WLast month, the shortlist for 2023 BBC Sports Personality of the Year was announced and teasers began to be released. Which of the six names is the strangest? The answer is Katarina Johnson Thompson. Because while she became world champion, no one other than Mary Earps, Stuart Broad, Frankie Dettori, Rory McIlroy and Alfie Hewett on the list actually won the biggest event on the calendar. Because no one did.
terrible? definitely. Broad retired after a thrilling Ashes, with other players also enjoying great moments, especially considering England’s women’s team reached the final of the World Cup. But it reflected a broader truth. Last year was a great year for British sport, but it wasn’t a vintage year.
But as 2024 dawns, there’s a tingling feeling that this might really be the summer of the era, and compared to the glorious summer of 1934, when Hedley Verity took 14 wickets in a day against Australia. , Henry Cotton ended a decade of American domination. The British Open and Fred Perry won Wimbledon. Alternatively, it has become his four-digit abbreviation for British sporting victories such as 1966, 2003 and 2012.
For that to happen, England’s men’s football team will certainly need to win their first major title in 58 years at this year’s Euros. But you don’t need a St George’s flag tattooed on his chest to believe your favorite player has a chance. The same goes for booksellers.
After all, Harry Kane’s England have the top scorer in Europe’s top five leagues. Spain’s top scorer is Jude Bellingham. And luck is on their side: if they finish first in their group, they won’t face another group winner until the semi-finals.
Naturally, familiar questions remain. Will Gareth Southgate’s handbrake be on or off? Will he trust the attacking talent at his disposal or his more conservative guts? In any case, England’s odds of 7-2 equate to a 22% chance of glory, which doesn’t seem all that crazy.
And just 12 days later, the summer’s main sport will be hosting the Paris Olympics. The omens look promising here too, with Gracenote analysts predicting Team GB will win their 65 medals in more than 20 competitions, one more than at the 2012 London Games. .
2024 could see even more success for British sport. Whatever you think of Tyson Fury, he is the favorite to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion since Lennox Lewis in 1999. Meanwhile, Manchester City and Arsenal are considered favorites to become the first English clubs to become heavyweight champions. Liverpool are the first team to lift the European Cup at Wembley since 1978.
But even if expectations ultimately fall short of reality, two points are worth emphasizing. The first is that British elite sport has maintained some momentum over the past 15 years, despite too many scandals in gymnastics, cycling, swimming, etc. Second? That this success on the pitch hasn’t necessarily trickled down.
But historically, things have rarely been this good. They are only a generation removed from the nadir of the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when Britain won their only gold medal. He didn’t qualify for a single country for his country at Euro 2008, but he’s getting even closer. However, these were not major outliers. As far back as 1912, the Observer questioned the state of British sport after the “debacle” of the Stockholm Games.
In an article headlined “British Olympic failure: are we decadent in sport?”, a dejected Sidney Brooks urged readers to “look at the record”. “South Africans and New Zealanders told us a few years ago that we had simply forgotten how to play rugby,” he wrote. “In lawn tennis, the former dominance is waning…and in swimming, skating and racquets, I know of no Englishman who is undisputedly number one.”
Mr Brooks also lamented Britain’s dwindling success on the polo field and on the pool table, saying: “Whenever we play against foreign competitors, both individually and as a team, we always expect the worst to happen. “There is a high possibility that this will happen,” he warned.
Meanwhile, before the last Olympics in Paris in 1924, the Guardian’s “correspondent” also warned that Britain was being eclipsed by the United States and other European countries. “In the early days, their antics simply amused us,” the correspondent wrote. “Never in our minds did we imagine that the continental countries would one day surpass us.”
Then, in 1924, a completely radical proposal was made. Britain should hire more foreign coaches “to impart needed skills” or “to send our experts overseas to learn business”. It took him the better part of a century, and a huge amount of public money, for these ideas to take hold, but look at the results.
But away from elite sport, things are not so rosy. Leisure centers also remain closed. Swimming pools remain closed. Activity levels across the population are flat or declining. And while many of us love watching sports, studies have shown that there is little correlation between elite success and average exercise levels.
With that in mind, some smart people in the sports industry have new aspirations for 2024. It’s about politicians working to make Britain the most active country in Europe. That’s a noble ambition. However, some MPs, particularly Tracy Crouch and Kim Leadbeater, have highlighted the benefits for the public’s health, particularly the NHS, which will take funding and decades to achieve. It’s a possibility.
Therefore, it is no wonder that many of us prefer to focus only on elite sports. I am ready to enjoy the glory and sweet hosannas that may lie ahead.