Rowlock ambassadors

 Subject: Rowlock ambassadors

I remember watching the London Olympics which the highlights were shared between track cycling, on the water with rowing and of course, the track and field events.

The rowing was particularly thrilling as each race unfurled along the course the rowers eking out the last bits of energy right to the line.

They became over the event time household names and personalities in their own right, particularly the broad smiles and exuberance of the women sitting in their boat having accomplished, through years of training the right to represent their country. It seems to me that, particularly the women are the great ambassadors in what they say and the way they present themselves in interviews.

Of course in London much was made of the enthusiasm of the crowd they were unstoppable as they cheered and cheered our contestants and now it’s the turn of the French to show their patriotism. In the pool the supremacy of Leon Marchand has mesmerised the crowd like Michael Phelps used to do in years past

The woman’s archery was fascinating. The sight of the porcelain-white faced Chinese women, their impassive faces made even more stark by the smudge of red lipstick with which they kissed the flight of the arrow before releasing it on its way to the target. They looked ‘out of this world characters’ with their impassivity, more like the image of a Geisha than the spontaneity of athletes generally.

Images are fed in my mind of the male swimmers walking on out to the start their event. Each encased in duvet style full length coats to keep warm, they stroll/saunter like gangsters towards their starting plinth to do battle. Cocky, they seem out of tune to the adulation from the spectators, its more like a "godfather" meet, faces grim and determined and very different from the girls who grin from ear to ear and wave to the crowd.

There’s so much to appreciate and whilst mentioned the thought of the hours training on the road or in a boat at 6am in the cold drizzle far from the bright lights of today.

‘Track and field’ are just getting going and the focus really starts on the national gold medal tally.

Who said nationalism should be put to bed and only multi nationalism allowed to flourish. Of course between the athletes themselves each respects the other and even amongst nations who glare at each other across a no man’s land of barbed wire, in sport these antipathy’s are laid aside and mutual respect breaks out.