National Pride Being Restored

The national buzz of sporting achievement is once again in the air after England's Ashes success, but is this just an unusual high in the usual amount of disappointment at a national level. Or is it a change from the over excitement whenever a person or team related to British sport wins an internationally known event?

(National heroes, but for how long?)

The pessimists will always say it's the same old England, who will lose the upcoming one day series or test series against India in the summer. 2011 may have only just begun but all athletes and coaches will know that the holy grail of London 2012 is getting ever closer. This doesn't just affect athletes competing in the games, but British sport in general will continually be scrutinised if athletes aren't winning as a nation expects. Of course this has always been the usual expectations for this small island nation, but it seems to be breeding success in a wider range of sports which has always been a major weakness to this Football, Rugby and Cricket loving land.

This was shown with just the lonely Graham Swann representing these sports in the Sports Personality of the Year top ten. If this vote was done this weekend I'm sure a couple more England players would sneak in but it still showed the wide diversity the nation has to offer. One of my favourites in the top ten vote was Mark Cavendish, the sprint king of road cycling, this may not be seen as lucrative as the track cycling champions of the past few Olympics (Cavendish was the only track cycling athlete not to win a medal at the Beijing games). But he is lightyears ahead of anyone else in the peloton and with a bit of luck and even at 60% of his top form it should be him wearing the green jersey come the Champs-Elysees in July.
Along with Cav' in the top ten were Tom Daley, diving's world and commonwealth champion who on the night won his third Young Sports Personality of the year award. Another minority sport which was represented was the Skeleton, Amy Williams won Gold at the Winter Olympics back in February in a sport that doesn't even have a national training centre instead a just a concrete starting area in Bath. Other sports considered minorities were still represented with Horse racing and Darts taking first and second in the main award. But Third place went to Heptathlete Jessica Ennis, bringing back the feeling that the nation is watching athletics closely with the London games just 567 days to go this pressure will continue to grow and grow.

Let's hope it's the English Cricket team's lead they follow and not the Football.