PreSeason Blues & London 2012

Along with many people around the country, I've found the last 2 weeks of sport inspiring, emotional, exciting and full of memorable moments.  I've been lucky enough to have spent 4 days at the Olympics (Although I didn't do as well in the ticket ballot as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge!) and have been blown away by the whole thing.  Behind the TV scenes, the organisation is impeccable, the Volunteers are immensely friendly and the atmosphere around the Park is better then anything I've experienced at any other sporting event.  But it's been in the arenas that I've been completely amazed at the desire to win, effort and sporting ability on show.  The dedication of the athletes is fantastic and I've enjoyed reading the back stories of some of the competitors.

Perhaps my favorite has been double Gold winning cyclist Laura Trott - her collapsed lung, asthmatic and vomit strewn story has been well documented.  The fact that she has been through so much and continues to put her body through such immensely difficult events has been one of the stories of the Games.  Add to that the fact she's always so happy and seemingly loving the whole experience and it perfectly encapsulates what I love about sport - desire to win, skill, effort and dedication.

Sankuru - She moved at a similar speed
during the race!

At the other end of the ability spectrum, I watched the first round of the women's 1500m. The second heat was won by GB's Lisa Dobriskey, so naturally enough the stadium was a cacophony of noise.  however, an even bigger cheer was reserved for an athlete from the Congo by the name of Chancel Ilunga Sankuru. She crossed the line a full 52 seconds after Dobriskey and had spent most of the race running round on her own at a pace that could loosely be described as a slow jog.  But as she crossed the line to a massive cheer, it flashed up on the screen that she had just ran a personal best for the event!  Without wishing to sound patronizing, she was doing her very best and had achieved something that had previously been beyond her.  In short, it encapsulated the oft mentioned "Olympic Spirit".

However, in spite of all that, I've got no desire to watch Trott or Sankuru train.  I don't want to watch them put in the endless hours of practice that helps them achieve their goals.  I just want to watch the end product.  Athletes performing to the best of their ability and doing amazing things in competitive events.

One of my "30 Things to Do" is to watch an Eagles PreSeason match in its entirety.  It's actually one of the easy tasks on my list, but in many ways it's one I'm really not looking forward to.  You see, PreSeasons are also one of my Pet Hates in sport.

2 weeks ago I attended my first ever PreSeason football friendly. It was between Ebbsfleet and Gillingham.  I won't bore you with why I joined 914 other souls in the sun, but there I was inside a ground that hadn't been touched since World War 2.  In fairness it was an OK game, but the bottom line was that nobody (including the players) gave a toss who won.  Goals were greeted with polite applause from fans and half hearted high fives from players. Substitutes sat around sunbathing and I spent most of the second half in the bar watching the men's cycling road race.  I realise PreSeason is vital for players in building up fitness and fine tuning tactics, but personally, I just want to see the end product.

It's a similar story in the NFL. The 4 weeks of PreSeason are full of players being benched, half empty stadiums and a host of players just going through the motions.  Nobody cares who wins, the results have no bearing on the Regular Season and we will learn very little about team's plans for the year.  In short, it's not what I want from my sport watching experience.  It's the Regular Season that I'm excited about, when the best players in the world (and the Washington Redskins) do battle and play to the best of their abilities.
So, at some point over the next 4 weeks I'll be ticking my "Watch a PreSeason game" box (probably week 4) but I'd much rather be watching the likes of Trott and Sankuru.

In fact, I've been so inspired by the last 2 weeks that I want to "Get Involved", I had such admiration for all the "Games Makers" that I wished I'd put myself down as one.  So after I get back from holiday (St Petersburg if you're interested) I'm going to look into how I can do some voluntary work within UK sport. Who knows, it might even make for an interesting blog topic.

Of course, I'll still be writing about the Eagles and watching their run to the SuperBowl!  Starting with that vital PreSeason game with the Jets in 3 weeks time!