Brits vs Aussies

It was a fascinating 17 days of Chinese excellence, the best organised in Olympic history... truly exceptional Games. We can all close our eyes and think of dear old London Town. They are hosting the Games in 2012. Forget for a minute the battles fought on every front in the city of Beijing during the 29th Olympiad and think of the Australian shame and hurt. Yes indeed, the Poms have overtaken the Aussies in the final medals tally.

Australia, a sports-mad country, thrashes the English is practically every sport, being cricket, rugby league, rugby union, basketball, hockey, swimming etc. Britain has always been the whipping boy of Australia in virtually every sporting endeavour. The Sydney-siders have built the Opera House from proceeds of the National Lotteries and Britain is doing the same when it comes to promoting its sport with an eye on the London 2012 Olympic Games.

Since 1990, many of the British sports were in the doldrums because of poor training facilities and a lack of sports heroes. They could only think of David Beckham in the closing ceremony at Beijing. They did no good in Atlanta but by the 2000 Games in Sydney, results were quickly starting to show as Britain finished 10th. In Athens, the Poms spent $148,308,778 on their training programmes and this was increased in Beijing.

However, their target was Australia. One consolation the colonials could take for the Games was beating the Brits at their own game. We did convincingly in Sydney and Athens but at Beijing, Great Britain finished fourth in the medals tally with 19 gold, and a total of 47 medals, while Australia managed to finish in sixth place with 14 goal and a total of 46 medals.

No doubt, you have to compare apples with apples. Australia has only a population of just over 20 million while Great Britain has a population of over 60 million. In the Olympic Games they compete as England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The British Secretary of State for Sports, Andy Burnham predicted before the Games that Britain would go one step further and top Australia's medal count in Beijing. This prompted the Australian Sports Minister, Kate Ellis to challenge the British Minister with a wager.

However, the rivalry took a bizarre twist when Australian Olympic boss John Coates, in a tongue-in cheek comment during one of his press conferences in Beijing, said that the Poms' strong swimming performance was surprising for a nation short on swimming pools - and not much soap.

No doubt, this remark caused an instant reaction from the Brits and some even demanded Mr Coates' instant dismissal. Whether it was friendly banter or not the Poms have replied emphatically by winning more medals than the Australians won for the first time in 20 years.

Although many Australians still call Britain the mother country, mother and child do not play well when they meet in sports. As soon as the Games finished, The Sun English newspaper's van was on Sydney's main streets sporting a huge message reminding the Aussies that the Brits won 19 gold and the Australians only 14 gold medals.

For a country with a population of 20 million, Australia did very well to finish in sixth place overall in Beijing. China was first with 51 gold, USA 36, Russia 23, Great Britain 19, Germany 16 and Australia 14 gold medals. Perhaps the next mover and shaker will come from Italy, Netherlands, France and Spain or better still, why not send to the next Olympics a combined European Union team to compete against the rest?