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Team GB Are The New East Germany
David Cameron harping on about how a small nation had mixed it with the big boys. Sound familiar?
By most standards, London 2012 has been a huge success. Many of those who had reservations about the Games have been swept along in the wave of euphoria emanating from the sporting festival. When 80’s popstar and perennial miserablist Morrissey spoke out against the “blustering jingoism” and “foul patriotism” surrounding the Olympics; saying that the “spirit of 1939 Germany now pervades throughout media-brand Britain”- he was widely condemned and rightly so.
The ex-Smith got the location right, but the era wrong. The all-conquering home athletes; lavishly bankrolled by the government and roared on by a cheerleading state broadcaster, docile press and an unquestioning public bring to mind a Berlin of a different vintage. Team GB are the new East Germany.
On the final Sunday, a beaming David Cameron went to the BBC’s Olympic Park studio and basked in the reflected glory of the medal haul. He waxed lyrical about how a relatively small country like ours had risen up and mixed it with the big boys. As a nation, we had demonstrated our unique fighting spirit to finish a remarkable third in the table. Close your eyes and you could have been listening to Erich Honecker.
When it comes to a small state achieving against the odds, East Germany was the gold standard. On the last day of the Mexico 68 games rowing regatta, the German Democratic Republic (DDR) won their first two Olympic gold’s. This was the start of a rowing dynasty that claimed 33 gold medals between then and 1991 and cast the dye for a generation of sporting dominance.
When 80’s popstar and perennial miserablist Morrissey spoke out against the “blustering jingoism” and “foul patriotism” surrounding the Olympics
Cameron bragged about a 60 million strong nation being able to finish third in the medal table. East Germany, with a population of just 16 million, came second to its big Soviet brother in each of the three Olympics it contested between 1976 and 1988, clocking up gold totals of 40, 47 and 37 respectively. Against that, Great Britain and Northern Ireland managed three, five and five - dropping to just the one at Atlanta 96.
In their brief Olympic history, the DDR took 38 gold’s in swimming and another 38 in athletics. Over this period, East German athletes, particularly the women, put in performances that rewrote the record books. So formidable were they, the last of the world records, the women’s 4 x 100 relay set in 1985, survived until the last Friday of London 2012.
The prime minister suggests that the gold rush of 2012 will have huge benefits, justifying the cost of the project by boosting Britain’s image abroad and kick starting a mass participation boom at home. By looking at the experience of another country that emerged from obscurity to storm the upper echelons of the medal table, we can see how realistic those aspirations are.
As the Königsblau vests and swimming costumes of the DDR left the opposition floundering in their wake, the world looked on open mouthed. This was not a sign of admiration- more straight up disbelief. Top level sport is awash with performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). For decades the athletes have been way ahead of the authorities to the extent that you have to be a Class-A bonehead to ever get caught.
The prime minister suggests that the gold rush of 2012 will have huge benefits, justifying the cost of the project by boosting Britain’s image abroad
For this reason, despite the rumours, East Germans passed every drug test and the records stood for years after the Wall fell. Technically, they may have been legal, but the consensus feeling among competitors and fans was that the East Germans were bang at it. Rather than being applauded, the achievements of the nation were dismissed as literally incredible with revulsion rather respect as the prevailing reaction.
Once the regime collapsed and the systematic doping programme of the DDR was exposed, the coaches jumped ship and trotted out the familiar ‘pressure from above/only following orders’ excuse as they looked around for new positions. Jürgen Gröbler, a man who admits to passing information on to the Stasi, arrived in Britain in 1991 and masterminded the development of the Team GB rowing programme; coaching crews to gold in every Olympics since.
The incredible exploits of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent were lauded in the UK to the extent that Sir Steve was the man selected to hand the torch to the young generation at the 2012 opening ceremony. As in East Germany, the rowers blazed the trail; remaining at the vanguard claiming four gold’s, two silvers and three bronzes in London - making them the most successful Olympic rowing team for a second successive Games.
In the current climate, any sudden improvement in form is bound to make people suspicious - unless you are a British journalist covering Team GB. When Algerian Taoufik Makhloufi destroyed a quality field in the 1500 metres, most papers and media outlets spoke in code and talked about how it had raised eyebrows. When the less media savvy Ye Shirwen of China smashed the 200m Individual Medley record and directly addressed the ‘drug smears’, they were free to dispense with the metaphors and repeat the hearsay as news.
As in East Germany, the rowers blazed the trail
By common consent, cycling is the most drug addled sport on the planet. Over the last two decades, the scandals that have surrounded the Tour de France in particular have destroyed its integrity. Even those who have never failed a test, such as the iconic Lance Armstrong, are judged by many as guilty by association. The doping culture is widely viewed as endemic and inescapable.
