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Wednesday, 8 August 2012

WHY VICTORIA PENDLETON DISAPPOINTED ME

YES, yes, I know that Victoria Pendleton will go down as one of THE greats in the cycling world.
No one can cast doubt on her ability or her standing when the history of this London Olympics is written.
Yes, yes, she went out on a high - with a gold and a silver over the last week - and also won a gold in Beijing four years ago.
Yes, yes, she has won  nine world titles including a record six in the individual sprint competition - and is the reigning World Champion for the sprint.
I don't deny any of that - or the fact that I was cheering her on as robustly as the next person as she battled vainly to overcome the powerful Anna Meares in what would be the final race of her career on Tuesday.
Yes, yes, Victoria Pendleton has undoubtedly been a great champion - and a great ambassador for Britain.
It's just on a humanistic level that I feel a bit let down by her.
As I watched her compete over the week in heats and finals, I just felt she could have been a bit more compassionate with team-mates - maybe a little less concerned with self. I know that is tantamount to heresy given the adulation in which she is now held by the British public.
But I still feel it is something that has to be said.
One particular incident highlights it astutely. In the team sprint, she and team-mate Jess Varnish set a world record in the qualifying round.
But they were later disqualified after Pendleton blundered - moving to the front too early at the end of the first lap.
It meant they threw away a guaranteed silver medal, and, more than likely, a gold.
Of course, all the TV cameras and all the attention was on Vicky, with poor Jess being almost forgotten. All the sympathy and loss seemed to be centred on Vicky - but, let's be honest, she had many more medal chances to come in these Games.
Jess, by contrast, was on her way home. In her first Olympics, she had lost the chance of a medal because of a clanger by her more experienced team-mate - and yet I didn't notice any sympathy being offered to the younger competitor.
It was all 'poor Victoria' this and 'poor Victoria' that. I also didn't hear Vicky publicly say how sorry she was for Jess and HER loss - and that is what left me so disappointed.
I believe Vicky should have spoken of Jess and her regret for her when Vicky won that gold. Let's be honest - she could even have dedicated it to Jess and made a big thing of it. Well, couldn't she...
But no, no, there was nothing. Even after winning a gold and a silver all the talk was about 'poor Vicky' and even Vicky cried tears for herself.
What about poor Jess?
At least Team GB cycling chief Dave Brailsford belatedly paid tribute to poor Jess, saying: 'It was Jess's first Games and I think that when you look statistically most people do not deliver in their first Games. Most medallists are second Games athletes.
'For her, while it is a bitter pill to swallow no doubt as they were guaranteed gold or silver and it is a medal lost in that sense, it was not as if there was a question of whether she was good enough to get a medal. I know that will be hard but she will get over it and I know that she will be set for Rio (2016 Olympics).'
Indeed she will - and I hope if she is ever in the position that Vicky was with her, she will show a bit more compassion and selflessness. Given the type of person she clearly is, and the depth of disappointment she will have felt in her own dark moment on the track this week, I am sure she will. 


FRANK WORRALL

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