Baseball. Softball. Cricket. Croquet. Golf. Jeu de Paume. Lacrosse. Motor Boating. Pelota Basque. Polo. Rackets. Tug of War. What do these sports have in common? Answer: all have been turfed out of the Olympics in their time.

Today's meeting of the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board in Lausanne will leave another sport with that out-in-the-cold feeling, even though the unlucky choice that will be earmarked for removal by the time of the 2020 Olympics in order to allow in one of new contenders has, in theory at least, the opportunity to fight its corner when the final decision is made in September at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires.

Taekwondo, wrestling, badminton and table tennis are among those sports likely to be particularly jittery in the circumstances. But the sport with the worst of the shakes will be modern pentathlon, which has positively contorted itself in recent years in an effort to become more popular and accessible, first by combining its shooting and running elements into a single finale, and then by changing the shooting pistols to lasers in order to make the sport safer and thus more suitable for youngsters.

David Svoboda of the Czech Republic celebrates his victory in the Modern Pentathlon at the London 2012 Olympics

At each point, the officials of the sport's international governing body, the UIPM, have effectively looked over to the IOC overlords with the unspoken question: Will this do, then?

Now the overlords of the Executive Board are preparing to have their say. And it seems extraordinary, outlandish almost, that they should be contemplating stifling the baby introduced by none other than the founder of the modern Games, Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

It was at Coubertin's insistence that the modern pentathlon was introduced to the Olympic Games in 1912, mimicking the pentathlon which had been one of the key elements of the ancient Games which consisted of a foot race, wrestling, the long jump, the javelin and the discus- all skills of an ideal soldier of the time.

Baron Pierre de Coubertin, seated on the left, the founder of the modern Olympics, was also the founder of Modern Pentathlon

 
the visionary Frenchman put together a similar quintet of accomplishments which replicated the skills required of a 19th century cavalry rider behind enemy lines: riding an unfamiliar horse, using a pistol and sword, swimming – and running.

Fifth-placed in the inaugural Olympic modern pentathlon was a 26-year-old  American Army lieutenant who would go on to become famous for his fierce prowess in battle during the Second World War – George S Patton, who as a General drove his men to vital victories in North Africa and Sicily.

Ironically, Patton lost a chance of winning a medal after only managing to finish 21st out of 32 competitors in the shooting. He argued that a shot of his which was deemed to have missed had in fact passed clean through a previously made hole – but was unable to offer evidence of this. Had he won his argument, he would have been Olympic champion.

General George S Patton, the pre-eminent US combat General in the Second World War, was fifth in the 1912 Olympic modern pentathlon - because his shooting let him down

It could be said that Patton's arguments were less than chivalrous, although his stubbornness was a world away from the real shame brought onto the event at the 1976 Games by Boris Onischenko's doctored epee, which registered bogus hits.

However, the intrinsic chivalry of the event was re-emphasised by a turn of events during the modern pentathlon which took place at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Two-times world champion Sebastien Deleign would have been the eventual silver medallist had his team-mate Olivier Clergeau, who was out of the running for a medal, conceded a touch to him in the fencing.

At this point you could argue that the French pair were in a similar position to that in which Chinese, South Korean and Indonesian badminton players found themselves at the London 2012 Games - that is, where the framework of the competition invited them to take advantage by a touch of manipulation.

But whereas the badminton players created a scandal as they tried to lose to each other and thus earn a more favourable draw in the knock-out stages, in Sydney the two Frenchman remained true to the Olympic ideal and fought each other fairly and squarely. The double world champion conceded a touch, and with it 40 points which made the difference between finishing second and finishing fourth. Medal lost; honour gained.


Sven Thofelt , the Swedish winner of the 1928 modern pentathlon at the 1928 Amsterdam Games, was the founder of the Modern Pentathlon Union in 1949, serving as its President for 23 years. When his beloved sport was threatened with exclusion from the Olympics in 1992, Thofelt, then 88, defended it robustly, proclaiming: "The sport is an education in itself. It trains the mind as much as the body, and should be experienced by all leaders of men...Riding and fencing are wholly in the head, the body being only an instrument of the mind. Shooting is a test of character and will, of steadiness. Only the swimming and running are wholly physical."

Will today really be the day when the sport exemplifying what de Coubertin described as "real all-round athleticism" will be cast out of the Olympic ring?

Never mind the 2012 Games in London, 2013 is shaping up to be the most important Olympic year in decades.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) will elect a new leader and they'll choose between Istanbu, Madrid and Tokyo as 2020 host city.

Yet,perhaps the most important question of  all is which sports will make up the Olympic landscape in the third decade of the new Millennium. This particular contest happens every four years, and what makes it so intriguing, is that for any new sport admitted, one must make way.

A total of 26 sports were contested in London, but Rio will have the full complement of  28. The decision to include golf and rugby sevens was taken at the IOC Session in Copenhagen in 2009.

Sports federations now lobby for inclusion  as energetically as candidate host cities. In fact, the International Rugby Board's campaign was masterminded by Mike Lee, the man behind the London and Rio's victories. The great New Zealand All Black Jonah Lomu even pitched up at the IOC Session in Copenhagen to help seal the deal.


Golf's delegation included Michelle Wie and a specially recorded message from Tiger Woods was part of the package .

Both sports are automatically included in 2020 but the other 26, known as the "core programme" will have to fight for their place and one could lose its place  at the IOC Session in Buenos Aires this September.

It will be a tense time - but the composition of the Olympic programme has always been a  burning question.

At the first Games of the modern era held in Athens in 1896. there were only nine sports,and  all for men only. More had been planned. An early  IOC bulletin in 1894  had also promised football, (Rugby and Association) and cricket "according to the laws of the Marylebone Cricket Club". They did not happen.

There was a cricket match in 1900, but although draft plans for 1904 and 1908 included the great summer game, it was left on the drawing board.

The Influence of the man who revived the Olympics was a major factor in those early years. Rugby union was part of the Games "on and off" until 1924.Baron Pierre de Coubertin was a keen "Rugbyman" who'd refereed the first French Championship final. He was also enthusiastic about the  inclusion of equestrian events. The horses came in at the 1912 Games and that year also heralded the arrival of the multi event modern pentathlon, devised of course by Coubertin himself to achieve what he called "real all-round athleticism".

He was unhappy about the inclusion of some events. "Team sports are out of place in the Olympiad," he wrote and gave his support to "a strictly individual programme".

Even so, between the wars, football, hockey and basketball became fixtures in the Olympic Movement.

Incidentally roller sports, on the shortlist for 2020, had applied as early as 1939.

The President, Count Henri Baillet -Latour, "read a petition for its inclusion". The discussion aroused the interest of some distinguished figures including Prince Axel of Denmark, Lord Aberdare and Count Bonacossa but to no avail. It was rejected, along for the time being with women's gymnastics.


In those days the Olympic Movement had fewer than 60 member nations and the number of athletes at any given Games was half that seen today. Only a small proportion were women and it stayed that way immediately after the Second World War.

Back then, the Olympic Charter set out a list of core sports "which must be included". They were athletics, gymnastics,combative sports (boxing fencing, shooting (sic), wrestling), aquatic sports (rowing, swimming), equestrian, modern pentathlon, cycling, weightlifting and yachting.

Tothese a further nine could be added: football (soccer) or rugby, hockey, polo, water polo, handball, basketball, canoeing and, strangest of all, gliding which had been demonstrated at the 1936 Games in Berlin.

"Only sports practised in at least ten countries, of which six must enter, may be included in the Olympic Games," it said.

Even so, the Olympic Programme Commission was soon facing an uphill battle.