Over the last decade, Great Britain has come from nowhere to become the premier cycling nation on Earth: winning eight gold’s in London and taking the top two places in the 2012 Tour de France. During this meteoric rise, the eyebrows of the British press have remained unmoved.
In 2007, when his Cofidis team pulled out of the Tour following a drug scandal, Bradley Wiggins said: “You cannot blame people for doubting the credibility of the sport for the next five, six or seven years.” Five years on, Wiggins had improved beyond recognition and he and his fellow Sky riders were compared to Armstrong’s dominant US Postal squad, prompting the mod to change his tune, dismissing people who suggested that doping could be a factor as “fucking wankers.”
In terms of international prestige, the all-conquering cyclists score very low. France is the nation with the best understanding of the sport. France’s cycling team director Isabelle Gautheron claimed that Team GB’s success in the sport must be down to their bikes having “magic wheels” and 70% of respondents to a L’Equipe poll believed that the British cyclists had been ‘tainted by cheating”. Realising that a bit of Frog bashing would play well with his base, David Cameron got involved, saying: “I think they found the Union Jacks on the Champs Elysee a bit hard to take.”
Bradley Wiggins said: “You cannot blame people for doubting the credibility of the sport for the next five, six or seven years.”
While glossing over deliberate crashes in the Velodrome and not noticing the dramatic physical changes in some British riders, the happy and gloriously supportive BBC were quick to point the finger on other occasions. After spinning the ridiculous lie that the tactical battle in the men’s road race was a case of everyone ganging up to make sure the plucky Brits didn’t win, the commentators were less than impressed with the eventual victor.
The papers followed their lead, with the Mail labelling Alexandr Vinokurov as; ’an unpopular former blood doping cheat from Kazakhstan.’ The implication was that a 38 year old foreigner must be getting some illicit help to win. Obviously, when the same reporters are asking 36-year-old Saint Chris Hoy if he intends to tackle a sprint event in Rio in four years - we know it will be down to dedication, hard work and the right breakfast cereal.
Although our national obsession is football, where strikers over 30 are considered to be on the slide, the British have consistently accepted that Olympians over that age in events requiring speed and power are capable of improvement.
Even if we assume that Team GB are 100% drug free (and that would surely make them the only team in world sport to meet that standard), the idea that racking up the gold’s will impress anyone outside these shores is wishful thinking. Back in the 80s, we used to denigrate the East Germans as full-timers or, even worse, professionals. When one of our Corinthian toffs or Alf Tupperesque lads or lasses overcame them it was celebrated as a triumph for the true spirit of sport.
The Mail labelling Alexandr Vinokurov as; ’an unpopular former blood doping cheat from Kazakhstan.’
Amazingly, even though we have an elite set-up that is the envy of the world; this attitude still persists among many punters. Throughout the Olympics, any Chinese success was dismissed as the product of hot-housing. The perceived wisdom is that, in China, any promising youngster is snatched up by the authorities and coached full time at a centre of excellence. In other words, they do exactly what we do.
If our uncompromising approach to medal accumulation is not going to win us any friends abroad, the focus must be on the home front. East Germany coupled their Olympic assault with policies to encourage mass participation. Out of a population of 16 million, there were three million registered sports club members and fully trained coaches were available at all levels. Building up the talent pool was a priority.
The national teams existed to promote the ideology of the ruling regime. Every time they pulled away from their West Germany on the track, it was seen as another boost for socialism on the way to the inevitable victory over their decadent capitalist neighbours. Sporting success also softened the hardship of economic disaster. If they have no bread, let them eat gold.
In the golden age of the DDR, the goal of mass participation was also a touchstone of policy in the UK. The Universalist legend ‘Sport for All’, complete with a suitably crappy logo, hung from the new brutalist leisure centre’s that were hastily erected by local councils across the land. Blink and you could have been in Leipzig. These days, the gap between the elite and the masses is as wide as it ever been.
The perceived wisdom is that, in China, any promising youngster is snatched up by the authorities
All around the land, giant images of Jess Ennis stare down from billboards. Her winning smile and carved abs make her look like a member of a different species to the flabby Greggs goers passing below, in the same way that the idealised, muscular workers on Soviet era frescos bore no resemblance to the impoverished people scratching a living in the wrecked economies of Eastern Europe.
The propaganda tells us that the gold rush will inspire the nation to turn their backs on their sedentary lifestyles and get fit, but there is no evidence to support this. Hockey remained a minority activity despite the Seoul 88 gold and there was no curling boom in the aftermath of Salt Lake City 2002. Jürgen Gröbler has transformed the rowers into regular world beaters, but rowing remains a pursuit for the privileged few.
