If things had worked out differently, horseracing could conceivably have become an Olympic sport.

The official report for the first modern Games in 1896 attributes its absence to the lack of horse culture in the original host-city, Athens.

"No preparations were made for horseracing," the document reads, adding: "the reasons for this omission were obvious.

"Greece has no horsebreed of her own, and Athens no racecourse.

"To build a circus, and to lay out a course in so short a time was quite out of the question.

"The heavy expenses of such an undertaking had also to be taken into account."

Admittedly, the racing might have resembled the chariot-racing of old - and the circus might well have been branded the original Olympic white elephant.

Racing, moreover, was not on the programme four years later, when the Games were held in horsey Paris, even though other equestrian events, such as a long-jump and a high-jump (what we would today call a "puissance") did put in an appearance.

And yet, if the Athens circus had been built, and the event judged a success, well, you just never know.

The reason for this digression into Olympic might-have-beens is a moment of pure sporting history I was privileged to witness this week amid the soft autumnal beauty of a particularly glorious patch of English countryside.

Tony McCoy, in green, riding Mountain Tunes on his way to an historic 4,000th win of his career as a jump jockey at Towcester in England

At around 3.15pm on Thursday November 7 in Towcester, a small Northamptonshire town just up the road from the Silverstone motor-racing circuit, a supreme athlete whom many in the Olympic world may not have heard of - one Anthony Peter McCoy - drove home the 4,000th winner of his quite astonishing two-decade career as a jump jockey.

To put this into some sort of context, no other jump jockey has reached even 3,000 winners; indeed, I think I am right in saying that fewer than 20 have made it to four figures.

As a statistic of sporting accomplishment, it ranks alongside Don Bradman's 99.94 Test match batting average, Pelé's 1,281 goals - or Michael Phelps's 22 Olympic medals.

But mathematics was just one of the ingredients that made the moment so special.

This is a tough, tough sport: the best jockeys get the best horses, but even McCoy can expect to be jettisoned from his mount to take his chances among the thundering hooves of his rivals about once in every 15 rides.

Injuries are inevitable; as the man himself has said, his sport is "one of the very few that an ambulance follows you around".

Yes, advances in medicine and protective equipment have played their part in enabling McCoy and some of his contemporaries to stay in the saddle for much longer than the top jockeys of three or four decades ago.

Fellow jockeys help Tony McCoy celebrate his record-breaking achivement

Even so, for sheer resilience and determination, McCoy's achievement in landing 18 consecutive champion jockey titles shares something of the indestructible, "superman" aura of baseball player Cal Ripken's remarkable 17-year streak of 2,632 consecutive games for the Baltimore Orioles.

Others, no doubt, have brought similar driven one-track mindedness to bear on pursuits from mountain climbing to politics.

But to have kept it up for so long, with such uniform excellence of outcome and at such extreme physical cost - beside the trips to emergency, many jump jockeys must continually sweat and starve to stay at a viable riding weight - speaks of a dedication rarely encountered in any field.

Something else: the sweetness of Thursday's victory was made all the more exquisite, perhaps for McCoy and undoubtedly for the four or five thousand spectators clustered in Towcester's primrose-yellow racecourse buildings willing it to happen, because it did not look feasible until the final few strides.

This photograph shows how much ground McCoy - riding a horse called Mountain Tunes and wearing the white cap and green and gold silks of owner J.P.McManus - still had to make up going over the final hurdle.

A second later, the air of contemplative resignation that had settled over the course was shattered by a guttural roar, the involuntary exhalation of four thousand racegoers realising simultaneously that they would, after all, be able to say, 'I was there'.

Thinking about it afterwards, the irresistible surge McCoy coaxed from Mountain Tunes reminded me of Phelps powering his way back from fifth at the turn to snatch gold in the Athens 2004 100 metres butterfly final.

That, though, was the fruit of hundreds of hours of training, ploughing back and forth away from the public eye in some featureless pool.

The point about Mountain Tunes's finish was that it was quintessential McCoy, just the type of closing burst that had delivered perhaps a couple of hundred of his 4,000 wins.

Entrance to Towcester Racecourse to see Tony McCoy make history was free

One final thing made Thursday special: it was almost entirely untrammelled by the trappings of commercialism.

There was no admission charge: those of us lucky enough to be there had paid exactly the same as the swan flapping languidly across the lake in the infield.

Official race-cards - now guaranteed to be collectors' items, especially if signed by the great man himself - were a princely £3 ($5/€3.50).

There were precious few billboards; the only branding I can recall, indeed, were the words "Albert Bartlett" (a potato company, apparently) on McCoy's breeches.

I am not naïve; this was partly the nature of the beast in that no-one could be quite sure when the milestone would be reached.

I also realise that elite sports need commercial income to survive and thrive - I do not think, in the circumstances, any of us would have begrudged paying £10 ($16/€12) or £20 ($32/€24) on the gate.

But given the way in which, amid the genuinely good stuff, so much insipid fare these days gets over-hyped and over-priced, Thursday blew a joyous raspberry at the gods of yield control and market forces.

Many in the Olympic world may not, as I say, have heard of him, but A.P.McCoy is a remarkable sportsman and, if things had worked out differently, he would have been a remarkable Olympian.

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 horseracing book – Foinavon: the story of the Grand National's biggest upset – was published this year by Bloomsbury. To follow him on Twitter click here. 

It's not the despair, it's the hope....

Campaigners seeking a last-minute reprieve for the Don Valley Stadium collected just short of 6,000 signatures within a week, thus obliging Sheffield City Council - which has to respond to any petitions numbering more than 5,000 signatories - to debate the matter at its meeting on Wednesday of this week.

So the debate occurred. And the outcome was a confirmation of a deadline - the Stadium will be demolished later this month.

The Save Don Valley Stadium group - organised by former Don Valley coach Rob Creasey - launched its media and social media campaign in April in response to the Council's earlier announcement that mounting maintenance costs had made the Stadium's future unviable, and that it would officially close at the end of September.

Don Valley stadium in Sheffield, which is confirmed due for demolition by Sheffield City Council, pictured in September of this year

Before the closure, the group sought to maintain the Stadium's future by asking for it to be handed over to the community. The council responded: "The Friends of Don Valley Stadium group's application was assessed against the legislation as set out by the Government and in this instance they did not meet the criteria to warrant the Don Valley Stadium being registered as an asset of community value."