In the last 50 years tennis and archery returned to the fold and badminton, baseball, handball, judo,softball table tennis, triathlon, taekwondo and volleyball have all taken their place as the Olympic programme grew and grew.

Existing sports like cycling expanded their programmes to embrace BMX and mountain biking, gymnastics introduced the balls and ribbons of rhythmic gymnastics and trampolining. Swimming and diving became synchronised and hockey, football and others introduced women's competitions, meaning that the numbers have soared.


In the early eighties, Juan  Samaranch, later the IOC President described the task of the Programme Commission as "a delicate one a balance between the desire shown by so many to increase the number of sports and events against the need to avoid the 'gigantism' which was talked about so much."

Its  long suffering chairman at the time, the Hungarian Arpad Csanadi lamented, "One of the reasons for the uneven development of the Olympic programme was that some personalities in authority had often tried to influence the IOC by their personal opinions."

The host city was also given a degree of freedom in what they could put on. In 1952, the Finns chose pesapallo  - a form of baseball - as an exhibition. There was a special Aussie Rules football match four years later in Melbourne.


Demonstration sports were also allowed. In 1972 and 1988 badminton staked its claim for full medal status  Also, in 1988, the Koreans introduced taekwondo at their home Games in Seoul.

No official medals were offered for these competitions but the infrastructure for staging them cost just as much so demonstrations and exhibitions were effectively dropped in the nineties.

By now, the Charter expected sports to be "practiced widely" and though it did not define the phrase, it specified the geographical reach required. At the turn of the Millennium, this was in 50 countries and three continents for men and in 35 countries across three continents for women.

A total of 28 sports were contested and this number was maintained for Athens and Beijing. It was the first time in over 20 years that new sports had not been added. The Olympic Charter now sets a limit of 28 sports and around 10,500 participants.

When Jacques Rogge became IOC President in 2001, he made it clear he wanted greater controls on the size of the Games and a working party started putting the entire Olympic programme under the microscope.

"Any changes in the structure of the programme must result in a benefit for the Olympic Movement and an increased value and appeal of the Olympic Games," said a report presented to the IOC Executive Board.

Gone was the simple formula in the Charter, in its place a detailed questionnaire which examined every aspect of a sport in seven themes. These  include the history of each sport, media coverage for World Championships, spectator attendance, how a sport is presented and where the medals went. It examines gender equity, the provision for the next generation,health of the athlete, impact made on the environment and how the sport deals with doping

The questionnaire faced by the candidates for 2020 included one important addition at the very forefront of the dossier: "IIlegal and Irregular betting – measures in place to fight against competition fixing."

Rogge has even hosted conferences in Lausanne to try and combat the problem. "'The IOC is working very closely with Governments and betting operators to try and have prevention, it is a dangerous issue for sport," he said.


Baseball/softball, climbing,karate, roller sport, squash, wakeboarding and wushu made their case for inclusion to the IOC late last year. Next, the existing Olympic core sports appear  in front of  the Executive Board who then choose  25 to be contested at the 2020 Games. The one sport excluded at this stage will be allowed  to plead its case along with the seven new sports in a sort of "'repechage".

Ian Stewart's contacts within the world of athletics have been some of his greatest assets as he has promoted the domestic sport's major indoor and outdoor meetings for the last 20 years.

And in the wake of the 64-year-old former European and Commonwealth 5,000 metres champion's acrimonious departure from UK Athletics contacts have paid off again as his old British team-mate and sometime training partner Brendan Foster has offered him a new job at his company Nova International, where Stewart will work as consultant to the Great Run series.

For Stewart - who was also in charge of UKA's endurance events until being replace by his deputy, John Nuttall, in December - the role will be partially familiar, given his input over the years to helping Nova assemble international fields for its Great Runs, Great CityGames and Cross Country events.

Eric Wilkins, Nova's chief executive, has expressed his confidence that Stewart – whose wife, the former US high hurdler Stephanie Hightower, is President of USA Track & Field - will help the company maintain their commitment to attracting "the very best athletes" to their leading events.

"Ian Stewart's reputation as one of Britain's best ever distance runners, his work with the current crop of British endurance athletes and his role organising the best annual track meetings in the country mean that he will be an important addition to our team," Wilkins said.

Ian Stewart tracks Kenya's Kip Keino en route to a historic 5,000m win at the 1970 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh

Stewart, who will take up his new role within the next few weeks, added: "Having collaborated with Brendan Foster on a number of projects in the past, I'm looking forward to this change in career direction."

It's something of an old pals' act - but it looks likely to be moving in very new directions soon as Foster's ambitions to change and expand Nova International remain highly active.

The Great CityGames have made an increasingly popular virtue of showcasing athletics in city centre settings - employing portable sections of track and runways which conform with international regulations - where spectators can get a close view of some of the world's best performers. For free.

Thus far the Great CityGames venues have been in Nova's heartland of Newcastle, where for the last four years it has dovetailed with the Bupa Great North Run, and in Manchester, where it has been programmed alongside the Bupa Great Manchester Run, producing an opening flourish which even Stewart will find hard to top at the first edition in 2009 when Usain Bolt turned up to produce a world best performance of 14.35sec for the straight 150m on the regulation track laid out in Deansgate.

Usain Bolt set a world best for 150m at the 2009 Great CityGames in Manchester 

Now the Nova plan is to export the format and establish a presence in iconic city centres within Europe.

"It's a very real ambition," a Nova spokesperson told insidethegames. "We have the track, we have the expertise. Why not?"

Conversations are already well underway with a number of city authorities and athletics governing bodies to export the brand.

"Over the course of the next 12-15 months we can take this further," the spokesperson added. "The next Great CityGames to be launched are most likely to be somewhere in Europe."

So where next? Paris, with the Eiffel Tower in the background?  The Marienplatz in Munich? The Grand Place in Brussels? Nova aren't saying - yet. But if and when it happens, it will be somewhere special.

"We will be seeking iconic city centre venues with fascinating and memorable backdrops," our spokesperson commented. "We feel that with any of our major events we are always looking for an iconic shot. As far as the Great North Run is concerned, we have that with our image of the Tyne Bridge and the Red Arrows fly -past.

Mo Farah wins the two miles at the Great North CityGames last September 

"The Great CityGames is a concept that has captured people's imaginations. It's a different way of showcasing athletics. We can't expect London 2012 six times a year, even though we might like it.

"This is a format which allows us maybe to gain an advantage in terms of presentation over sports like football or rugby, which need to take place in stadiums.

"Brendan is a very driven, very ambitious man, and we want to expand and develop our business. These are exciting times for us."

The new approach to presentation of a venerable sport chimes in with the recent efforts made within the IAAF's Samsung Diamond League programme to highlight athletics disciplines that have not previously earned much attention - such is the philosophy, for instance, behind the staging of the men's and women's shot put at the Zurich Diamond League a day before the main meeting in the unusual setting of Zurich's cavernous Hauptbahnhof.

Other sports, too, are tuning in to the new vibe of flexibility, portability - squash, for instance, desperate to tick as many boxes as possible as it seeks an entry to the Olympic club, has made much of its new ability to showcase itself in state-of-the-art courts which can be set up in shopping precincts or alongside pyramids.

So there's a whole new continent out there for Nova – and Stewart – to conquer. Will it be long before Stewart proves himself a European champion once again?

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Seemingly far later than it should have come, Britain's Education Secretary Michael Gove will imminently make an announcement on school sport in England, where a funding boost is likely to be on its way.

Gove's announcement will come this month - most likely next week according to those close to the Department for Education (DfE).

Why it has taken the DfE, who assume responsibility for school sport in the country, over six months from the start of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games to announce anything benefiting school sport is rather a mystery.

