The Olympic Legacy

I am stopping trying to be organised. I was off to the University of Birmingham for an Olympic Legacy debate and a coaching forum. I had loadsa time.....until "packing my bag" came on the list! I put my train tickets on end of the sofa where I wouldn't loose them. Unfortunarely, they were in an envelope that looked like junk mail. You can guess the rest!

When I clicked that I wasn't looking for orange train tickets but an envelope with East Coast on the front. I found them deep in a pile of rubbish....12mins left to shower, shave, get dressed and catch the train. I made it, albeit with half a moustache, the hoovering not done and in need of my coffee fix.

The trip to Birmingham was painless and I got to the venue in plenty of time. Sitting down for a coffee, I was joined by a plump Australia lady who quickly demolished two mini danish but got icing sugar all over her face. She wiped it off, missing a bit. Should I mention it? Nah!

"So what sport are you with" I asked?
"Gymnastics" she replied!
Hmmm, I thought!
"So...what do you do there?"
"Chief Executive!" she replied!
Maybe I should have mentioned the icing sugar!

The panel of the debate was made up of some of the key players in UK sport including an ex-cabinet minister, a member of the IOC, the editor in chief of The Lancet and heads of Sport Scotland and England.

One of the panel members dismissed the contradiction of the Olympics being sponsored by Coca Cola and McDonald's. He took the junk food industry's line
on the link between their products, obesity and poor lifestyle:
i.e it's down to the customer's choice and junk food is fine as part of a balanced diet. Yeah....but let's invest millions (whilst gaining tax concessions) to get people to consume more.....in a society with obesity predicted to reach pandemic levels.

This man could not possibly believe what he was saying....like climate change deniers who use the argument that correlation does not infer cause and effect simply to support their own self-interest. Still, science may soon provide conclusive evidence of that the eating of junk food is not simply a matter of choice......marketing of course encourages people to make poor choices and there may also be an element of addiction.

The coaching forum was brilliant! Met some really cool people and was inspired by the Asian badminton guy who runs an amazing charity!