Pictures were taken last week of the tracksuited coach and young athletes from the Team Blaze club he runs standing on the steps of Sheffield Town Hall as they officially presented their 11th-hour petition to a Council representative. There were lots of hopeful smiles.

Creasey was quoted as saying: "I would like to thank the public for their support. I want the Council to consider our request for the community to run the Stadium. It would be more than just about athletics - there would be educational and community elements.

"I know the Council wants to build a school there but a school could be created in the existing buildings."

Now Creasey and his young hopefuls have their answer. The Council, meanwhile, maintain they will hold local and national age-group events at the nearby Woodburn Road arena - but Don Valley Stadium it ain't.

The 25,000 capacity stadium built in 1990 at the cost of £29 million ($44 million/€34 million), ahead of the city's staging of the World University Games, it now appears, is officially history.

It is, as many have pointed out over the last few months - including the home-grown Olympic champion who began her journey at the arena, Jessica Ennis-Hill - quite a history.

While the World Student Games of 1991 met with enthusiasm locally but scepticism more widely in the media, there was nothing but good news over the race between Yorkshire's own Peter Elliott and Steve Cram later in the year in the McVitie's Mile, which was won by Elliott.

And subsequent meetings confirmed the Don Valley's status as a top class international venue. I was in the stadium in 1993 on the night Jan Zelezny of the Czech Republic threw a world javelin record of 95.66 metres. It was no more than one of the highlights of the meeting.

I also remember watching Oscar Pistorius run at Sheffield in one of his first big races against non-disabled athletes; and interviewing Roger Black, after finding him at the bottom of a spiral staircase that almost had the effect of screwing me into the Yorkshire grit beneath, after he had returned from his latest injury to run a sub-45sec 400m in the late 1990s.

Kelly Holmes shows off her two gold Olympic medals at her farewell appearance in 2005 at the Don Valley Stadium

It is July 29, 2012. I am on a bus with other journalists being whisked through South-East London on a lane reserved for Olympic vehicles. Beside us, I am uncomfortably aware, snakes a long queue of non-Olympic traffic. It is at this point that I spot a road sign that makes me do a double-take. It says: "Ha Ha Road Closed".

I later checked on a city map and there is, improbably, a Ha Ha Road in that area of the UK capital. No matter: imagine that you don't know that and you are an ordinary motorist enduring a journey that is taking much longer than it should because the Olympic circus is in town. And then you see that sign. How do you suppose it makes you feel?

It is a small thing, but it helps to illustrate why, seemingly, the world is turning against mega-events.

Don't get me wrong, sporting festivals like the Olympic Games and FIFA World Cup are all perfectly splendid for those of us lucky enough to inhabit the bubble. I would hate to be without them.

But more needs to be done to encourage buy-in from those who feel locked outside.

These are the people who put up with the traffic jams, the disruption during the construction phase and sometimes the increased taxes and fast-inflating prices.

Olympic Lanes caused controversy and upset residents during London 2012

In a period when so much of the world has been condemned to a long spell of financial and economic turbulence, promoting stress and insecurity for the vast majority of people struggling to make ends meet, more simply must be done to give ordinary citizens of the cities and countries that host these glittering jewels of the TV age something tangible in return.

Yes, when times are good, it may be enough to experience a month-long feelgood factor, when strangers talk like old friends, and to know that some of the world's best athletes are trying their hearts out in your backyard.

But I know plenty of Londoners, far from radical, whose views in other spheres I respect, who even today believe that the money lavished on London 2012 would have been better spent elsewhere.

And London 2012 was probably, along with the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the most successful sporting mega-event of recent times.

Fan-zones, where large numbers can watch big screens for free in a party atmosphere, were a positive step and do help – especially when well-sited and not excessively commercialised. The Berlin experience in 2006 was, by all accounts, mind-blowing; Durban's fan-zone on the beach four years later certainly helped to make a drab World Cup encounter between Portugal and Brazil a lot more memorable than it otherwise would have been.

Volunteer programmes have also clearly accentuated the sense of pride and involvement of many thousands around the world when events are in their city.

Volunteer programmes can help engage the local population with a major event in their city

But these programmes depend on substantial numbers having significant chunks of time that they can afford to donate.

Mega-events now are going through a period when they are branching out geographically into the so-called BRIC economies, plus the likes of South Korea, Turkey and, for that matter, South Africa.

The logic behind this is sound: growth prospects both for sport and the economy as a whole are generally better in such fast-developing countries than in the mature, fully industrialised places that used to enjoy close to a monopoly when it came to hosting the biggest world events.

However, this expansive strategy is taking sports bodies into nations which typically contain a higher proportion of seriously deprived people than the host-cities of the past.

I am thinking of the sort of people who would struggle to find the spare cash to pay for transport to get to their nearest fan-zone, let alone to buy any drinks or souvenirs once they got there.

The bodies behind today's colossal festivals of sport, in my view, simply have to find more effective ways of reaching out to these people.

Demonstrations in Brazil ahead of next year's FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Rio Olympics and Paralympics have already damaged the country's reptuation

Otherwise they risk falling prey to the sort of demonstrations we have witnessed in Brazil, sometimes marshalled by people every bit as media-savvy as they are.

Bear in mind that, even if such demos are less serious than sometimes reported, or can be contained by police action, the damage, often, has already been done: the value of the global spotlight from which host-Governments and private sponsors seek to draw benefit is inevitably diminished if the atmosphere surrounding an event is perceived as repressive, rather than joyful and excited.

Big Sport is starting to get the message: for example, FIFA officials just lately seem particularly keen to emphasise the long-term benefits for local populations, rich and poor, of the transport and other non-sporting infrastructure being put in place in Brazil ahead of next year's football fiesta.

These officials are, of course, right. But getting that message through to people for whom each and every day is a battle to put food on the table (that's if they have a table) takes patience and expensive long-term planning. Such message-making simply has to be made more of a priority.

I have a few suggestions:

In addition to the poorest in event-hosting societies, the local business community can also feel locked out when it comes to deriving concrete benefit from the competitions taking place in their neck of the woods.

Infrastructure jobs can be so big that they gravitate towards the biggest, best-connected companies.

Organisers of major events do not help themselves when they target small businesses trying to get involved in an event

The typical structure of associated marketing deals whereby global corporations pay large sums for exclusive rights in defined product categories also doesn't help if it means that local companies, as well as competing multinationals, are prevented from using an event to try to boost their business.