After all, "legacy" is still the buzz word six months on from London 2012 and Prime Minister David Cameron has continuously promised it high on his agenda, not least in a joint letter with Mayor of London Boris Johnson last month where the pair concluded that by "learning the lessons of the past, we will make sure that the greatest Olympic and Paralympic Games ever really do benefit our entire country for generations to come."

In the move to "Inspire a Generation'; children in schools appeared to be at the heart of the scheme but the chief roadblock to all this seems to be Gove himself.

Those at the top of sport administration in the country all reiterate the same line that Gove simply "doesn't get sport" and sees no use for it as an educational tool.

Gove quickly incurred the wrath of the school sport soon after the Coalition Government came to power in 2010 when, in his Party's first Comprehensive Spending Review in 2010, it was announced that the entire £162 million ($260 million/€190 million) funding for the School Sports Partnerships would be axed.

The move was met by such a fierce wave of protests from teachers, pupils and Olympic athletes, like teenage diver Tom Daley, that the Government had to partially backtrack on the decision and reinstall some of the funding for a period.

Gove has never since made any real attempt to engage with sport and there was an unusually strong atmosphere of animosity toward the Education Secretary at the Youth Sport Trust 2013 Conference in Telford I attended this week. The conference itself saw hundreds of headteachers and school sport professionals gather to discuss the legacy of the Games for young people.

In most workshops, there were vocal attacks on Gove with those passionate about sport in schools seemingly losing patience with his failure to comprehend its value, especially following a home Olympics and Paralympics.

But more diplomacy is clearly required, and the individual who has long been fighting the corner for school sport against an increasingly bleak backdrop is Youth Sport Trust chair Baroness Sue Campbell.

Throughout the conference, Campbell, who is also the UK Sport chair, expressed optimism that her messaging had got through to Gove ahead of the imminent announcement, but also thinly veiled worries.

"I want to see the legacy promise made in Singapore [when London were awarded the Olympics] - to 'Inspire a Generation'- to be bought to life through high quality physical education and school sport," Campbell said regarding what she wants to see from the announcement.

"We need to work in partnership with the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, as well as our partners schools, because this is too, too important to get wrong."

Campbell also highlighted primary schools as a key target saying that "if we don't get it right, then we are not laying the foundations for health and we are not laying the foundations for sport for young children."

Throughout the conference, Campbell was questioned on Gove's failures on school sport and was diplomatic throughout. It was dangerous to discuss the issue in depth, she told me as we sat down together on the side lines of the conference.

"I think we do have to get away from personalising this too much and focusing on a particular individual," she told me.

"This is a Government responsibility and that means the Department of Education, the Department of Health and the Department of Culture, Media and Sport. It is not just the responsibility of one person and one Department; it is a responsibility of everyone in Government from the Prime Minister down.

"I think it is dangerous if it gets too personalised against an individual and that certainly isn't helpful for anyone. This issue is much too important than that. This can't be me against an individual or an individual against me because that is nonsense."

Youth Sport Trust chief executive John Steele was equally keen not to be overly aggressive.

"I think the Government announcement around investment in school sport is part of what needs to happen," Steele told me carefully.

"But the other part of it is keeping the momentum of London 2012 in terms of legacy.

"There is some great work going on even in a difficult environment, and a real belief and passion in the ability of sport to change young people's lives.

"Of course Government support is crucial, but there is a lot more to it than that."

With a relationship to maintain with DfE, Campbell and Steele are right not to go on the offensive against Gove.

But the other headteachers and school sport professionals in Telford were happy to attack, with the majority going so far as to call for the Education Secretary's immediate resignation.

So despite a clear lack of belief in Gove and the DfE, school sport must hold its breath and wait for his announcement, with both optimism and fear very palpable.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

You all know that I'm a sports nut. I love watching competitive action that highlights the honourable, tactical and sometimes lawfully aggressive battles between teams, players, and riders. But right now, as sports fans, we can all be forgiven for wondering whether we're just being conned.

Today, a commission in Australia reported widespread drug use in Australian professional sport across multiple codes, with some athletes even being given substances not yet approved for human use. The year-long investigation has identified organised criminal networks which have been involved in distributing the drugs to athletes and support staff. These revelations were published just as the world was digesting another investigation into match-fixing in soccer. I'm not a lone voice when I say that it all worries me greatly.

Of course, the two investigations aren't isolated cases. These days, the news wires are full of revelations about drug taking, the use of performance enhancing substances, and betting scandals across a whole raft of top-line sports and we can be forgiven for wondering whether ANYTHING we watch these days is genuinely underwritten by the purity of the winner. As a fan, I simply do not want to witness a world-class performance and then question whether it was genuine or not; but these days like a lot of people, I'm already wondering where it will all end?

The investigation by European police into the latest football scandal uncovered a Singapore-based betting cartel and identified 380 games that were believed to have been fixed. At least 425 referees, players and officials are suspected of involvement and the reason for all this of course, is money. The police have said over $11 million (£7 million/€8 million) in profits was made from betting on the games in question.


And that is the fundamental issue with all of these mind-blowing stories. Money. It's ironic that the one thing that professional sport covets above all else, is in danger of bringing it down. The eternal chase for competitive perfection requires the best players and the best equipment. With each passing moment, a team, a player, an athlete is looking for that one tiny advantage and each time, the stakes are raised. The chase becomes more expensive and sponsors throw in more money as their visibility as part of that chase becomes sexier and potentially more rewarding. And such are the rewards, the conmen are lapping it up too. It's an amusing metaphor to use in this context, but it's like a drug.

And there you have it; a self-perpetuating cycle of challenge, attainment and reward that now drives people to cheat in the quest for riches. Whether it's taking a performance-enhancing drug or a bribe, it all leaves the sports fans either duped or suspicious of being duped.

As a single entity, sport has always openly moralised about its social benefits and its integrity. That's absolutely fine and it's how it should be. The view that sport is wholesome and that our children should be encouraged to play or compete is perfectly reasonable too and it's one I support wholeheartedly. We need to acknowledge though that there are other influences that sport has on our young and this is where it becomes so concerning.

Sport has been on a slippery slope ever since it started to embrace companies ready to throw substantial riches in their direction. The money enables the pursuit of perfection and the pursuit of perfection increases commercial visibility as well as the sums of money from the sponsors. The cycle perpetuates itself and the higher the prize, the more tempting the shortcuts are.


Amongst these nefarious activities, it has always struck me as being singularly odd - perverse even, that sports should embrace commercial relationships that are morally questionable. Clearly, the financial opportunity outweighs the corporate social responsibility. Companies promoting tobacco, alcohol and gambling have all been - or continue to be - a part of the scene. Their money gets taken because it feeds the cycle. Sport has never adequately reconciled such associations but it may well be on the verge of paying for them.

The commercial influence is a subject I want to develop next time. But for now, as I see it, sport is in danger of implosion. The Australian investigation, the European report, the UCI's manipulation of cycling...all this and more is in danger of turning genuine, enthusiastic sports fans who want nothing more than honest competition, into cynics. World governing bodies have to act – and act now...or the last person in the stadium might as well switch off the lights.

Jaimie Fuller is the chairman of Skins and the founder of pressure group Change Cycling Now, whose members include Greg LeMond, Paul Kimmage and David Walsh. To follow him on Twitter click here.

In exactly one year, Team GB will once again be marching proudly in to a stadium for an Olympic Opening Ceremony. This time it will be in Russia for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.

How many athletes do we think will be travelling to Sochi? Based on what we know today and have seen so far this winter season, Team GB is likely to be comprised of approximately 50 athletes. The first athletes have already started hitting the qualification criteria with the last possible opportunities to qualify on 19 January 2014. Selection to Team GB could start as early as April of this year and run until January next year.

