I love the Olympics, especially when we are winning everything.
I grew up in a Britain that failed monumentally at sport. Failure was part of our
identity. I remember playing a village cricket match when word got around that
the other team had an Australian. ‘That’s it then,’ people said, ‘we’ve already
lost.’ ‘Does he bowl fast?’ said the more nervous players, more precisely me.
Cricket, football, athletics, we could lose at pretty much anything. It was
character building.
And now we are winning, I want a piece of the action. I
want the gaming Olympics. Most of my body might be past its best, but my thumbs
are still in excellent condition. I can still run riot on Halo or Call of Duty
leaving a pile of virtual corpses in my wake. I have as much chance of making
team GB as anyone. Imagine the spectacle: giant screens, thousands of screaming
teenage fans, tense finishes to FPS deathmatches, record times on Sonic, terrible
finger injuries in Track and Field. Gamesmaster with the whole world watching. And
a whole new generation of sporting heroes. Perhaps slightly heavier, less
muscular, less charismatic, built on a diet of Coke and burgers rather than
protein shakes and chicken salads, but heroes nonetheless: lightning reactions,
photographic memories and thousands of dedicated hours to pull off that winning
shot under pressure. At the very least it would be better than watching
badminton.
I know how you feel. I am rubbish at every single sport - in fact I could get a Gold Medal at being sportily useless - but I still wanted a bit of involvement.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, I settled for a trip to see the Lycra clad types in the park.
http://travellingphilbury.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/olympic-london.html
Not sure that a gaming Olympics would work quite as well. Mind you, if played out on a big screen then at least everyone would be able to see.
Hi Phil, I also remember when we were rubbish at sport. Then National Lottery funding came along and we started getting better at all the Olympic ones. As for the rugby & cricket, I guess we were lucky and got a good generation or two. Like your idea about the computer games, my speciality sport is FIFA 2012, I can also be persuaded to participate in Battlefield & UFC on occasion.
ReplyDeleteHa ha ha! When my son played cricket for his school in UK we used to hear parents from the opposing side referring tensely to 'the South African'. He inspired terror as a so-so bowler!
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