Yes, local populations can benefit from big, event-related construction projects by snapping up jobs that would not otherwise exist. But pay and working conditions can leave much to be desired.

Sports governing bodies need to put pressure on authorities - at the time when they have leverage, ie at the bidding stage for tournaments - to ensure that decent conditions, on a par with the very best local practice, are applied in event-related projects, and that small businesses are awarded a proportion of the work.

This may lead to criticism that they are poking their noses into areas far removed from sport. When low standards creep in, however, the brand values of governing bodies and sponsors, as well as host-cities and - nations, can be affected. Sports authorities should be robust in making this point.

As for sponsorship deals, yes, by all means ensure your partners are protected against ambush marketing by their main multinational competitors. But don't fling lawyers' letters at bona fide local businesses. They need to be allowed the opportunity to prosper from the once-in-a-lifetime festival of sport taking place on their doorsteps. Lock them out, and you risk sowing disillusionment among the middle-classes as well as the poor. Event owners would be well-advised to avoid this even if the value of their associated marketing rights is somewhat reduced as a consequence.

Sponsors should also be incentivised to draw up plans aimed at helping even the most underprivileged corners of the host-society to feel included in "their" event.

Coca-Cola engaged local communities during the 2010 World Cup in South Africa by providing material so local bars could show matches

I am not always the greatest fan of Atlanta's most famous soft drinks purveyor, but I was very struck by one of the marketing initiatives they deployed three years ago at the World Cup in South Africa.

Joe's Butchery, a bar-cum-restaurant in deprived Alexandra township, where I watched Japan versus Paraguay, was one of about 1,000 "taverns" across South Africa kitted out by Coca-Cola as unofficial World Cup viewing sites.

Around 150 of these were supplied with large LCD televisions screening all the World Cup games live.

At this particular outlet, the associated branding, including around the TV set itself, did seem pretty strident.

But in many respects, Coke appeared to have adopted an enlightened approach to its business relationship with the establishment's energetic operators, Laly and William Mathebula.

The Mathebulas told me Coke had not told them they could not sell other beverage brands.

Nor, it seemed, was the multinational too proud to try to piggy-back on the excellent local reputation of the business's grilled meats: one menu displayed on the wall offered "Coke 500ml + T-Bone, Pap + Chakalaka" for Rand 88.88 (£5.40/$8.70/€6.44).

Of course, some will be cynical and say big business would just think up new ways of exploiting the poor. But, if done right, as in that relatively impoverished corner of Johannesburg, such initiatives could have a big impact.

Heading off the backlash against mega-events with which we are currently threatened in this way would absorb not insubstantial quantities of cash and brainpower. But I really don't think the authorities have much choice if these grandiose cash cows that periodically inject so much colour into our lives are to retain popular goodwill in their hosting communities.

Platitudes will no longer do; sports authorities and their partners simply must try harder to give the little guy where the circus pitches its tent a real stake in their grand designs.

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. To follow him on Twitter click here. 

It's that time of the year again, when our thoughts turn to who should be on the receiving end of the Sports Personality award for their achievements over the past 12 months.

I am currently pondering who should get my vote. Unlike 2012, when we were spoiled for choice, it has not been a great vintage year for British women, though Christine Ohuruogu's reclamation of the world 400 metres title, again deserves a place on the BBC short list, alongside cycling's double track world champion Becky James.

So the gong almost certainly will go to a man. My choice for the top spot would be between Britain's outstandingly heroic trio of 2013.

Andy Murray looks a natural people's champion as the nation's first Wimbledon men's singles winner in living memory.

Then there's Chris Froome, who succeeded last year's SPOTY winner Sir Bradley Wiggins by bringing home the yellow jersey in the Tour de France - although he's really about as English as most of our Test cricket team.

Could Chris Froome take the SPOTY title after bringing home the yellow
jersey in the Tour de France?


But I could be easily persuaded that a knight of the waves deserves the nod - Sir Ben Ainslie, whose seamanship, albeit for Team USA, almost single-handedly inspired his outclassed team (8-1 down to New Zealand) to victory in the America's Cup, the world's oldest and most prestigious yacht race.

His call-up and subsequent expertise brought about one of the most unbelievable of sporting comebacks, an accomplishment that, allied to his golden exploits at the London 2012 Olympics, encouraged one sage of the seas to label him the greatest British sailor since Nelson.

For, me it comes down to Murray v Ainslie, with my present scoring standing at Advantage Ben.

I think Sir Ben Ainslie deserves the Sports Personality of the Year nod


But haven't you overlooked Mo Farah, some may ask? Isn't his double World Championship gold just as worthy-if not more so. Maybe. But not for me.

My admiration for him as an athlete is unstinted, but he will not get my vote this year.

This is because of his admitted reluctance to commit himself to next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. He suggests it is likely that instead he will concentrate on running the London Marathon.

This is his prerogative, of course. But I find it hugely disappointing that he may prefer to be amply-rewarded for padding the byways of London to pocketing a gold medal or two for England in Glasgow's Hampden Park.

If Mo's 2014 mindset is the marathon, why not make it that in the Commonwealth Games? Surely, it is not because Glasgow's streets aren't paved with hard cash?

This disappointment, and some anger, is shared among those planning the Games.

It is hugely disappointing that Mo Farah will not commit himself to next year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow


Despite an understandable reluctance to criticise such a national icon, a senior figure close to the Games organisation told insidethegames that if the double Olympic and world 5,000 and 10,000m champion is a no-show it would be perceived as "a bit of a snub".

The source added: "Glasgow has a lot riding on the Commonwealth Games and it would be a significant blow if someone considered Britain's finest athlete declined to take part for any reason other than illness or injury."

Glasgow's dismay will extend to the Commonwealth Games Federation and also to Team England, who are hoping to unveil a top quality squad for what is considered the most prestigious multi-sports event outside the Olympics.

The Somalia-born Farah, 30, who declared he was "proud to be British" during the "England for the English" controversy engendered by footballer Jack Wilshere, says his priority next year is to focus on the London Marathon in April - for which he is likely to receive a substantial fee - and that while the Commonwealth Games, in which he has never won a medal - he finished ninth in the 5,000m at Melbourne 2006 and withdrew from Delhi 2010 citing "fatigue" - would be a bonus, "it is not on my list."

He adds he will need to see whether his body can recover in time for an event that takes place three months later.

I accept that Farah has done much for his adopted country, although he now trains and largely lives in the United States. But his homeland has also done much for him, and I believe he should be making an England vest a priority in Glasgow rather than becoming a Marathon man in London.