For the Sochi 2014 Games, we believe this could be the most competitive winter Team GB yet. We have some good medal contenders across a number of sports, disciplines and events. What we have to keep in mind though, is that many winter sports are highly unpredictable - more so than summer sports - in the sense that it can easily go either way. One second you are in a medal winning position, next you can be down and out of contention. That is certainly part of the excitement and thrill of watching these sports and events. They are fast, they are nail biting and they are unpredictable.


So who are Team GB's Sochi 2014 hopefuls? Since her Olympic debut in Vancouver speed skater Elise Christie is taking the World Cup circuit by storm and is now ranked number one in the world for 1,000 metres and only last weekend became the first GB speedskater to become a World Cup Series Champion at the official test event in Sochi.

The Winter Olympics in Sochi are one year away this week, and the portents are good, with Britain already heading for the podium thanks to two of the world's fastest ladies.

Intrepid bob skeleton ace Shelley Rudman, a shock silver medallist in Turin seven years ago, won her first world championship in St Moritz last weekend, a month shy of her 32nd birthday; last month  short track speed skater Elise Christie, ten years her junior, became  double European champion over 1,500 and 1,000 metres.

With a little luck, both could be headline-making winners in Sochi.

Yet exactly quarter of a century ago, it was a famous British loser whose name was on everyone's lips, much to the chagrin of the British Olympic Association (BOA).

This month marks 25 years since Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards soared into our consciousness as a truly abominable snowman. Looking somewhere between Mr Magoo and Benny Hill's Fred Scuttle, the squinting ski jumper from Stroud won the world's hearts, though nothing else, in Calgary.


Until the advent of Audley Harrison, Edwards surely was the most ridiculed figure in British sport, but he's always had bottle.

And now he's finally landed on his feet.

Or rather, in ten feet of water.

For last weekend he was soaring again, this time more Seagull than Eagle, plunging off the high board in to win the final of ITV's schmaltzy diving-for dilettantes reality show Splash!

A confession: In insidethegames recently, I trashed Splash! in which teenage Olympian Tom Daley acts host and mentor to pseudo-celebs who strive to emulate him in a diving competition as an unmitigated belly flop.

But after watching Eddie on Saturday night I take some of it back, for the boy done good.

Actually, he was better than that.

He was positively brilliant, so much so that Daley's own coach Andy Banks, one of the three judges who scored his individual dive a perfect ten, declared he was "almost Olympic class" off the high board.

Not bad after just six weeks tuition from Tom.

Now Banks may be over-egging it bit but even Daley himself did not appear to have his tongue in his cheek when suggesting that 49-year-old Edwards should consider entering the national championships.

The only better diving display I've seen of late was from Luis Suárez.


Indeed, Daley and The Eagle were in near-perfect synch when they plunged and piked together to secure victory over a bloke who plays a waiter in Benidorm and a woman who fronts  another TV show giving homes a make-over.

While in reality the prospect of Tom and Eddie together in Rio is as unlikely a pairing as Tom and Jerry, Edwards at least made a spectacle out of a potential farce.

Eddie has had a bit of a makeover himself – surgery to reduce his jutting jaw, and lens implants. So minus those pebbledash specs and with discernible pecs he seemed more of an actual Olympian than he did in Calgary, cutting quite dash in his budgie-smuggler Speedos and faring rather better than Olympic bronze medal boxer Anthony Ogogo who had to pull out with an arm injury.

I have always had an affection for Eddie ever since the blazers turned their backs on him – and the de Coubertin philosophy that taking part is more important than winning, pouring scorn on his double last place plummet in 1988 and virtually ignoring the enormous contribution he had made towards raising awareness about the Winter Olympics to an otherwise apathetic British public. Not to mention his unbounded bravery.

A comedic figure maybe, but unsteady Eddie was loved by the public, who admired his derring-do and old world gumption.

In Calgary, where the Eagle dared, as in the Nordic heartlands of ski jumping, he was seen as someone to be celebrated, not sneered at. Now he says: "I'm always surprised people remember me. It must have been a strong message I gave out. I was a true amateur and typified what the Olympic spirit is about. Some may have laughed at me back home but in other countries they appreciated what I was trying to do because they understand the difficulties and complexities of the sport."

Edwards was Britain's first Olympic ski jumper – and remains the only one. And the nearest the Olympics has ever got to another of his kind is Eric the Eel (Eric Moussambani, from Equatorial Guinea) who took almost two minutes to swim a 100 metres freestyle heat at the Sydney 2000  Games.


People may also forget that his Calgary leap was no one-off. He persevered with his impossible dream and reckons to have made thousands of jumps (the last in September 1997), fracturing his skull twice, breaking his jaw, collarbone and ribs and damaging a kidney and knee.

The British Ski Federation could have picked him as a wild card for three subsequent Games but snootily elected not to, even though his distances had increased from 55 metres (on the 90-metre jump) to 85 metres and from 71 metres to 115 metres on the 120-metre jump. And he wasn't always last. In the US Championships he finished 29th out of 85 and believed he had qualified for the 1998 Games but was again refused a wild card. The Olympic authorities had already introduced what is known as the "Eddie Rule" which requires a certain standard in order to qualify – meaning that participating athletes had to be in the world's top 50.

He resolutely refuses to see himself as a loser, more someone who has overcome massive odds. "What people didn't realise was that at heart, I was simply an athlete who wanted to do the best I could."

What he did last Saturday night surely underlined that.

The one certainty is that there won't be another Eddie The Eagle in Sochi. Which is really rather of a shame.

Sport has become a such deadly serious business these days that we could do with putting some fun into the Games.


The po-faced blazerati may still splutter over his Canadian capers ("they thought I was bringing the sport into disrepute and have shunned me ever since") but his 15 minutes of fame have turned into a lifetime's celebrity.

The once-bankrupt plasterer now makes a decent living giving after-dinner speeches and entertaining cruise ship passengers with motivational lectures  based on his inimitable winter's tale.

He has also, in his spare time, acquired a law degree – which makes him a legal eagle.

Boom boom!

But it is he who he is having the last laugh on those who continue to deride him as a national joke when actually he's more of a national treasure.

The sort you go diving for.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

Glasgow is a relatively small city, with a population of around 600,000, that certainly punches above its weight in terms of sports infrastructure.

Coming in at number nine in a recent survey to find the world's biggest sports cities, Scotland's biggest city mingles amongst the likes of Berlin, Manchester and New York in terms of sporting excellence, even ranking above cities such as Paris, Tokyo and Istanbul.

So how does such a small city compete with perhaps more glamorous, populous and better-known cities across the world?

Glasgow Celtic Football Club are a great example of why Glasgow has the standing it does within the world of sport.

Despite the recent plight of their arch-rivals, neighbours Glasgow Rangers, the Old Firm remains one of the most fiercely contested rivalries in sport and the passion and pride that surrounds both clubs in this city is immense.

The first British winners of the European Cup in 1967, Celtic have a rich history and a loyal, vocal, and vast fanbase which is widely revered throughout the world of football.

In 2003, an incredible 80,000 Celtic fans travelled to Seville as their side reached the UEFA Cup final, the majority without match tickets - the capacity of the stadium was just 57,000 - and the club subsequently received recognition from UEFA and FIFA for the good behaviour of their fans, despite losing 3-2 after extra-time to Jose Mourinho's Porto.

Glasgow Celtic fans at the UEFA Cup Final in 2003

This is just one example of the lengths these supporters from the East End of the city will go to in order to show their undying love for their club.

As I travel through Glasgow in a taxi, I get into a conversation with the driver, a burly Glaswegian man, about football.

