The Olympic Games, regarded by many as the greatest sporting event on earth, are less than a week away. But how many of members of Team GB can you name? Five? Maybe ten tops? I blame the BBC, which has failed to adequately promote the potential stars of the Games.
The efforts of disgraced sprinter Dwain Chambers and those of South African double-amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius to reach the Games would have been two obviously compelling tales (Pistorius’ progress was followed by Five, while Nike features the athlete in its timely global ad campaign).
Neither will represent their country in Beijing, but every single athlete who has made the trip has a story to tell - whether born with a silver spoon in their mouth or fighting out of a ghetto. The BBC has wasted a massive opportunity. It has, in fairness, broadcast a series of programmes called Olympic Dreams charting the progress of Olympic hopefuls which began in July - but it is far far too little and far too late in evening to attract a decent audience. It’s all a bit feeble and the series doesn't appear to have even made it on the BBC iPlayer.
The Olympics is full of sports we would not ordinarily watch and few of its stars are household names - so the human drama becomes even more important. Remember British 400m runner Dereck Redmond being helped over the finish line by his father in the ’92 Olympics having pulled his hamstring? That moment summed up the spirit of the Olympics perfectly - and credit to global Olympic partner Visa for recognising that and using the footage in its 2008 ‘Go World’ TV ads. Look it up on YouTube!
The BBC will no doubt do a magnificent job of broadcasting the Olympics - it always does. But how much more compelling would the Games be if the BBC took its lead from Visa and understood that the Games have always been about far more than winning and losing.