Anyway, could he not do both? I am no sports scientist but I know a man who is, and he tells me that 13 weeks rest between the respective events should be sufficient for an athlete of Farah's calibre to compete in the marathon and also in one if not both, distance races at the Commonwealth Games.

It is not good news for Glasgow, where the prospective e absence of Farah is compounded by the possibility that his global co-star in the sport, Usain Bolt, also may miss the Games - as indeed might half the Jamaican team should the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) decide that the country's anti-doping procedures are not up to scratch.

Bolt has yet to confirm his presence, saying he is "not 100 per cent sure" he will be there.

Sir Chris Hoy won't be competing at Glasgow 2014 since he has retired


Scotland's number one sporting hero, six-time Olympic cycling gold medallist Sir Chris Hoy also misses them, having announced his retirement, and their other laird of the Olympic Rings, Murray, won't be on court either as tennis is not among the 17 sports being contested.

However, with a budget of £524 million ($837 million/€618 million) Games organisers are confident there will they will be no lack of glitter and predict a huge success, with 2.3 million applications for the one million available tickets to watch some 6,500 athletes from 70 countries competing in the 17 sports over 11 days, from July 23 to August 3.

And with a projected global television audience of two billion, the Scottish Government will want the best names at the party not least because of their huge political significance. Just over a month after the Closing Ceremony Scotland will decide if they want independence from the United Kingdom.

So it will be seriously sad for Scotland, as well as England, if Britain's most prestigious sporting showpiece after the Olympics becomes the Mobot no-show.

Alan Hubbard is a 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 Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

The plush extravagance of Mosimann's Dining Club in London, which hosted the Parmigiani Spirit Award Ceremony last week, was certainly a far cry from the austerity of my university days.

From a culinary perspective they were defined far more by takeaway pizza and supermarket wine - always the second cheapest bottle, of course - than exotic canapé's in rooms adjourned with photos of past diners seemingly consisting of most of British high society.

However, the award ceremony, which honoured London student rower James Cook, brought to life many of the universal values that are gained at university. All of these values remain relevant, beneficial, and arguably integral to life in sport and the Olympic Movement today.

In the era of professionalism which has transformed sport over the last two decades, it has been increasingly considered counter-productive to attend university and better instead to plunge straight into a sporting career - and all of academies and youth systems therein.

In sports like football and tennis this had long been the general case but in others, like cricket and rugby, a budding player would traditionally cut their teeth at university level before graduating on to the professional game. Financial persuasion, together with the elite training advantages of a club set up, has precipitated this shift.

With the same changes - in terms of National Lottery-funding and training techniques - occurring in Olympic events, the same trend can be seen to an extent. Yet it is interesting to see how many of Great Britain's London 2012 stars indeed attended university.

Some of them, cyclist Victoria Pendleton and rower Helen Glover for example, did sporting related degrees. Others, Sir Chris Hoy and triathlon winner Alistair Brownlee, shifted courses and locations from non-sport to sporting areas in order to maintain athletic commitments but by easing rather than sacrificing academic ones. 

So Daniel Radcliffe - aka Harry Potter - has been chosen to play Sebastian Coe in "Gold", the forthcoming film drama about his rivalry with fellow Olympian Steve Ovett. It is not yet known who will play Ovett, but it can surely be only a matter of time before the name of Tom Felton - aka Potter's Hogwarts nemesis Draco Malfoy - pops into the frame.

Such casting would reflect the prevailing attitude to these two great Great British middle distance runners who turned 800 and 1500 metres running into a private rivalry in the late 1970s and early 1980s, with Coe, a Loughborough University graduate, filling the role of the media savvy Good Guy while the street-smart Ovett, son of a market trader in Brighton, seemed to go out of his way to come across as Mr Awkward.

I only caught the tail-end of the great Ovett-Coe rivalry. I saw both run at the 1989 AAA Championships, and witnessed Coe's last track championship track outing when, unwell, he finished sixth in the 1990 Commonwealth 800m final in Auckland.

Steve Ovett and Seb Coe pictured shortly before one of their early battles

I do recall one highly experienced athletics writer of the time expanding on his marked preference for Coe over Ovett, for the principle reason that whereas the former would talk to him the latter would not. He told me how, after winning the European 1500m title in 1978, he was asked plaintively if he had any words for the waiting press, and responded with just two: "Happy Christmas".

To me, as to most others who had followed their careers, they were figures read about in the papers or, occasionally, witnessed on the TV. And very, very occasionally witnessed on the TV together.

By the time these two athletes hung up their spikes they had been operating at the highest levels for well over a decade, and yet they only ever raced each other 10 times in 15 years - the first of these being a schoolboy cross-country meeting.

Historically, getting Sebastian Coe and Steve Ovett together has never been easy. Much of this had to do with the wily manipulations of the man who acted as Ovett's agent - and indeed best man - during his purple period in the late Seventies and early Eighties, the former British Athletic Federation's Promotions Officer Andy Norman. But not all.

Steve Ovett (centre) and Seb Coe (right) pictured at this year's IAAF Diamond League meeting in Oslo along with another British great middle distance runner, Steve Cram

Both men were acutely aware of each other's intentions and exploits, as they happily acknowledged one morning in Melbourne during the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Given their record, it was something of a relief to all when both showed up as per the programme to a self-styled "executive breakfast" at a restaurant alongside the Yarra River to discuss their glorious years of "tit-for-tat" and then co-host a seminar for young Australian athletes.

This time, thankfully, there were no collisions with church railings (Ovett) nor untimely bouts of toxoplasmosis (Coe).

Coe, whose part in securing London the 2012 Olympics meant he was as high profile then as he ever was in his running career, was little changed from the dark-haired, wiry figure who broke three different world records in the space of 41 days in 1979, although the gaunt cheekbones of his superfit days were gone.

Ovett - who had lived for several years in a plush house on the Gold Coast - was a balding and somewhat portly figure, a partial legacy of being hit by a lorry while cycling near his former home in Scotland and being left unable to exercise.

It was clear that their rivalry had softened into a playful, faintly affectionate relationship.

Steve Ovett victorious as he beats Sebastian Coe to the line in the Moscow 1980 800m

Ovett admitted, however, that he had felt obliged to alter his approach to the sport when Coe began his world record-breaking exploits in order to match him flourish for flourish.