I mention legendary Celtic striker Henrik Larsson and the driver reels off these incredible statistics about his scoring record, appearances, particular goals that he scored and memorable moments he produced throughout his career.

He then goes on to recommend me a DVD entitled "Total Larsson"; a two-disc documentary devoted to the career of the Swedish forward.

"I sat there with tears in my eyes as I watched it," he explains in a brash Glaswegian accent.

I'm not sure whether to feel disconcertion or admiration regarding the fact that supporters have such a deeply-ingrained affection towards the club, but it's certainly interesting to see just how much this club means to the green-and-white half of the city.

So it's somewhat appropriate that the new jewel in the crown of Glasgow's sports venue portfolio, the Emirates Arena, is situated right next-door to Celtic's historic stadium, which has stood in the Parkhead region of the city's East End since 1892.

The state-of-the-art Emirates Arena facility in Glasgow, which will hold events at the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and the 2018 Youth Olympic Games if the city's bid is successful

The juxtaposing venues are hardly similar, but together, they encapsulate all that Glasgow is as a city; developing, but never leaving its roots behind, much in the way that Celtic Park's array of statues and tributes to legends such as former manager Jock Stein stand proudly outside the Stadium, serving as a reminder that no matter how far forward the club goes, it will never disregard its past and the people that built the foundations of the club.

The ultra-futuristic £113 million ($178 million/€131 million) Emirates Arena is visually stunning, but the substance of the venue is what really matters.

Boasting an 8,000-seat arena, a 4,000-seat velodrome, a 1,200 capacity sports hall, which is home to basketball franchise the Glasgow Rocks, a state-of-the-art health spa, 4G five-a-side football pitches and top-notch gym facilities, the Emirates Arena is much more than a venue- it's also a community hub, serving the sporting needs of the people of the area in world-class fashion.

The multi-purpose arena within the Emirates Arena facility can hold up to 8,000 spectators and hosts major basketball

Since it opened just over three months ago, the Emirates Arena has already played host to the UCI Track Cycling World Cup first round and the Gymnastics World Cup, with the British Basketball League (BBL) Trophy final and the World Junior Track Cycling Championships taking place there amongst many other events this year.

The sessions offered to ride around the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome in the arena are booked out for months as I'm told, but the track is empty as preparations were being made for the final of the Revolution series which was taking place that evening in front of a sell-out crowd, so I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to give it a go; a rather daunting notion for someone with practically no sense of balance and very little in the way of athletic prowess.

"I won't tell you the statistics of how many people fall off until you're done on the track, they're not pretty", says my mentor for the day as I first set foot into the velodrome, easing my nerves considerably as I attempt to clamber onto my bicycle.

The Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, which hosted the final of the Revolution elite track cycling series last Saturday

I'm not much of a skinny-frame, ultra-skinny tires and no brakes kind of cyclist, but apparently a Raleigh Chopper wouldn't quite cut it on this track, so I had to make do with the specialist equipment provided by the arena.

I spend about half-an-hour practicing clipping and unclipping my shoes from the pedals and worrying about the significant amount of people that seem to be filtering into the centre of the Velodrome before I take to the baking hot track, which is permanently set at a sweltering 28 degrees Celsius to ensure that the track remains optimal for speed.

There's something incredibly terrifying about that first lap, even if it is on a flat surface and when travelling at a snail's pace.

I'm gripping the handlebars as if they were the edge of a cliff as I trundle round the track, wobbling away and grimacing as every person in the velodrome is no doubt getting the cameras out, waiting for the moment I inevitably fall to the Siberian pine-wood surface; I'm too worried about keeping my eyes on the track to even bother to check.

Despite the fact I didn't really manage to cross the "côte d'azur" line, riding the Velodrome is a stark realisation as to just how tough it must be for these elite cyclists that typically complete a lap of the 250-metre track in around 10 seconds.

After the incredible and slightly terrifying velodrome experience

It's an incredible sport, and I think you have to experience a few laps of the track to really appreciate just how daunting that 44 degree incline is, and how tough it is to really push yourself to the limit in the clammy conditions with spectators all around.

The adrenaline rush is sensational though, even if you don't quite manage to reach the top of the incline or reach the blistering speeds of the pro's like myself, it's an incredible experience.

The venue itself was originally to be named the Commonwealth Arena as it is due to play a starring role in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, as well as the 2018 Youth Olympic Games if the city's bid is successful.

The Glasgow bid for the 2018 Youth Olympics is clearly a strong one, but with competition from Buenos Aires, Guadalajara, Medellin and Rotterdam, the race to win the rights to host the Games is sure to be a tight one.

But in Glasgow, you see a city that is evolving, a city that is brimming with confidence and optimism as it looks to the future, using its past and its close community ties to propel it even further onwards as it prepares to host major events in sports and culture such as the Commonwealth Games next year and the Turner Prize in 2015.

The shortlist for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games will be announced this month, with the final decision on the host city due to be made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne on July 4. 

James Crook is a reporter for insidethegames

What do we think about when we think about branding?

If we were cowboys, we would probably think about the hiss of hot metal on cattle.

But we're not cowboys, are we? We are thoughtful, concerned, inquisitive observers of the sporting scene. We are onlookers, indeed we are targets – the targets of those who alter and innovate commercial brands in order to engage or retain our attention and interest.

Sometimes the marketing men and women get it right. Sometimes they get it wrong.

The image that always comes into my mind at this point - for reasons which I cannot fathom - is that of the dumbed-down Leeds United shirt badge introduced onto the breasts of Bremner, Giles, Charlton, Lorimer et al during the mid 1970s, at the point when Don Revie had succeeded in turning the club into a byword for ruthless brilliance - or brilliant ruthlessness, depending on which view you took.

In retrospect, the dayglo yellow letters LU, nestling into each other as if they were in a womb, look like something to do with ecstasy tablets. The whole item was just one designer shift away from being a smiley face. The club introduced and marketed some flashy sock ties at the same time. I remember this because the boy at the end of my garden - a Leeds fan - made the big mistake of turning up with a pair when we all gathered on Chorleywood Common to play our habitual post-Big Match match.

The Leeds United team of 1975 - all wearing smiley badges

Those particular sock ties were never seen again in public. And before too long it was the same for the new badge itself, which had replace a dignified emblem employing the script of LUFC, and was itself replaced by a more traditional emblem of a peacock, which chimed in with one of Leeds'  nicknames.

Over the intervening years the notion of re-branding football shirts has become a cliché of commercial cynicism, with followers being faced each new season with the harsh question: "Do I shell out for the new look, or do I publicly admit that I am not a true follower of the team?" Or maybe, too: "Do I admit that I am too poor to afford the new look?"

Changing badges is one thing. Changing names is another. The - thankfully - fruitless plans of the late and now disgraced tycoon Robert Maxwell during the early 1980s offer a snapshot of how sporting followers feel about their names, and about crass attempts to change them.

Maxwell, then the owner of Oxford United, was mooting the idea of buying up nearby Reading and merging the clubs into a franchise to be known as Thames Valley Royals. As I recall, he had no immediate thoughts of switching sports from football to basketball or baseball. But who knows, it might have happened had the whole thing not been laughed to scorn by everyone with a shred of regard for football's traditions.

A similar deftness of populist touch was demonstrated in 2010 when West Ham's vice-chair Karren Brady suggested that the club's  proposed move to the Stratford Stadium post-London 2012 be accompanied with a sympathetic re-branding, from West Ham United to West Ham Olympic.

The first reaction of this West Ham follower was simple: No.

And yet, and yet...at some point in 1900 the followers of Thames Ironworks had to come to terms with the brand new monicker of... West Ham United. "Call that a proper name for a team?" The generational resistance to this transition can still be heard on occasions at Upton Park as the cry goes up – an elderly cry admittedly – of "Come on you Irons!"

