowds still gather around the perimeter of the Olympic Green to have their photos taken with a backdrop of the Bird’s Nest Stadium and there seems to be an Olympic souvenir store on every street corner doing a roaring trade. Even at Beijing Zoo, sales of the panda-like mascots seem as popular as visits to the real life Giant Pandas!

With the Opening Ceremony taking place next Saturday, Beijing is ready for Paralympic fever to take over. No sign yet of Paralympic souvenirs but the first tangible signs were the replacement a few days ago of all the Olympic banners that line the streets of the city with the Paralympic versions. Street signs have changed too with directions to Paralympic venues instead. For ‘Olympic Village’ read ‘Paralympic Village’.

When the Olympic medal table is swapped for the Paralympic version, it’s a near certainty that China will again top the table. They did so four years ago in Athens, so for the rest of the world, it’s a question of who will come second. Great Britain has come second for the last two Games. In Athens they won 35 Golds with a medals total of 94 and have been set a Beijing target by UK Sport of winning 112 medals. A stiff challenge! With Team GB having exceeded their Olympic medals target and achieved their best performance for a hundred years, one wonders how much extra pressure this puts on Paralympics GB.

In particular, the spotlight will be turned on athletics and swimming. Swimming have been set a lower target this time around, 41 as opposed to 52 medals won four years ago. The opposite is the case for Athletics who are expected by UK Sport to win 13 more medals than their Athens achievement of 17. They are hoping stars like David Weir can become multi-medallists and returning champions such as Danny Crates can repeat their Athens success. In swimming, David Roberts will be hoping to add to his tally of gold medals and beat Tanni Grey-Thompson’s record of 11 gold medals. The pressure, however, will be on all 206 athletes competing in 18 sports to deliver. Public interest and expectation will again be high with London 2012 on the horizon; a challenge for the team and for the BBC.

Following the successes of our Olympic coverage, our aim across all of the BBC’s output must be to put in a ‘Team BBC’ performance that does full justice to those of the athletes. We aim to feature the achievements of Paralympics GB and many of the other performances by the world’s top Paralympians; athletes such as South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius and swimmer Natalie Du Toit. Three distinguished former Paralympians join the BBC team for the Games - 11 time Paralympic Gold medallist Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, wheelchair basketball bronze medallist Ade Adepitan and swimmer Marc Woods along with familiar faces and voices such as Clare Balding, Steve Cram, Paul Dickenson, Eddie Butler, Nick Mullins and Bob Ballard.

BBC television coverage will be more extensive than ever before with six hours a day of live coverage, starting at 1000 BST, being streamed on the red button and broadband each weekday with a one hour highlights show on BBC Two at 1900 each night. At weekends, the coverage starts on the red button/broadband and then switches to BBC One or Two for the afternoon. All BBC One and Two output will also be simultaneously shown on the BBC High Definition channel. Both the Opening and Closing ceremonies will be broadcast live including the London handover moment on the final day.

BBC Radio 5 Live will also have a dedicated team in Beijing to provide news and commentary throughout the Games with the BBC’s award winning Disability Sport (currently renamed Paralympics) website providing news, features and blogs alongside live streaming. There are also teams from News and Nations & Regions providing specific content for all the BBC local tv and radio stations.

We’re looking forward to a great Games; another terrific sporting spectacle. As always, we’ll endeavour to convey the drama and excitement of world class sporting competition to audiences back home. We make no apologies for it but the BBC is ready to convey ‘Paralympic fever’ to the UK.

Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, Beijing

How do you know you’re a good modern pentathlete unless you get the chance to try it?

Be honest, how many of you have tried all five sports - shooting, fencing, swimming, riding and running - even once?

I’ve never fenced (although there were those accusations about Gary Mahoney’s skateboard at school which were never proved as I had no idea it was his when I sold it) and I only tried shooting for the first time on my stag do (I was dressed as Borat at the time and not at my best). I have also only ever been pony trekking twice - the last time being about 25 years ago.

I only mention this because I’ve just been to the women’s modern pentathlon and I can’t help wondering if all Olympic gold medals really are equal.

Now before I’m swamped with angry protests from modern pentathletes (a worrying thought as you have all been trained to be perfect 19th century officers), let me first say I really enjoyed the event, particularly the final run.

In case the rest of you haven’t seen it - and if you like the eliminator in Gladiators you’ll love this - the runners set off in order of their ranking after the four events. All the points they have earned so far equate to a head start they get on the person behind.

The race is three 1,000m laps, which inevitably leads to excitement, as it is far easier to chase than it is to lead.

Going into the women’s race on Friday, Lena Schoneborn had earned a 19-second advantage over Britain’s Heather Fell. Swiss Belinda Schreiber was next to go, another 12 seconds back, but the one they were all concerned about was the speedy Victoria Tereshuk of Ukraine in sixth place. Team GB’s second competitor, Katy Livingston, was a minute back in ninth.