"I was quite happy to win races up to that point," he said. "But then there was another bar we had to climb over, and Seb had set it up. If someone your own age and from your own country suddenly starts breaking world records, what do you do - sit back and let him have the action to himself? No. You try to get part of it.

"People wanted us to do it. And it was a pleasure anyway to try to do it. If you are really fit, if you are really on song, it's not that difficult."

Coe, in turn, acknowledged that their insistence at the time that neither was affected by the other's exploits was hollow.

"I remember Christmas morning before the 1980 Games," he said. "I'd run a 10 or 12-miler and then had my Christmas lunch, but I felt uneasy the whole afternoon. I suddenly realised what it was and thought: 'I bet that bastard is doing another training session'." At which point Ovett, grinning, added: "So you only did two training sessions?"

The forthcoming film - based on the book The Perfect Distance, by the excellent Pat Butcher – has had its screenplay written by Will Davies and Simon Beaufoy, whose previous credits include The Full Monty and Slumdog Millionaire, for which he won an Oscar.

It takes as its subject the intensifying rivalry which culminated in the extraordinary volte face at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, where Ovett won the 800m which Coe was expected to win, and Coe then redeemed himself by winning the 1500 expected to go to the man who had arrived in Russia unbeaten over three years and 42 races.

"There's a brilliant symmetry to that," said Beaufoy, who described Ovett as "the perceived bad boy" of the piece, adding:

"I tried to speak to Steve Ovett, but true to form...he doesn't want to. He never in his career talked to journalists ever, famously refusing interviews.

"Sebastian Coe will give an interview at the drop of a hat, also true to form, Very polite, very media conscious, very aware of his image. They both are. They both respond in completely different ways."

Sebastian Coe redeemed, as he recovers from defeat to Steve Ovett to win the Moscow 1980 Olympic 1500m title

In Melbourne, both men watched a screening of that Moscow 800m final. Noting that Ovett was boxed in, the BBC commentator David Coleman speculated "What will he do? Try to barge his way through?" Seconds later the lean, mean figure did just that.

Ovett accepted that victory in the first race may have dulled his hunger for the subsequent 1500m.

"As a kid," he said, "I wanted to win an Olympics - end of story. Some people set goals, and I was that sort of guy. Other people, like Seb, go beyond those goals.

"There was tremendous pressure on us both, and when I crossed the line it was a wonderful relief that I had done what was expected of me. I ticked the box, and part of me must have been thinking, 'I've done enough. Let me go home.' But having said that, I gave the 1500m 100 per cent, no question."

As for Coe, the question was raised again - would he have retired if he had not returned to win the 1500m? "I don't know the answer to that," he responded. Thankfully for him, and athletics history, he never needed to know.

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. His latest book Foul Play – the Dark Arts of Cheating in Sport (Bloomsbury £12.99) is available at the insidethegames.biz shop. To follow him on Twitter click here.

Jean-Claude Killy's recent comments on a possible Paris bid for the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics set me thinking about how remote the modern Olympic Movement is getting from its Francophone roots.

If the French capital does not stage the 2024 Games, after all, that will mean that more than half a century is destined to elapse - perhaps considerably more - without the International Olympic Committee (IOC)'s flagship event going to a largely French-speaking city: Montreal was the last to hold a Summer Games in 1976.

The last French Winter Games was more than two decades ago, at Albertville in 1992, and, with no obvious Francophone candidate on the horizon for 2022, this hiatus looks certain to stretch well into a third decade.

The French, indeed, have seldom looked more out of touch with the demands of the 21st-century Olympic Movement than when Annecy bid for the 2018 Winter Games and scraped together just seven votes.

Nor have there yet been French-speaking winners of the Youth Olympics, Summer or Winter, though this, at least, might change with the French-speaking Swiss city of Lausanne a candidate for the 2020 Youth Winter Games.

Montreal in 1976 was the last occasion the Summer Olympics were held in a French-speaking city

This lack of French-speaking host-cities is just one manifestation of the phenomenon.

International media conferences, bid presentations and the like in the Olympic world are now overwhelmingly conducted, in my experience, using English as the chief language.

In the recently-concluded bidding contest for the 2020 Summer Games, Tokyo and Istanbul in particular took great pains to emphasise how comfortably their chief operatives could function in English.

Even when Princess Hisako of Takamado began Tokyo 2020's winning final presentation in Buenos Aires in elegant French, it turned out to be a relatively brief excursion into Pierre de Coubertin's mother tongue.

What is more, I fear that the relegation of French to a position where it is, at least in practice, little more than a language comme les autres in Olympicland may be poised to accelerate.

Until recently, the presence in the IOC President's office of a man with a Francophone first name, who is as much at ease speaking French as any other language, has helped to mask its decline.

So has the location of the IOC's headquarters in a French-speaking part of Switzerland.

Francophone Jacques Rogge, seen here at Roland Garos in Paris, provided a strong French link with the Olympic Movement

But Jacques Rogge has now gone, and while many staff will continue to be French or Francophone for as long as the centre of the Olympic world remains on the shores of Lake Geneva, one must presume that the internal working language of the new President's office - at least when talking informally to his closest confidants - will be German.

So you might say that a lot is hanging on whether Paris decides to bid, and therefore try to stage the 2024 Games exactly a century after it was last the Summer Olympics host-city.

My own soundings, taken around the last IOC Session in Buenos Aires, suggest that the prospects of a Paris bid are not yet much better than 50:50; it certainly should not be taken for granted.

Among key variables likely to influence the final decision are the following: the identity of the new mayor; the state of the domestic economy; and whether a bid is judged winnable by those in power.

Let's assume for now that the new Mayor of Paris can be persuaded to look favourably on an exercise which, if successful, would provide her with a prominent international platform on which to build her, and her city's, future ambitions.

Let's assume too that the western European economy contrives a few years of modest growth.

That still leaves the last thing: can a bid be won?

Annecy's disastrous bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics and Paralympics has dented confidence that France will host the Games in the near future

The journey from the mean streets of Manchester to the hallowed halls of Westminster may have taken 20 years, but for big Geoff Thompson it was the culmination of a dream.

When he stood on the dias in the Speaker's State Rooms at the House of Commons last week to deliver the Youth Charter for Sport's 2012 Legacy Report before a large assembly of the great and the good (and maybe some not quite so good) in both sport and politics there was the sort of acclaim that had so often escaped his efforts in the past two decades. It was long overdue.

