Proud to be a British Athlete

Chris Hoy has said it,
(quoted from the Scotsman Newspaper )

Speaking in Beijing, Hoy said: "Before there are any discussions of Scotland going it alone at the Olympics, he would have to look at the facilities and the resources that have been put into Scotland in the first place.

"At the moment we don't have an international facility for cycling and we don't have the coaching structures in place. In fact, we don't have anything in place, so the whole idea is ridiculous.

"I wouldn't have three gold medals hanging round my neck if I wasn't part of the British athletic team. I'm a Scottish athlete in a British team, and I'm proud to be a British athlete."

Absolute legend. If Scotland wanted to get its own Olympic team, then with enough money, time and effort then I am sure we could easily do so, but that's not the point.

We can keep dividing nations by culture, dialect, whatever and then 100 years from now we would then have the Scotland Olympic Team dividing up into the "Scottish Gaelic Olympic Team" and the "Geez-yer-wallet-right-noo! Glasgow Olympic Team"

whats the point in continuously separating everything? Unless of course a nation has a genuine gripe about some foreign occupier.

England is as independent as Scotland, less in fact, at least we have 2 votes! they only have 1! We have our own Parliament, England does not. As I keep on saying to other Scots, remember, England surrendered it status as a sovereign nation in 1707 just as we did.

Autonomy within a greater union is a great idea, diversity is also a great idea. Unity is the natural way to go, I think eventually nations will combine in Unions, Federations and Alliances. There are approx 195 countries in the world, is that not enough?

To promote splintering, fracturing, and separatism will only create a world with far more division in it and we all know what that leads to don't we?

All Eyes on London for 2012

So its all up to London now. Its a big city, with plenty of money so theoretically there should be no problems putting on some excellent Olympic games however, one thing will be for sure, money and budgets will not go as far to build what London needs than it did in Beijing.

Minimum wage, costs of materials, stricter regulations and safety standards will all contribute to a bit less glamour and extravagance than Beijing 2008.

Maybe I am being pessimistic, I reckon that London will do a great job, but its going to be extremely hard to top the standard of the stuff we saw at Beijing.

I do think however that similar to China, London and the rest of the UK also have something to prove too.

We need to show the world that we are an awesome place to hold the Olympics, a place of rich history and character with natural beauty a plenty ( although most of that is in Scotland :-P )

Being an expat I often hear the general opinion of the UK as a bunch of fish and chip eating, warm ale swilling grumps all gathered in the local pub keeping dry from the persistent grey skies and rain.

Is this true? I think that we put ourselves down so much ( UK people ) that we don't realise the amazing country we have. As an expat I know what its like to live abroad for a time and it took a while, but eventually I started to appreciate home, even though it is not really home anymore.

The UK has a responsibility to show off at the next Olympic games in 2012 by any means necessary, even if the weather doesn't co-operate, we need to show the world our music, humour, friendliness, pride and culture.

Just as China has the Great Wall, I am sure the sight of Olympic cyclists riding past famous London landmarks such as Big Ben, The Tower of London and Buckingham Palace will also provide a great backdrop.

If for no other reason, we need to remind ourselves just how "Great" Britain is.

Good Luck London, from an Expat Scot living in New Zealand, eating fish and chips and moaning about NZ.