Like everybody in the UK, I’ve been watching the Olympics, cheering on and celebrating the success of the UK sports men and women. For once, it’s a great British success story and rightly, the entire country is behind each and every athlete as they strive for success.
One of the interesting things it highlights to me is the power of the media to create overnight celebrities from competitors in what would normally be considered niche sports. Under normal circumstances, nobody would pay any attention to the World Cycling Championships, or the World Rowing Championships, or whatever both are actually called. However, because the Olympics commands the world’s focus for a fortnight, hero’s are created. I guess that it also helps if you’ve got a good British name like Bradley Wiggins – you simply couldn’t make that name up.
Now I started this by saying that it is right that we should get behind our competitors and celebrate their success, but don’t you think this should apply across the board. The reason for saying this is the competitors outside of Olympic sports, some of whom are the most anonymous World Champions the UK has.
Andy Priaulx is the best example of this I know. If Touring Cars was an Olympic sport, you’d see his face in the Olympic highlights television programme and on the front cover of every newspaper. But clearly it’s not.
Who’s Andy Priaulx I hear you say. That’s exactly my point. Andy Priaulx is the three-time FIA World Touring Car Champion having previously been European Touring Car Champion the year before. He’s the only Brit ever to win three consecutive FIA Championships in a row and has, in the past, been called the Michael Schumacher of Touring Cars, such has been his success and domination of the sport. And yet very few people have ever heard of him and he never gets stopped in the street and asked for his autograph.
Why? Television coverage or, in his case, lack of it. Although it’s the most entertaining form of motorsport I know, coverage of World Touring Cars is relegated to Eurosport rather than prime-time BBC so you’ll never stumble upon it or him. Which is a shame because unlike any Olympians, racing drivers actually risk their lives every time they get in a car, such is their dedication.
So when you’re watching the sailing, or rowing, or BMW biking for that matter, spare a thought for the UK’s unsung Champions. Better still, tune into Eurosport and cheer on one of the UK’s greatest champions that you’ve never heard of.
