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Is Gold Best? There is one aspect of the Games themselves, however, that has been nagging at me for a while....... For the vast majority of the competitors, they were striving to win either the most important prize in their sport, or at least one of them. True, most sports today have a World Championship and some form of continental one too, such as a European Championship - but an Olympic gold medal still outshines being World Champion.Which is why, try as I might, I just could not view the Olympic tennis competition in the same way as most of the other events. There was Andy Murray playing Roger Federer at Wimbledon again, but this time for an Olympic gold medal; and at the end of the match, would Federer have swapped one of his Wimbledon Championship wins for Murray's gold medal? After all, he has got seven of them....... No way. For all of the Grand Slam tournaments are far more prestigious than the Olympics for tennis players; and that is rather sad, not for them, or for tennis, but for the Olympics. Ultimate Test The Men's Football was another case in point. Yes, Mexico did wonderfully well to beat Brazil, but would Spain have swapped their World Cup, or even their European Championship, for a gold medal? Don't be silly. It is on the cards that cricket and rugby union will soon be Olympic events - but wouldn't it be better if sports with rich traditions of their own outside of the Olympics, for whom gold medals will never represent the peak of achievement, were left alone? I know all the administrators and the commercial sponsors want to keep on getting more and more exposure, but couldn't they, both of the Olympics and of the sports themselves, just stop, refrain from the greed, and keep the Olympics as what they are supposed to be? The ultimate test for the competitors. Article brought to you by Templeton Events - experts in Wimbledon hospitality packages.
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