I can’t believe that its only just over a week since the Winter Olympics opened in Italy, but it’s happened again. In just over seven days I have once again become an expert in a whole range of winter sports that I had almost forgotten about in the last 4 years.
From the Luge and skeleton, to biathlon and bobsleigh I sit there on my sofa, cradling a cup of tea explaining to anyone in ear shot where a particular competitor has gone wrong. Now if I was involved I’d have known exactly what to do…it’s easy.
That’s the thing about all great performers. Whether its sport, music or even broadcasting it’s their ability to make it look easy that deceives us and leaves them open to criticism when they make the smallest mistake. Take yesterday’s curling match between the men from Great Britain and Italy. Well, when I say Great Britain it would be more precise to say Scotland as it seems quite difficult to really get into curling other than north of the border. (There are curling centres In Cambridge and near Preston).
I was actually watching the match on screen in a gym I’ve recently joined. I’ve decided that Christmas has left too much of a mark on my body and I need to fight back. Most of my time is spent on the bike because since a nasty knee injury running which I blame on my football career, even jogging on a treadmill is a little too risky. Which brings me to another point, don’t these people realise the damage they are doing to their knees.
Well yes they do realise, and they keep going all the same. Lindsey Vonn, a highly decorated American skier retired from the sport in 2019 after a number of serious leg injuries. In 2024 she had a partial right knee replacement. A few weeks ago she ruptured knee ligaments in her other knee, but she still decided to compete this year in a sport where they speed down a mountain at speeds of up to 130kph.
We all watched hoping for a fairy tale ending to her career only to see her clip a gate 13 seconds into her race and end up being flown to hospital with a seriously broken leg. She either deserves a medal for even trying or some serious words from someone she respects or loves to say maybe she should try something a little more sedate like…well, like curling.
Anyway, back to the curling. The first end started so well. After the back and for of setting up ‘guard stones’, followed by the opposition smashing them out of the way, Great Britain held 2 clear shots. The team captain decided to go for broke with a risky but makeable shot to gain an extra shot. Sadly he misjudged his attempt clearing all of his teams stones leaving Italy with a 4 stone lead.
And that’s the danger of the armchair sports person. The people we look on and criticise have dedicated their lives to their chosen sport. They have trained and practised and studied and worried about every possible scenario. Those of us on the sofa have probably never been in the heat of battle, felt the pressure of a hostile crowd or had to come back from an off day. In the old days that criticism only reached the ears of people in the same living room or pub or club. These days of ‘free speech’ everyone has the right to say exactly how they feel on social media, which is true, but goodness me doesn’t ignorance tweet loudly.
Apart from the Winter Olympics it’s been quite a week of world class sport. There was a fantastic concert by multiple Grammy winner Bad Bunny which was bookended by a game of American Football. Superbowl is one of the most watched sporting events in the world but as it was way past my bed time I had hoped to catch up with events the following morning. As I searched through social media looking for highlights of the game all I saw was clips from that Bad Bunny performance and lots of people either saying they loved it or hated it. It seems it’s not just sport that has armchair critics.
For a Swansea City supporter it was a great weekend. It’s been a bit of an up and down season and if I had the time I could probably tell you exactly where we’ve gone wrong… but since the new Manager has come in you can feel a change in the air. To be fair to Sheffield Wednesday it did feel that they came to Swansea as part of a farewell tour. Due to some off field financial problems Wednesday had been deducted 18 points meaning they arrived at the dot com stadium with a team sitting on the bottom of the league on minus 7 points.
After the game I got talking to a visitor in one of the lounges who works in the game. We both agreed it was a good win in a tricky situation. Then we started talking about some of the players performance. We had both seen the same game but had very different opinions about how certain players had performed. A game of opinions??
And finally to the rugby. It’s been a horrendous few years for Welsh Rugby and the game against England has maybe brought to a head all of the problems that have existed for some time. I think I felt sad rather than angry.
Now when it comes to the finer details of the game I’m probably just as qualified to talk about the sport as I am to talk about curling. I’ve watched the game since a kid and played a bit in school but that’s it. My inside knowledge has improved somewhat over the past few years because I had the chance to sit next to former Welsh Coach Mike Ruddock at the Ospreys games but a lot of the game, especially the ‘dark arts’ as they used to call it go completely over my head.
What I do know is that just like every team before them this Welsh Rugby Team want to do well. They want to represent their country and make us all proud. Against the backdrop of everything they have had to contend with this past 12 months I believe that’s all we can ask of them.