The 25-year-old Fell took two seconds off the German leader on the first lap and six more on the second. She was now just 11 seconds behind and a storming finish seemed possible. But Schoneborn dug in and crossed the line still nine seconds clear. Tereshuk, meanwhile, had run herself into the bronze medal position. Livingston, who shot and fenced poorly, ran well to come home seventh.

The staggered starts and first-through-the-tape finish are a great idea and I wonder if it could be introduced to the decathlon and heptathlon too, but I digress.

So I did enjoy the event. I also do not doubt the hard work or physical prowess of the competitors.

Of the disciplines I know, I was impressed. The quickest runner clocked a fine 10:04 for 3,000m, and the top swimmer recorded an impressive 2:09 for the 200m freestyle.

I don’t know anything about shooting but what I saw of the 10m air pistol event looked thoroughly professional. As did the epee fencing, which again is a nice format - all the competitors face each other once; the first to score wins.

And the show jumping section is blooper film gold. The competitors are allocated a horse 20 minutes before the start. This introduces an element of fortune into the event but was intended to replicate what might happen if that 19th century officer was ever caught behind enemy lines.

The men’s event on Thursday took part after a storm of almost Biblical proportions. This made conditions very difficult, particularly on a new horse. Carnage ensued to the degree that it looked as though these guys were trying show jumping for the first time too.

So far, all good. But I come back to that first question. How, unless you have tried all this stuff before, would you know you had it in you to be an Olympic champion modern pentathlete?

Back in the day, when modern Olympic Games founder Baron Pierre de Coubertin (above) was formulating his view that France’s defeat in the Franco-Prussian War was a result of not enough British public school-type sport, this was not such a problem. There were, after all, lots of army officers who shot, fenced, swam, rode and ran.

One such officer took part in the first modern pentathlon in 1912. An American, he came fifth in controversial fashion when he was marked down for his shooting. The judges claimed he missed the target with one shot but he was adamant he had put one bullet through another bullet hole. He might have been right as his other shots were excellently grouped. His name was George S. Patton. The “General” would come later.

In fact, another early name for the sport was the military pentathlon, which in many ways was a far more accurate description. It was invented purely for the Olympics by Coubertin to reprise the pentathlon that was at the heart of the Ancient Games. That event, Aristotle’s favourite, was also based on the things a soldier should be good at - running, wrestling, long jump, throwing the javelin and throwing the discus.

The military connection with the sport would continue right until very recent years, during which time the event was dominated by officer-types from Soviet Bloc countries.

Threatened with its marching orders throughout the 1970s and 80s, the sport took action to broaden its appeal and fit more neatly into the Olympic schedule. The five-day slog (which at that time featured guns, duelling swords and a cross-country steeplechase) was reduced to a one-day format, and a women’s event was added in 2000 (an event Great Britain has never failed to win a medal in).

Other, more recent concessions to modernity include using a portentous “one minute to the start of the run” countdown voice (that sounded a lot like Richard E. Grant) and setting the entire final run to a pounding dance beat.

The sport’s governing body also fought a dogged PR campaign that played heavily on modern pentathlon’s links with Coubertin and the fact it was cheap as it used venues already built for other sports.

All of which is true but it doesn’t necessarily make it accessible to the vast majority of people in even rich nations, or particularly relevant as a multi-discipline event to the 21st century. What were once the requisite skills for a good soldier now seem more like the opportunities available to a sporty kid from a wealthy family. Who, apart from a few fortunate youngsters, ever really gets the chance to combine these now very arbitrary skills?

Now I don’t want to rain on anybody’s parade, particularly as Schoneborn, Fell and Tereshuk were so nice to each other in the press conference after the medal ceremony. Their success here was clearly a fitting reward for lots of effort and personal sacrifices. I am genuinely pleased for all of them.

But in a week when we’ve also seen the hugely successful introduction of two new sports to the Olympics schedule (open water swimming and BMX), it might be worth asking if the (not very) modern pentathlon is still worth its place in today’s Games.

Might it be time to think of a more up-to-date test of control, skill, speed, adaptability and endurance? Any ideas?

It was a night of what could have been.

John Whitaker’s forced omission from the team could well have cost Britain a show jumping medal.

John was said to be devastated to be sidelined after the appeal went against team GB.

He wanted to ride and had been led to believe that despite his withdrawal yesterday after Peppermill had a sore back, he would be allowed to.

Unfortunately for him and Britain, when Olympic medals are at stake it’s dog eat dog and seven of the other teams decided they should protest, saying team GB had an unfair advantage if John was allowed to ride.

I can see their point, he would have done one round less, but it was a bit tight.

If Britain had played the game, John could have got on his ‘not - right horse’ last night and presented him at the first fence, deliberately refused and then been eliminated, only for him to reappear tonight with a fit again Peppermill and jump a great round for bronze?

But quite rightly the team decided it wasn’t sporting or good for the show-jumping to do that.

The maths shows if Britain had John and Michael Whitaker we’d have probably won the gold!

It just reinforces what many past Olympians always say “to win an Olympic medal you need luck” and once again, team GB had none in the show-jumping!

Michael was so upset he struggled to speak during a live interview I did with him on Radio 5.

