The TV was on, but I wasn’t really paying much attention, when I heard the newsreader say something about Britain “meddling”.

Here we go again, I thought, poking our noses into some other country’s business. Who have we upset this time, probably Syria or Iran, although these days it could be almost any nation in the world.

Then I heard the word “podiuming” and realized that I was listening to some form of ‘Olympic-Speak’ where the nouns ‘medal’ and ‘podium’ had been turned into verbs, and that a competitor in the ‘Games’ was not just being presented with a medal as he was standing on the podium. He was .. “MEDALLING” .. whilst .. “PODIUMING” !

I’m not sure if this latest ‘verbing’ can be blamed on our American cousins who love to ‘party’, as I have just read that Lord Byron wrote in a letter of 1822 … “He was medalled” and that Thackeray used it in 1860 in his Roundabout Papers .. “Irving went home medalled by the King”,  but then I don’t suppose that cringe making commentators like babbling Matt and gormless Gary will have picked it up from 19th century literature, so it probably started with some bloke in a pub, after he had spent the day watching sports TV while he was …

…   ‘PINTING’ !

In a recent post I said that I would “go bloody beserk” if I heard another person say .. “It’s a once in a lifetime experience” !

Now all we hear is … “I can’t believe it” .. coming from a bunch of top athletes who have spent most of their lives doing nothing but train to be where they are today. Well ‘I can’t believe’ that these so called ‘heroes’ can have expected anything other than to have an Olympic ‘gong’ hung around their necks. So why all those tears ? .. Blimey ! .. even the TV interviewers have been crying and going all ‘touchy-feely’ in what has been called ..  “a highly-charged emotional roller coaster”. In other words … a load of old bollocks about big brawny blokes ‘blubbing’. 

I have never been able to undertand why so many people get excited about one sweaty person running a bit faster than another sweaty person, but from what little I have seen of the spectators at this year’s ‘Games’ the fans are not just getting excited they are going into a state screaming, caterwauling hysteria every time a member of ‘Team GB’ (I wonder how much someone got paid for thinking up that ‘brand’?) does anything. The TV coverage doesn’t show much of how they react when some other nation’s athlete wins a medal. They probably all breakdown, burst into tears and have to be treated for shock.

I know that the British ‘stiff upper lip’ was replaced long ago by the quivering lower one, but the cheers and applause of the crowds and the simple handshakes of the ‘amateur’ competitors in the ‘old days’ seem far more in keeping with the ‘Olympic Spirit’ than all this weeping and ‘high five’ leaping of the ‘professionals’ to be seen on our screens today.

The founder of the modern Olympics, Baron de Coubertin said …  “The important thing in the Olympic Games is not winning but taking part. Just as in life, the aim is not to conquer but to struggle well.” … He didn’t add … 

… “and always keep your hanky handy”.