And the notion of a club with Olympic in its name is hardly new. Blackburn Olympic only existed from 1878 to 1889, but in that time they formed a fierce rivalry with Blackburn Rovers, and won the FA Cup.

Plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose, as they used to sing on Upton Park's North Bank.

Which brings us to UK Athletics. Or should I say British Athletics? Or should I say both, as the recent re-branding to the latter name has attempted the unusual compromise of ringing in the new while not ringing out the old?

A re-branded Stephanie Reid taking part in the long jump at last weekend's British Athletics International in Glasgow

Last weekend's indoor international match at Glasgow's Emirates Stadium marked the public debut of the new branding. Athletes and officials wore "British Athletics" tee-shirts, which were apparently much in demand from the public. Elements from the new badge, which adorns a new website, were highlighted on big screens to chime in with different disciplines taking place within the overall event. "British Athletics" branding was present on many metres of "scrim" – the designed netting which is wrapped around the perimeter of arenas and over crowd barriers.

And yet, when you ring up the organisation as I did today, the polite response on the switchboard is: "Good morning – UK Athletics..."

A little confusing, no?

Of course, the names UK Athletics and British Athletics are only the latest in shifting sequence. Before UK Athletics came into being in 1999, for instance, there was something which sounds ever so slightly reminiscent of the domestic sport's latest incarnation – the British Athletics Federation.

Little bit of basic geography now. Of course we all know the difference between the United Kingdom and Britain, but just in case it's temporarily slipped your mind, it's this: Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom but not a part of Great Britain. As the official team name of Great Britain and Northern Ireland makes clear, it is a related separate entity in terms of Britain.

And yes, in the space of the last week UK Athletics –or British Athletics – has had to field a number of calls and queries from people in the sport who are Northern Irish who have needed reassurance that this has not been some scheme designed to distance them from the main body of British athletics.

Niels De Vos, Chief Executive of UK Athletics, had to work hard to smooth the path of the British Athletics re-brand - particularly in Northern Ireland

UK Athletics' Chief Executive Niels de Vos spent some time when the re-branding was being planned last year talking to the home athletics authorities, and spent a lot of that time on the phone to Athletics Northern Ireland to forestall any similar concerns.

Those concerns are well understood by the UK Athletics/British Athletics spokesperson I talked with this week, given that she was brought up just south of Belfast.

"The Olympic year of 2012 was great for us, and this re-brand is all about capitalising on that and keeping the popularity of athletics going," she said. "We don't just want to be seen as a four-year sport. We had sell-out crowds at our meetings, and it seemed as if the British public fully identified with our athletes at the Olympics and the Paralympics.

"When you heard people talking about it, they would say things like 'Super Saturday was a great night for British athletics.' That is the phrase that speaks to people. Sometimes if people ask me about my job and I say I work for UKA they say 'Who are they?' But if I say I work for 'British Athletics' the response is 'Wow! I get that...'

"The BOA (British Olympic Association) did the same thing when they set up Team GB – and there wasn't any objection voiced to that.

"We did a lot of research last year which told us that the people see UK Athletics as rules and regulations, but that British Athletics is something they feel proud of and comfortable with."

Olympic inspiration is behind new logo, which is composed of 14 pictograms representing different elements of the sport, including Paralympic disciplines. It might as well be called Marmite as, just as was the case with the London 2012 logo, people either love it or hate it.

Among those who love it, however, are the meeting promoters, who can extract elements of it to highlight events as they take place, and also, apparently, BBC production staff. "The BBC love it," said our spokesperson.

The essential reservation is this - how can you have something with two names? Awkward as it may be to remove all trace of UKA from anti-doping, rules, governance, surely if British Athletics is the name which makes most sense, everything should be British Athletics?

That said, there are two very sound arguments for the new branding. Firstly, it has filled the void where the omnipresent yellow and blue branding of Aviva used to be now that the sport's main sponsors' contract has come to an end.

Such is the faith the organisation has in the new incarnation that four kilometres of British Athletics scrim have already been produced for use at indoor, outdoor and cross-country venues from now on.

But what happens, one wonders, when the new major sponsors want to put their colours all over the arenas? Not going to happen. As De Vos strongly hinted last year, the new model will be for a Family (another Olympic echo) of sponsors all supporting various parts of the operation, but with no one dominating power. The British Athletics branding is here to stay, a consistent and flexible guideline through the sport's widely differing events.

And there is one other spin-off from this innovation. Because the branding is now all about generic events, it will mean an end to the disappointment so often incurred by posters featuring the big stars of the moment – Jonathan Edwards, Denise Lewis, Kelly Holmes, Christine Ohuruogu, Jessica Ennis, Mo Farah – who are billed to be taking part but sometimes turn out, usually for reason of injury, not to be.

This is not just an affliction suffered by UK Athletics over the seasons – it seems to be a perverse natural law affecting all such promotions. If you highlight an athlete two or three months ahead of an event, you can almost bet that circumstances will prevent them competing.

British Athletics, whatever its other strengths and weaknesses, will never suffer this particular awkwardness again...

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, covered the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics as chief feature writer for insidethegames, having covered the previous five summer Games, and four winter Games, for The Independent. He has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian.

With the six month anniversary of the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony now having been and gone, the word legacy is one that is cropping up ever more frequently.

By definition, the word legacy is "something left or handed down by a predecessor" and in terms of London 2012, the UK wants to know exactly what this 'something' is.

This week, Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron and Mayor of London Boris Johnson appeared at pains to try and define this.

"As we trudged through the snow on a cold, dark January morning, last summer's Olympic and Paralympic Games may have felt a bit of a distant memory in recent weeks," said the pair in a joint letter that appeared in London's Evening Standard.

"But six months on from that unforgettable Opening Ceremony, we are both as committed as ever to making the most of the Games. And together with Seb Coe (the London 2012 chairman and Prime Minister's legacy ambassador) we are determined to generate a momentum that will ensure the greatest Games ever deliver a legacy that lasts a lifetime."

The letter goes on to detail how Britain will not make the mistakes of the past, as they claim other Olympic and Paralympic host cities have done, and they outline decisive action they are taking, such as ensuring the reopening of the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford this year, as an example of their commitment.

But perhaps the key point the Prime Minister and the Mayor of London touch on is the recently announced landmark deal that sees London 2012 suppliers eligible to promote their Olympic and Paralympic involvement for the first time ever following a Games.

Until now companies have been banned, under the terms of the contracts they have signed, from associating themselves with the Olympics but this deal will allow the tens of thousands of companies that worked on London 2012 in various ways to actively promote their work on the Games.

"Whereas in previous Games, businesses which supplied goods and services have not been allowed to talk publicly about their involvement, we have worked hard - together with the British Olympic Association (BOA) - to persuade the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to create a new scheme that will enable businesses to promote their part in the success of the Games," say Cameron and Johnson.

"As a result, tens of thousands of British businesses that did such fantastic work will now at long last get the benefits of the public recognition they deserve - helping us towards our goal of achieving £13 billion ($21 billion/€16 billion) of benefits for British business as a result of the Games."

This deal certainly seemed to be a hot topic of conversation at the UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Global Sports Opportunities Conference in London I attended this week where the message was simple: London 2012 has given the world confidence that Britain can deliver.

UKTI itself is the UK Government department working with British based businesses to ensure their success in international markets and encourage the best overseas companies to look to the UK as their global partner of choice.