What Thompson has religiously been attempting to achieve in the battle against bigotry and in the field of social inclusion and community participation by young people by using sport as a vehicle has frequently gone unnoticed and occasionally blatantly ignored.

But here was undisputed recognition by an audience of peers, parliamentarians, ports administrators and youth and community organisations that what he has say is worth listening to.

The host, the Speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow MP, certainly seemed to think so, declaring: "The recommendations of this report reflect the Olympic and Paralympic values and I firmly believe they should be taken as seriously as the young people and communities that have been consulted. The recommendations are bold, commonsense and real."

Among these - and there are 45 in all - is a plea for mandatory access to five hours of physical activity every week in schools as part of a cross curriculum learning of numeracy, literacy, citizenship and humanities; similarly a five-hour provision of community sport per week for children and young people; and that the International Olympic Truce Foundation and then IOC Olympic Truce Centre should be used as part of a truce and peace campaign in areas where gang-related activity, postcode barriers and the radicalisation of young people, leads to community and social tensions.

Five-time world karate champion Geoff Thompson has long campaigned for politicians to use sport as a power for change

He describes the Youth Charter's 2012 Games Legacy Report as "a culmination of an incredible 20 year journey of social, cultural and economic challenges".

He adds: "In moving forward I would like to see a genuine collaboration of the existing legacy efforts into a more cohesive and coordinated approach that will provide a legacy opportunity for all locally, nationally and internationally.

"Our aim will be to engage 10,000 schools, 10 communities, train 10,000 social coaches and develop 10 social centres of excellence. Our Legacy Bond will provide a social, cultural and economic framework and a win win win for young people, communities and society as a whole."

Heady, idealistic stuff, though some cynics might dismiss it as unrealistic and highfalutin.

But if anyone is capable of driving home these principles, as well as fighting bullets and knives with football and tennis rackets, it is Thompson, who welcomed the new Sports Minister Helen Grant, one of the eight he has encountered in the Youth Charter's existence - saying: "Like myself she comes from a situation where she had to use sport to defend herself against some rather misguided energy.

The Youth Charter for Sport has been advocating using sport to help social inclusion for 20 years now

At 6ft 6in, the five-time world karate champion has never needed to stand up to be counted. He has always been visible and voluble, the latter perhaps being one reason why the blazers have fought shy of embracing him.

Candid opinions are not the most favoured of attributes when being grilled for top jobs in British sports administration.

But one thing's for sure. There's no one you'd feel safer with walking though Manchester's Moss Side.

Thompson has done more than anyone in Britain to make sport an antidote to the culture of guns and gangs in troubled areas such as Moss Side and Liverpool's Toxteth, where they labelled him "Mr Heineken" because he gets to the parts others cannot reach.

I have written here before about the one-time king of karate who does such admirable work in taking sport into communities that are often the exclusive domain of the underprivileged and unruly.

Thompson's Moss Side story began in 1993 when he started the Youth Charter following the gunning down in Manchester of a 14-year-old Afro-Caribbean kid. "I can accept losing medals but I cannot accept losing lives," he says. He has always believed sport is an intrinsic part of the rehabilitation process, helping to set up sports programmes in a dozen prisons and young offenders' institutions.

Kitty Chiller, Australian Chef de Mission at Rio 2016, announced last week the Australian section of the Athletes Village will be a "dry area" for the duration of the Olympics.

Part of their freshly unveiled "Campaign Rio", this has been taken as a statement of intent for a fight-back from recent sporting disappointment, but also as a further source of derision for Brits eager to pour salt on wounded Aussie pride.

After London 2012 there was widespread criticism of Australian athletes for "preferring leisure to sport", wasting public funding, and distracting those teammates still competing by raucous post-event celebrations.

The swim team bore the brunt of the abuse, along with rower Josh Booth, whose post-race celebrations ended somewhat prematurely after being arrested for vandalising several shop windows.

The basis of this criticism, of course, was that Australia did not do very well in London.

The team languished in tenth position on the medals table - well below Britain for the second successive Games - while their once dominant swim team fared particularly badly in winning just a solitary gold medal.

This appears the key point when analysing perception of elite sportsmen becoming elite drinkers - or sub-elite ones in Booth's case. Downing one's sorrows after, or sometimes during, a poor performance inevitably receives far greater criticism than drinking to celebrate a victory.

The performance of German discus thrower Robert Harting for example, who after winning the gold medal in London was forced to spend the night sleeping outside the Village after "misplacing" his accreditation mid party, provoked mostly endearment.

Robert Harting boosted his popularity after the night out which followed his Olympic discus gold medal... his hurdle jumping celebration didn't harm his image either


Four years earlier in Beijing there was a similar reaction to future knight of the realm Bradley Wiggins rolling over a car bonnet and escaping arrest only after offering a signed photograph to an irate taxi driver.

Neither did sports fans particularly mind when the England cricket team attended a reception with then British Prime Minister Tony Blair after winning the Ashes in 2005 visibly worse for wear. Or when they were caught celebrating again, on the pitch this time, after a similar victory this summer.

On June 6, 1986, a discus thudded into the earth at the Neubrandenburg stadium, prompting the large East German who had just hurled it to noisy celebration. Understandably so, as Jurgen Schult - for it was he - had just improved, nay shattered, Yuriy Dumchev's 1983 world record of 71.86 metres with an effort of 74.08.

As the Big Lebowski would put it, the dude abides, man. Schult's world record, the longest standing of any currently credited to male athletes, this week racked up its 10,000th day at the top of the all-time listings.

East German Jurgen Schult's world discus record is the longest standing among those currently held by male athletes

And the obvious question has to be - will it ever be beaten?

Since that day others have crept close to that mark - Lithuania's double Olympic and world champion Virgilijus Alekna came within 20 centimetres of it in 2000, and six years later Estonia's Gerd Kanter managed a throw of 73.38m. So the obvious answer would appear to be - yes, eventually.

Similarly astounding marks set by male athletes have eventually been eclipsed. When Bob Beamon sailed out in the thin air of Mexico to a world long jump record of 8.90m at the 1968 Olympics, adding fully 55cm to the previous mark, he collapsed in shock when he realised what he had done, and was reportedly told by Britain's defending champion, Lynn Davies: "You have destroyed this event."

It took 22 years for anyone to surpass that mark - fellow American Mike Powell was the man who managed it, setting the current record of 8.95 in holding off the favourite, Carl Lewis, to win the 1991 world title. Powell's own record has thus stood now for 22 years, although he has to maintain his position for another three years to match the distinction of his legendary US compatriot Jesse Owens, whose world long jump record stood from 1935 to 1960.

