Olympics: Athletics gold vital for Games success
China’s failure to win a gold medal in athletics in 2008 hardly tarnished the Beijing Olympics.
SYDNEY:
Britain must win a gold medal in athletics if next year’s London Olympics is to be as successful as the country hopes, according to decathlon great Daley Thompson. The 52-year-old, who won back-to-back golds at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, is confident, however, that Britain’s athletes will rise to the challenge and ensure a home champion in track and field at the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium. China’s failure to win a gold medal in athletics in 2008 hardly tarnished the Beijing Olympics but Thompson believes it would be different in 2012 given Britain’s long tradition of success in the sport.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2011.
Britain must win a gold medal in athletics if next year’s London Olympics is to be as successful as the country hopes, according to decathlon great Daley Thompson. The 52-year-old, who won back-to-back golds at the 1980 and 1984 Olympics, is confident, however, that Britain’s athletes will rise to the challenge and ensure a home champion in track and field at the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium. China’s failure to win a gold medal in athletics in 2008 hardly tarnished the Beijing Olympics but Thompson believes it would be different in 2012 given Britain’s long tradition of success in the sport.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 14th, 2011.