As I write this post, the final preparations are well underway for 5,250 male and 5,250 female athletes set to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics. The Games are a much bigger deal now than they were back in the ‘70s, of course. The amount of competitors, for instance has increased from around 7,000 at Munich ’72 and around 1,000 less than that at Montreal in 1976.

The number of sports being contested has also increased – from twenty-three in the ‘70s to thirty-two this time around. (Let’s not get into a debate here as to whether Breaking – break dancing – should be considered a ‘sport.’)

And of course, in more recent times The Olympics has re-admitted the sports of golf and tennis, offering the opportunity of supposed Corinthian glory to many mega-highly paid sportsmen and women. Yet, around fifty years ago, though theoretically there was ‘hope’ for all of us seeking sporting immortality, one significant detail prevented our dreams coming true. Certainly, in this part of the world.

See, I grew up in the West of Scotland, around Glasgow. We love our sport in this city … but when I say ‘sport’ that historically meant just football. As a youngster, I played. So did blog co-host Paul and contributor George Cheyne. Others like John Allan and Mark Arbuckle played basketball. And I knew a few big nutters who enjoyed having their ears turned ‘cauliflower’ and noses flattened and took up rugby. But that wasn’t an Olympic recognised sport in ’72 and ’76.

I was considered a bit eccentric when I also took up athletics (running) at the age of thirteen. Some girls I knew took up the sport, too – but that was it: football, basketball, athletics.

Of the twenty-three sports competed for at The Olympic Games of The Seventies, my friends and I had access to THREE!

Where was the Equestrian centre for us to try out at Dressage, for instance?

Rowing? Sailing? Canoeing?  We’d had it drummed into us all our young lives that if we so much as set foot anywhere near the local canal, we’d be grounded, and pocket-money would be withheld for a month.

Handball? What the **** was handball?

Granted, living in Glasgow, access to Fencing and Shooting, in an unofficial capacity, may have been possible … but you take my point.

At Munich in 1972, Great Britain & Northern Ireland placed twelfth overall, winning 18 medals (4 Gold, 5 Silver and 9 Bronze.) In Montreal, four years later, we dropped to thirteenth in the medal table, scoring only 13 in total (3 Gold, 5 Silver and 5 Bronze.)

When you consider the Soviet Union claimed 125 and 99 medals in the respective Games, closely followed by East Germany and USA, it’s not good, is it?

It’s true, USSR and the Eastern bloc countries adopted an odd interpretation of the word ’amateur,’ but that’s not necessarily the reason we performed so poorly in comparison.

No, it’s as I alluded to earlier – a lack of training facilities. That, and the sports being considered ‘minority interests’ by the powers that were.

To become ‘great’ at any sport, we now appreciate a sportsperson must start young. Back in ’72 and ’76 we just didn’t have the opportunity to become good at the Olympic-recognised sports.

But we were good at Shove Ha’penny; at Marbles; at Skipping; at Chinese Ropes, and Hopscotch. We were brilliant at British Bulldogs (why is Kabaddi not an Olympic sport – a big bugbear of mine) Dodge Ball and even Hide & Seek.

I can only think the Olympic Association missed a trick there.

Anyway, much as I’m just a grumpy old man with an inherent reluctance to change, I do love my sport, and will watch pretty much all the televised coverage.

Athletics will take top billing for me, closely followed by Handball, Gymnastics and Volleyball. And I’ll doubtless watch a lot of the Skateboarding too … maybe even some ‘Breaking’ as well. Who knows?

But oh, how I’d have loved the opportunity to watch the battle for a gold medal in Ring! Bang! Scoosh!

I could have been a contender, you know. 😉

(Post by Colin Jackson from Glasgow – July 2024)