Bob Beamon's 8.90m long jump at the 1968 Olympics in the thin air of Mexico City remained unbeaten for 22 years

Other male athletes who sport badges of honour in this regard include Lee Evans of the United States, whose 1968 400 metres time of 43.86sec stood for 20 years, and Britons Jonathan Edwards and Sebastian Coe. The latter was world record holder at 800m from 1979 to 1997, while Edwards's 1995 triple jump of 18.29m is still there 18 years later.

"To the victor go the spoils" is a well-known phrase first uttered by a New York Senator in 1831. Simply put, it means the winner gets the prize. But in the sports world determining a winner can be sometimes be challenging.

You would think that the person crossing the finish line first or the team scoring the most points is the winner, right, seems kind of a no brainer. They're the ones that stand on top of the podium and receive the bouquet of flowers, get their medals, trophy, jacket or jersey and hear their national anthem played. Of course, they are the champions. That's why we have competitions and why we have an award ceremony afterwards, so we can crown and celebrate the winners.

But unfortunately, things are not always what they seem, not quite that simple and straightforward. Determining a true winner can, in reality, take years, even decades to finalise.

Before a competition even starts boycotts, bans, restrictions and selection procedures determine who is allowed to compete, which in turn, could very likely affect the outcome and who wins.

After a competition and podium ceremony there can be appeals, protests, complaints, investigations, inquiries, hearings, reviews, proceedings and campaigns. There can be political and public pressure to overcome, gender verification tests to go through, drug testing results to analyse and then even more drug re-testing.

And sometimes there is no winner. Yes, that's right; a competition where no one wins, no one comes first. But is that possible? Absolutely, just look at the Wikipedia page for The Tour De France List of Winners and you will find written in bold text "NO WINNER" written in the column marked "winner" seven times in a row from 1999 to 2005. The only other absence of a winner since 1903, when The Tour De France began, was during World War One and World War Twowhen there were no races.

Lance Armstrong was also stripped of his Sydney 2000 Olympic bronze medal


But, unless I have completely lost my marbles, didn't Lance Armstrong stand on top of the podium at the "podium ceremony" each of those years and wasn't he crowned the winner seven times in row? So, while the race had ended the results were not permanent - for that we had to wait another dozen years.

In October 2012 the results were officially changed and Mr Armstrong was stripped of his wins, his titles, for over whelming evidence he had been doping all the years he won despite never having definitively been caught while competing. No other cyclist was moved up to become the new winner for any of those seven years - so Lance did not ultimately win and neither did anyone else.

Five months before Armstrong was officially relieved of his seven titles, Bjarne Riis, the 1996 Tour De France winner admitted taking EPO, a banned performance-enhancing drug, in that same year. But he did not lose his title and is still the "1996 Winner" because the statute of limitations of 10 years had expired.

Then we have Floyd Landis and Alberto Contador, the "podium winners" of the 2006 and 2010 Tour de France, who subsequently tested positive for taking performance enhancing drugs, and had their titles stripped from them and reallocated to Óscar Pereiro and Andy Schleck retroactively a year and change after their respective races had completed.

Yuriy Bilonoh's Olympic gold medal ultimately went to Adam Nelson - almost nine
years after Athens 2004


Earlier this year, on May 30, my good friend Adam Nelson, American shot putter, received the 2004 Olympic gold medal - almost nine years after he competed in Athens. The 2004 Olympic podium winner for this event was Yuriy Bilonoh of the Ukraine who held the title for eight and a half years until a urine sample of his, taken back in 2004, was retested using the newest, latest technology and came up positive for doping.

Racism has long been the most reviled word in the sporting lexicon, ranking alongside only its six-letter companion, doping, in the opprobrium it engenders.

We had hoped by now it would have been eradicated, but if you believe all you glean from the papers or the box, this is far from the case.

Fortunately these days racism rarely touches the Olympic Games, and hasn't since the day the International Olympic Committee finally got the message Tommie Smith and John Carlos were sending out and removed then apartheid South Africa from the Games.

But it certainly prevails in other sporting environments, not least football where there is a scandalous paucity of black coaches and managers.Now we have a lingering controversy over England manager Roy Hodgson's believably innocent but bafflingly naive "monkey" dressing room reference to new boy Andros Townsend.

This was compounded by Football Association chairman Greg Dyke's initial decision to rely on blue blazers rather than a black presence in his commission set up to examine at the future structure of English football; a misjudgement rightly castigated publicly by the admirable Jamaican-born Heather Rabbatts, the only representative on the FA board of both her sex and ethnicity.

Leaving aside whether the subsequent reaction to both matters has been somewhat OTT - it is good that the situation has propelled the new Sports Minister, Helen Grant, herself of mixed race, to have a sharp word in the ear of the FA to ascertain exactly what is going on in that virtually all-white ivory tower at Wembley.

It may be of some comfort, however, that Britain is not alone in having to deal with problems of supposed discrimination.

Washington Redskins fans often dress up to support their NFL team

Across the Atlantic, one of the current major talking points in Washington is not not the recent crippling Government shut-down, President Obama's health care programme or the threat of terrorism or nuclear war - but whether the Washington Redskins should be made to change their name.

Protest groups have campaigned for years for the removal of the word Redskins, now considered a racial slur.

But the NFL team's owner Dan Snyder has dug in his heels, insising:"It will l never change."

He adds: "The fans have no desire whatsoever to see the team name changed solely because their owners succumbed to political pressure. It's also important to remember that there's a long and proud history surrounding the Washington Redskins that goes back generations, a tradition I imagine most fans won't want to give up."

Polls among Native Americans themselves show a fair degree of ambivalence but a growing number of non-Native Americans, including many media outlets covering the NFL, have begun to question the use of the term. Some even refuse to use it, referring to the team simply as Washington.

The debate is ongoing, and there has been a noticeable surge in momentum with President Obama saying last month he would think about changing the name if he owned the Redskins.

Many civil rights, educational, athletic, and academic organisations consider any use of native names and symbols a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping while others believe it honours the achievements and virtues of Native Americans, and that it is not intended in a negative manner.

Former Redskins owner Jack Kent-Cooke has said: "I admire the Redskins name. I think it stands for bravery, courage, and a stalwart spirit and I see no reason why we shouldn't continue to use it."

