My first post of a marginal nature concerns the sideshow of lighting the Olympic flame. This can be the most beautiful of moments (think of Mohammed Ali in 1996), but it's usually a bit of a pointless exercise (the 22-year-old virtual unknown John Mark in 1948 springs to mind). So when Daley Thompson and Steve Redgrave (sorry, Sir SR) have a slightly undignified spat about which of them should light the Olympic cauldron this year, it feels ridiculous precisely because it's often such a meaningless accolade.
That's not the only reason it's mildly annoying, though: it also feels a little like two 6-year-olds arguing over the ownership of a toy car. So while I'm secretly a bit of a Redgave-ite (five golds! in different Olympics!!), I say screw the Seb-Coe-befriending and other politicking, and let's give it to neither of them. Here are a few ideas, with their Olympic credentials (Redgrave and Thompson's records included for the purposes of comparison):
Sir Steve Redgrave: 5 Olympic Titles, 9 World Titles, 0 World Records
Daley Thompson: 2 OT, 1 WT, 4 WR
Matthew Pinsent: 4 OT, 10 WT, 1 WR*
Dame Kelly Holmes: 2 OT, 0 WT, 0 WR
Ben Ainslie: 3 OT, 11 WT, 0 WR
Sir Chris Hoy: 4 OT, 11 WT, 2 WR
Sally Gunnell: 1 OT, 1 WT, 1 WR
Linford Christie: 1 OT, 1 WT, 4 WR**
Sir Roger Bannister: 0 OT, 0 WT, 1 WR
Paula Radcliffe: 0 OT, 4 WT, 3 WR
* Pinsent once held the WR for the largest lung capacity of a sportsman, at 8.5 litres. Thank you, Wikipedia...
** Christie's 4 WRs include 3 in the 35--39 masters age group.
It looks like the Torch-bearer should be another knighted individual sportsman, then. Put your Bran Flakes down, Sir Chris: you've got some lighting to do. (Honourable mention to Ben Ainslie, though: who knew he was that successful?)
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