Following London 2012, it is no surprise that UK businesses are looking to get involved in Brazil, where the 2014 FIFA World Cup and Rio 2016 Games will be, Russia, where the Sochi 2014 Winter Games and 2014 FIFA World Cup are to be staged, and Qatar, where the 2022 FIFA World Cup is likely to be just one of several major sporting events in the country in the coming decade.

Making one of the key addresses at the conference was Trade and Investment Minister Lord Green, who outlined how the success of London 2012 has put British companies in the box seat to win a share of the lucrative global sporting events business sector which is reckoned to be worth £92 billion ($1.5 billion/€1.1 billion) by 2015.

"The London 2012 Games showed the world what Britain can do - and it showed Britain at its best," said Lord Green.

"British businesses have seen their work showcased around the world. Admiration and respect for UK knowhow, innovation, and capability to deliver major projects and events is high and the UK has to take advantage of this window of opportunity. Sporting events come around so regularly - irrespective of what happens to the global economy - which means that sport provides great opportunities for UK business. With the help of the UKTI, UK firms are already picking up business for these events and will continue to do so."

Contracts worth an estimated £1.5 billion ($2.4 billion/€1.9 billion) have already been identified flowing from the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and Paralympics and the 2016 Rio Olympic and Paralympic Games which UK companies can, and have been, bidding on.

Experts from Brazil, Russia and Qatar took the took to the stage, explaining how they believe the UK can offer them things that no one else can following the London 2012 Games.

This all seems a far cry less than a decade ago when construction on the new Wembley Stadium was a disaster with continuous delays and Britain had to embarrassingly hand back the 2005 World Athletics Championships they were awarded by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) after then Prime Minister Tony Blair failed to deliver on his promise to build a stadium at Pickett's Lock to host it.

So perhaps while the specific legacy of London 2012 is still a work in progress, UK businesses certainly appear to be one of the biggest beneficiaries.

At the London 2012 Paralympic Closing Ceremony on September 9, Coe ended the show in style.

"Finally, there are some famous words you can find stamped on the bottom of a product," he said in his closing speech.

"Words that, when you read them, you know mean high quality, mean skill, mean creativity. We've stamped those words on the Olympic and Paralympic Games of London 2012.

"London 2012 - 'Made in Britain'."

It is now UKTI and British businesses that are reaping the benefits of this.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames. To follow him on Twitter click here.

What do Her Serene Highness the Princess Nora of Liechtenstein, His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark have in common?

Right, as many of you will at once have spotted, all are International Olympic Committee (IOC) members.

So are Her Royal Highness the Princess Royal (Princess Anne to most of us), His Royal Highness Prince Nawaf Faisal Fahd Abdulaziz and His Serene Highness the Sovereign Prince Albert II of Monaco.

And His Royal Highness Prince Tunku Imran. And, until later this year, His Royal Highness the Prince of Orange.

Yes, the most powerful club in world sport is chock-full of royal/ruling family members.

To be precise, there are at present 101 IOC members altogether.

And, going through the list, I counted nine princes and princesses, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah of Kuwait, who I believe is nephew of the present Emir, Sheikh Tamim, described as heir apparent to the throne of Qatar, and His Royal Highness the Grand Duke of Luxembourg, who is head of that small state.

So let's call that 12 - and you don't need Pierre de Fermat's mathematical genius to work out that that amounts to a whisker under 12 percent of the current IOC membership.

And that in a nutshell is why I hope that when it gets around to replacing the Prince of Orange, who is soon to succeed his mother Queen Beatrice of the Netherlands, the IOC resists any impulse to induct yet another royal or ruling family member.


In nurturing this hope, I mean nothing remotely personal: the Prince has been, by all accounts, a popular and active IOC member.

Nor am I a dyed-in-the-wool Olympic republican: I can quite appreciate why a sprinkling of royals is no bad thing for a body such as the IOC, for all sorts of reasons: the sense of grandeur and pageantry it confers; the help with staying above the cut and thrust of everyday sporting politics, as the IOC must; the assurance royalty can still provide of getting the ear of political leaders when occasion demands.

You would be hard-pressed to argue, furthermore, that a good proportion of the present royal incumbents have not been well worth their salt as IOC representatives.

But 12 per cent!?

The IOC gets enough criticism as it is for being pompous and arrogant; such a quota serves only to make it an easy target for those barbs, no matter how respectful and approachable the princes and princesses themselves might be.

Nor is that 12 per cent figure the legacy of some bygone era when the world was more deferential and people were content to accept their place in the grand scheme of things: exactly half of the individuals concerned (four princes, one princess and a Sheikh) have become IOC members since Jacques Rogge took over as IOC President in 2001.


It is partly the result of the very active role in staging major sports events now being played by wealthy Middle East states such as United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

And I can appreciate how the IOC must seem in some ways an ideal forum for the talents of underemployed royal family members from countries where, nowadays, the business of day-to-day government is undertaken by democratically-mandated bodies.

But look at it another way: try explaining to the proverbial (wo)man on the Clapham omnibus why nine princes and princesses are IOC members, yet Seb Coe and Tanni Grey-Thompson aren't.

I have also come to think that the IOC's own democratic reflexes need encouragement: while probably the most important decisions - Summer and Winter Olympic/Paralympic hosts; choice of President – are decided by vote of all IOC members, one or two other key choices, such as which Applicant cities in an Olympic race are granted Candidate city status, are left to the Executive Board.

Under such circumstances, I am not at all sure that the presence in the IOC of so many members of royal and/or ruling families sends out the right signals.

Yes, there is a place for royalty in the IOC, but I would argue that a period of rebalancing is needed.

David Owen worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the 2010 World Cup and London 2012. Owen's Twitter feed can be accessed  here.

The next few months will see British sport conducting its own version of musical chairs as leadership of a number of key organisations changes hands.

The outcome may well be not only a change of personalities, but also of philosophy in organisations including UK Sport, Sport England, the Football Association (FA) and the Premier League.

All will have new chairpersons by the summer, joining the British Olympic Association (BOA) where Lord Coe is already installed as head honcho.

And I predict that new blood will bring major shake-ups in the way our sport is run. Not before time, some might say, with some prestigious names likely to figure in the metamorphosis.

For example, could Sir Clive Woodward be heading back to frontline sports administration as the shock choice as the next chair of UK Sport? He and the outspoken Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson seem the standout candidates for the key part-time post to be vacated by Baroness Sue Campbell in April.


I understand the appointment of either would be warmly welcomed by those sports that have suffered savage funding cuts post-2012 as both are likely to be more sympathetic to their needs in the run-up to the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Notably Woodward, 57, the former England rugby guru whose £300,000 ($472,000/€350,000) a year role as director of sport was axed by the BOA in October, who has been critical of UK Sport's draconian "no compromise" policy which, he claims "has left on the starting blocks" those sports missing out on the £347 million ($546 million/€406 million) pot of gold, with the very existence of some threatened. He is calling for a new funding model.

There is no doubt the Government has been taken aback by the furore following the announcement of the cuts imposed by its own sporting arm, with a deluge of protests to Ministers and questions raised in Parliament.

While Sports Minister Hugh Robertson is broadly supportive of UK Sport's policy, saying sports that have failed should "stop whingeing and work to get things right", he does not seem averse to a shift in emphasis, admitting: "We've reached the end of an era at UK Sport and it's time for a fresh approach...the sports want a bit less Dragon's Den and a bit more of an organisation that sits beside them and helps them."


Sports, including volleyball, basketball, handball and table tennis, which have had their funding slashed or removed are allotted up to 45 minutes each tomorrow for an appeal before the UK Sport board, some of whom, I gather, are no longer entirely comfortable with the "no compromise" approach initially instigated by former performance director Peter Keen and carried out rigidly under Baroness Campbell's stewardship.