The Washington Redskins were originally known as the Boston Braves but changed to the Redskins after relocating to the nation's capital in 1937, possibly in recognition of the then–head coach Lone Star Dietz, whom claimed to be part Sioux.

The unofficial mascot of the team is actually an African-American, Zema Williams (aka Chief Zee) who has attended games since 1978 dressed in a "Red Indian" costume complete with feathered war bonnet and tomahawk. It is not unusual for other fans to turn up in similar guise.

Any reference to Indians now taboo in the United States. Hollywood hasn't dared make a proper cowboys and Indians film for decades because of the offence it might cause among the Native American minority.

Even sport can't get in on that traditional confrontation. America has the Dallas Cowboys and the Cleveland Indians but the former is a football team and the latter a baseball franchise.

Like the Cleveland Indians, the Atlanta Braves and the Kansas City Chiefs, many college and professional teams draw on an Indian theme for their names.

However Cleveland have been heavily criticised for their logo, one Chief Wahoo, while the "Tomahawk Chop" hand gesture used by Atlanta Braves' fans has also been under fire for allegedly causing offence.

The "Tomahawk Chop", a regular favourite of Atlanta Braves supporters, is under fire from the PC police

Might this form of political correctness now spread to Britain, where where rugby union's Exeter Chiefs are supported by young fans who adorn themselves in splendidly colourful Indian headdresses. The Devon club's logo is also an Indian chief.

Name changes are not uncommon in America, particularly when franchises change hands, and cities. The Los Angeles Dodgers began as then Brooklyn Grays and this season sees the debut of the New Orleans Pelicans (formerly Hornets) in the NBA.

And in Washington the capital's basketball team switched from the Bullets to the Wizards over the rise of gun violence.

I have long had misgivings about how much longer the New Zealand rugby team will be permitted to label themselves the All-Blacks. And one fears for those football clubs such at Tottenham Hotspur, Bolton Wanderers and Preston North End whose original white shirts earned them the sobriquet of "The Lillywhites".

Back in Britain we sometimes wonder whether our sporting world has gone bonkers by succumbing to so much nonsensical political correctness.

For example, the former England and Liverpool striker Robbie Fowler player had to apologise via the BBC for remarking that players involved in a handbags-at-ten-paces confrontation were "fighting like schoolgirls". It was perceived to be sexist.

Even if he had instead said "they were fighting like kids in a playground" no doubt he would have had the Child Protection Agency on his case.

ITV presenter Adrian Chiles was forced to apologise following a joke he made about Polish builders at the end of an England football international

Equally fatuous was the chiding of ITV football presenter Adrian Chiles' over his "Polish joke" during the channel's coverage of England's 4-1 World Cup victory over Montenegro. Chiles started to look forward to England's clash with Poland which, said Chiles - whose mother is Croatian - was "practically a home game for Poland - 15,000 Poles will be in here, I'm sure."

Pundit Lee Dixon responded by saying: "Hopefully, they're all crying at the end," to which Chiles replied: "I'm trying to get some building work done at the moment, quite seriously. Be careful."

That was deemed to be seriously offensive yet I bet most Polish builders fell about laughing. And why not? The joke, surely was on the charmless, humourless PC police who seem hellbent on imposing their po-faced will on sport.

Sport needs to tackle actual racism and prejudice, rather than waste time on such pettifogging nonsense.

Meantime in the White House a black President takes time out to address the issue of whether the Washington Redskins should be forced to become the Washington Native Americans.

And this in The Home Of The Brave.

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

Notwithstanding the air miles, rail fares and almost constant visits to coffee shops to bask in the comforts of complimentary Wi-Fi, my first three months at insidethegames have been dictated most of all by two words beginning with "L" in "London 2012" and "legacy".

The road in pursuit of these dual themes has ranged from the glamorous - Anniversary Games athletics and Grand Final triathlon - to the more intense in City Hall where two members of the London Legacy Development Corporation were put to the sword by the London Assembly Regeneration Committee.

Last Friday (October 18) it was all about the most famous London 2012 Olympic slogan of them all as the relevance of Sebastian Coe's motto "Inspire a Generation" was illustrated by not one, but two, London events. 

First up was a SportsAid workshop at the Copper Box, where young athletes on the cusp of elite level being given logistical support by the charity were on hand to illustrate their fine credentials over five sports: badminton, fencing, wheelchair basketball, volleyball and cerebral palsy football.

In the eyes, or the lenses, of the vast number of snap-happy photographers present the real talking point was the presence of a Royal Patron in the Duchess of Cambridge in her first solo engagement since the birth of Prince George in July.

In May 2010 I was appointed a member of UK Anti-Doping (UKAD)'s newly-formed Athlete Committee. This provided an opportunity for athletes and players such as myself to feed into anti-doping policy and decision making for, like it or not, anti-doping is part and parcel of life in elite sport.

Amidst all the preparations for this month's Rugby League World Cup - the hours of training on the pitch and in the gym - the responsibility to compete clean is constant and essential. Our sport has been under public scrutiny since the Australian Crime Commission report was published back in January, and fans have a right to watch, support, and believe in a doping-free World Cup.

One of the key developments in anti-doping we have seen over the last three years is the use of intelligence to inform programmes through a risk-based approach. Every player coming to compete in the UK this month should be prepared for a stringent anti-doping programme. Through the Athlete Committee, I have learnt firsthand of how such an approach works and how important this approach is to anti-doping. UKAD's Intelligence Team gather all kinds of information and use this to inform their testing and education programmes.

The Win Clean campaign has been working to ensure that all players are made aware of their anti-doping rights and responsibilities


The Education team have been working on a bespoke "Win Clean" campaign to ensure that all players are made aware of their anti-doping rights and responsibilities.

It is not enough for players to say "I didn't know" - the principle of strict liability requires every player or athlete, whatever your sport, to take responsibility for what goes into their body. The Athlete Committee has discussed the issue of supplements on a number of occasions, the high number of positives these products cause, and the possible risks to health. Education programmes are in place to raise awareness and help prevent inadvertent doping. Supporting this, UKAD will also work with the coaches, medics, team managers and other key staff supporting teams at the World Cup to ensure they help players to make the most informed decisions when it comes to anti-doping.

I hope we can inspire a few more to take up the sport, and importantly, be encouraged to do so without the temptation of performance-enhancing drugs.

Jon Wilkin is an England international and UKAD Athlete Committee member