I really think he is great. It can’t be easy for him to keep traipsing up to my commentary box three times a night to listen for ages while they cover all the other sports while we wait to do our horsey stuff.

We usually have a laugh though. Particularly while John Inverdale says something funny.

Tonight while we were waiting, Invers spent ages talking about how he’d visited a fabulous arena in Beijing which he’d been told was for the para-equestrian events.

I had to tell him they are actually being held here in Hong Kong and god knows what that place in Beijing was for!

Anyway, away from GB, I have to say it was a great night’s jumping.

The course, once again proved really tricky. A true Olympic track. Full marks to the Americans. They did it again and stopped the Germans from a team gold clean sweep. They were nowhere near in the end.

Also well done to Canada and their team of three! Ian Miller must have thought he’d never win an Olympic medal. This is his ninth games and he’s 61!

I said to Michael, maybe John will be around for 2012 after all!

Finally well done to Norway for winning the bronze and their first ever Olympic equestrian medal. It’s great for the sport and great for neutral spectators.

Roll on Thursday’s individual. All three Brits have qualified and don’t forget Emma Hindle in the dressage final. It’s the freestyle which is to music so it’s a really good watch.

This is getting silly. So dominant is Britain at the Laoshan velodrome that even rowers are winning cycling golds for us now.

Chris Hoy’s story is remarkable enough - taking gold in a completely new discipline after having his favoured event taken off the Olympic schedule.

But at least that was still in the same sport.

Rebecca Romero’s achievement in winning individual pursuit gold four years after taking silver in the quad sculls, and only two years after first cycling round a track, must rank as one of the more remarkable stories in British sporting history.

Only one other woman has ever won Olympic medals in two completely different sports, East Germany’s Roswitha Krause - and both of hers came as part of a team, a handball silver in 1976 following a freestyle relay silver in 1968.

Then again, Romero is a remarkable woman.

Former Olympic pursuit champion Chris Boardman, now a technical advisor to the British cycling team, spotted something special about the girl from Carshalton the first time he met her.

“It was her absolute need to win a gold medal and her commitment to the process that stood out,” he says.

“Rowing had given her good habits, knowing how elite training is done, but there was also something that came from inside her.

“It’s the difference between wanting success and needing it. Rebecca needs it.

“There was only a tenth of a second between her and Wendy (Houvenaghel) coming into this final, but it was hard to bet against Rebecca because of her sheer need.”

As the two Britons lined up on opposite sides of the wooden track, the tension was far more visible on Romero’s face than her team-mate’s.

First she sat down on the banked track, her legs flopped out in front of her, as the seconds ticked down to the gun.

Then, when she climbed on board her bike, she licked her lips and grimaced like someone eating stinging-nettles.

“I said to Victoria Pendleton - this feels like my worst nightmare,” she admitted afterwards. “I felt like I’d been wrongly accused of murder and was about to find out if I was freed for the rest of my life - freed from the demons.”

Romero’s obsession with winning gold was so intense that it often threatened to overwhelm her.

“I’ve never seen anyone who can damage themselves so much in training,” says Boardman.

“It’s her biggest problem, and a common mistake to make - to think that if you do more training it’ll make you better.

“It might not. While one vitamin C tablet is good for you, 10 give you an ulcer. You always have to be mindful of that.

“The last week has been a rather shaky time for her - she slightly over-cooked it in training.

“They took some drastic action a week ago and took her completely out of training. All she’s been doing for the last week is a little rolling on the roads.

“Luckily, she trusts her coach Dan Hunt implicitly, and if he can describe to her how resting is going to improve her performance, then she’ll rest.

“She hates it, but she’ll do it.”

As she powered out of the starting-gate and fought her way up to top speed, Romero was almost roaring with the effort.

With four of the 12 laps gone, she was already a second up on Houvenaghel. With four to go the gap had doubled.

When she flashed across the line, lips stretched back, teeth gritted, she seemed to have no idea how clear-cut her victory was.

Only when she had stared at the scoreboard for almost a full lap did she start to celebrate - waggling a finger skywards like Mick Jagger and snatching a Union flag off a bunch of cavorting British fans perched above the back straight.

“It’s been so hard I can’t explain,” she panted afterwards. “I was facing my demons, but I knew I had it in me.

“To have become an Olympic champion, to have medals in two sports - I’m so proud of myself.”

The British national anthem has been heard so frequently at the velodrome that the organisers must be tempted to just leave it playing throughout the entire day.

There’s been almost no point in detaching the British flag from the highest pole. In the five medal ceremonies so far, British riders have waved from atop the podium in four of them.

When Romero took her turn, still wearing her racing cleats and space-age skinsuit, she looked determined not to blub.

There was much biting of lip as the flag was slowly raised roofwards, much twitching of the nose.

Eventually, as the anthem reached its sluggish crescendo, the waterworks started.

“I was never really good at any sports,” she said later. “I never really thought I was good at riding bikes. It’s just hard work.

“I wanted a gold. I wanted to be a champion. Now I’ve put down my mark to be remembered.”