Britain's real sporting heroes
I'm not a massive sports fan, but I'm glued to the Olympics. Working the early shift has its advantages: I can spend the afternoon on the sofa, glued to the TV!
And I was almost in tears for Nicole Cooke when she won Britain's first gold in the cycling at the weekend.
I watched her being interviewed immediately after she won and she could hardly speak because she was clearly so elated at coming top of the world in the sport she's pursued all her life.
It was, no doubt, the best moment of her life - a memory she'll always treasure. But be honest: had you heard of her before the weekend? I certainly hadn't.
So compare Nicole with the professional footballers who, when they're interviewed on Match of the Day, sound bored and trot out the same old cliches about how there are "no easy games" but "the team performed well".
Some of them are paid upwards of £100,000 a week and treated like heroes, yet many of our Olympians have to struggle to raise the cash to pursue their dream.
They compete not for the pay cheque, the millionaire lifestyle or the lucrative sponsorship deal, but for the love of their sport and, if they're lucky (and can afford it), the chance to represent their country.
Wouldn't it be nice if, in the run-up to the London games, some of the cash that goes to pay our millionaire footballers (and their WAGs) could be diverted to funding our Olympic hopefuls, so that no young athlete who dreams of representing Britain in our city in 2012 has to miss out through lack of money?
Surely our Olympians are Britain's real sporting heroes. And here at Capital, we're backing them all the way.
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