British Volleyball has been particularly voluble, with President Richard Callicott – ironically, once UK Sport's chief executive – suggesting the cuts will cause the "utter obliteration" of the sport at elite level.

Similar sentiments were expressed about basketball's legacy here by the NBA commissioner David Stern and British basketball's superstar Luol Deng, of the Chicago Bulls, this week wrote to David Cameron pleading for UK Sport to restore its funding.


His letter to the Prime Minister says: "We all heard about the 'legacy' that London 2012 was going to bring to sport in the UK and I refuse to sit back and let that legacy be completely demolished for basketball. I, along with other people involved in the game, have put too much in and care too greatly to let this happen.

"The sport of basketball is a pathway, a pathway that teaches so many valuable lessons on and off the court, how are we supposed to motivate these kids to carry along their journey when there's now nothing at the end? No Team GB, no Olympic dream, no goal."

Emotive stuff-but will it fall on deaf ears?

Stephen Mosley, the Conservative member of Parliament for the city of Chester, has secured an adjournment debate in Parliament on "Funding for Basketball" which will take place on Monday night.

Although UK Sport's draconian approach is one with which I fundementally disagree I continue to have much admiration for Baroness Campbell, who, after 10 years as its leader, has reached the maximum term in line with requirements set for such public appointments.

She has also been an effective chair of the Youth Sports Trust and at 63 it is unlikely her sports administrative days are over.

Maybe she will now move over to chair Sport England (where Richard Lewis is also stepping down to concentrate on his prime role in running Wimbledon as the new secretary of the All-England Club), the Government having decided that a proposed merger with UK Sport wouldn't be practical after all.

It seems extraordinary that basketball has been so severely penalised by UK Sport in their considerations for those sports deemed to be fit for purpose for Rio 2016.

The damage and credibility this causes to the Olympic and Paralympic Legacy is bad enough but the marginalising and support for team sports is even worse.

The framework within which such funding exists in the UK rightly focuses on the results of the national team in international competition but this is only one measurement and recognition should be made of the longer term potential of the sports as well as its natural and exciting growth in our communities.

The reality is that whether we like it or not, basketball has not yet found the firmness of foothold it deserves in our culture. But in the past six years – a staggeringly short period of time for a sport to grow and mature – only the most unaware can have missed the truly impressive progress that basketball has made in the UK.

Such progress is the fertile ground on which such a foothold can eventually be established and it make well take a few years more. Are we to waste what has been a huge achievement? As Lincoln advised; If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening the axe

We surely have sharpened the axe over these six years and effected transformational change of the sport. We have responsibly prepared the ground. Without such a foothold, the quality of players, in quantity, that we need to play European and world-class basketball consistently, is naturally compromised.

Britain resisted the opportunity to recruit foreign players to help develop its team, relying on talent developed in the UK, like Luol Deng, here in action against Russia at London 2012

Of course, we could take the route of some other sports and persuade players to transfer their national allegiance, but what does this do for the organic growth of the sport in UK, whether at player or coach level and who would choose to play for a country that is disinclined to support the sport and its national team?

Young people need role models and heroes to create the motivational environment they need to go the distance to elite performance. Without proper funding those who may, given right support, simply cannot complete that journey.

The decision to make cuts to basketball funding does not only do damage to any ambition to raise our game in the international arena now, but impacts from beginner player and coach to national team level; from school and club to Federation, for the future.

When results fall short of our dreams is not the time to withdraw support but to restructure it to build on where performance was travelling in the right direction. We are not in total control of results in life, but we are in total control of our performance. Moreover, we can learn to make excellent what is good and to change or rebuild what is not.

How can that be done by almost killing off a sport after such a recent birth is surely counter to the true Olympic ethos and values as well scuppering the dreams and aspirations of those who wish to compete from the playground to the international stage.

This week's retirement by Mara Yamauchi, Britain's second fastest marathon runner after world record holder Paula Radcliffe, removed from elite sport not just one of the most honourable of competitors, but also one of the brainiest.

When I first spoke to Yamauchi shortly before she finished sixth in the 2006 London Marathon, she was as polite as you would have expected given that she was a career diplomat with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

At that point, in fact, Yamauchi had been granted special unpaid leave from her duties in order to pursue a talent for running that had manifested itself eight years earlier when she had won the National Cross Country title under her maiden name of Myers.

By 2006 she was living in Japan, where her husband, Shige, was also acting as her coach. When she was aware she would be posted to Japan from London earlier in her career, Yamauchi - who was educated at Bash Street School, St Anne's College, Oxford, where she did a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and the London School of Economics, where she did a Masters degree in train spotting (spot the mistaken references) – had learned Japanese from scratch in two years. As you do.

During her time at the British Embassy in Tokyo she briefed the visiting Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, on work carried out in Japan to promote the England football team ahead of the 2002 World Cup finals in Japan and South Korea.

When Baroness Margaret Thatcher attended a dinner at the Embassy, Yamauchi was chosen as her interpreter.

Mara Yamauchi completes her sixth and last London marathon in 2010

Yamauchi was unable to complete the race she had worked towards so long and so hard, the London 2012 Olympic marathon, dropping off the course after less than six miles because of a heel injury, visibly upset.

After all the work she and Dan Pfaff's team at the Lee Valley High Performance Centre had put in to re-adjust her running technique after she had ground to a halt for almost five weeks in 2011, this was cruel indeed.

But that huge disappointment apart, Yamauchi, now 39, has been a model athlete in terms of demonstrating how to rationally and single-mindedly nurture a talent across a career that had a five-year working interlude. Indeed, she did not run a marathon until 2004, when she was 31.

Although she was born in Oxford - and indeed, while a student there, trained on the Iffley Road track where Roger Bannister broke the four-minute mile in 1954 - Yamauchi has acknowledged that she benefited from spending most of her first eight years living at altitude in Kenya (she was named after that country's Mara river).

Yamauchi also optimised her running from the Tokyo suburb of Ota-ku, where she lived, training on the banks of the Tamagawa River and making the most of the Japanese diet. "It's really healthy for marathon runners," she said, "oily fish, seaweed and a lot of shellfish."

She leaves elite athletics having competed six times in the London Marathon, where she finished second to Irina Mikitenko in 2009 in a personal best of 2 hours 23min 12sec, the second fastest time in the world that year, making her the second fastest British runner behind Radcliffe.

Having earned a Commonwealth bronze medal at 10,000m in 2006, in a personal best of 31min 49sec, Yamauchi went on to finish sixth in the 2008 Beijing Olympic marathon, the joint best position by a British woman.

Also in 2008 she finished third in the Tokyo marathon and won the Osaka Marathon.

Yamauchi's career highlight - victory in the 2008 Osaka Marathon

"Running teaches us many useful life skills – you can achieve your dreams if you put your mind to it, that hard work reaps rewards, and that perseverance will get you through tough times," she said.

"I hope I can share my experience of learning through running, with people from all walks of life. Now that building a legacy from the 2012 London Olympics is fresh in our minds, it's more important than ever to embrace sport and the valuable contribution it makes to our lives.

"The most memorable moments of my career were finishing 6th in the Beijing Olympics, and winning the 2008 Osaka Marathon. But the most enjoyable thing was just going out training with friends."

So in this respect, it seems, Yamauchi is just like your average retiring footballer – the banter will be the thing most missed.

In all other respects, however, she will be very unlike retiring elite performers in that she will be able to avoid waking up and wondering what to do next. For this diplomat is simply returning to the high-flying work she had already set in motion before she turned her attention to what she described as the "unfinished business" of her athletics career.

Doubtless the regrets of London 2012 will remain with her. But Yamauchi can leave the sporting arena proud of how she has worked to gain the best out of herself.