In the lead up to Beijing, £235m was spent on preparing Team GB. They came home with 47 medals, 19 of them gold. In the four years since, most measures will tell you that participation levels have fallen and obesity levels continue to rise. The key to improving participation levels is investment at grassroots, but this is where we diverge from the East German model.
Sport for All is a forgotten dream. In the current climate of slashing expenditure to the bone, the chances of any government finding significant funds for community sport are minimal. When quizzed on the sporting legacy of the games, David Cameron spouts some non-committal stuff about a competitive ethos in schools but the truth is that grass roots sport will continue to be run by the same well-meaning volunteers who struggle along at the moment.
All around the land, giant images of Jess Ennis stare down from billboards
East London will benefit from a few showpiece facilities, including the Lee Valley White Water centre - so at least our home grown English terrorists won’t have to schlep all the way to Wales for their pre-attack bonding sessions in future.
Many of the golden sports are simply inaccessible to normal folk. Take away everything boat, gun and horse related and things that require a nearby Velodrome and you are pretty much left with boxing, taekwondo and running. Although continued elite success appears to have little or no impact on the health of the nation, the cash keeps flowing to the few.
Olympians who do not meet their targets are in danger of being kicked off the gravy train and left to slum it with the rest of us. On Sunday, Liz Nicholl, Chief Executive of UK Sport unapologetically told the BBC: “I think that the no compromise approach we have taken has been really, really good. It’s very clear. It’s not funding for everybody, it’s funding for the best.”
Sport for all has been replaced by sport for a select few. A further £264m was spent on our athletes before London and Cameron has pledged that the money supply is secure. He told the BBC interviewer that it was vital for our sailors to visit the waters off Brazil in each of the years leading up to Rio 2016. Naturally, our faithful state Olympic station greeted this as a good use of scarce resources in a recession.
Take away everything boat, gun and horse related and things that require a nearby Velodrome and you are pretty much left with boxing, taekwondo and running
There is no opposition to this policy. When the BBC asked Ed Miliband if the £125m a year to be spent on continuing the gold chase was money well spent he said: “The Olympic games can inspire a country in a way you can’t put a price on” and he urged the parties to come together to take the politics out of the issue. Since the lottery came into being, it has been easy for any politician to chuck money at sport. Lottery funded athlete is a misleading term as it masks the extra spend the government kicks in.
Major invented it, Blair and Brown both ran with it and it was the owl faced toff Cameron who was lucky enough to be the holding the home Olympics parcel when the music stopped. In a country that believes in nothing anymore, the chance to present a TV moment that unites us behind the union flag is irresistible. If you were a conviction free politico dedicated merely to getting elected - what would you see as a better use of a few million: a picture with Victoria Pendleton or keep a few swimming pools and sports halls open?
Forget any pretensions about legacy - now that the public have been convinced that someone who was born on the same bit of land as them making a horse walk backwards in time to music is a matter of importance, it is a feat that must be repeated every four years. Like the Jubilee, Royal Weddings and Diana’s funeral; this gubbing of the foreigners is a ritual that the public have bought into and they want more.
The ‘Team G-B’ chant will make the faces of the world frown in unison - as the hateful ‘U-S-A’ rallying call has for years. You can pump it up as a proud resurgence of national identity or dismiss it as faux militarism or plastic fascism, but it is a real phenomenon and woe betide those involved when the medal count drops. The powers that be much prefer a populace that is wrapped in the flag rather than burning it. If it takes Mo Farah Saturday nights to achieve this, then so be it.
“The Olympic games can inspire a country in a way you can’t put a price on”
East Germany’s sporting push was meant to further the cause of socialism. The Team GB project lacks any such ideological drive but looks set to last far longer. We will become less popular abroad as a nation as we come to represent the ugly side of sport that we as a nation used to rail against. Obviously, the hopelessly jingoistic media will only report the red, white and blue side of the story.
To hit the targets set by UK Sport, associations will become more ruthless and unsympathetic. The concentration on sports we can win medals in will actually narrow choice. As has been shown consistently, success at the Olympics will have no effect on the levels of participation and will not affect the health of the nation positively. In fact, diverting funds to the elite may harm sport at grass roots level.
Team GB are an efficient medal winning machine - loved by politicians and supported by papers and a state broadcasting apparatus that welcomes these upbeat space fillers when the footballers and parliament are on holiday. In four years, the time difference will mean we can once more unite as a nation, get the late night beers and pizzas in, crash out on the settee and enjoy the fruits of our sports development policy live from Rio in HD.
More great Olympic related articles
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Blur At Hyde Park: The Perfect Send Off For Them And The Olympics
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COMMENTS
absolutley brilliant piece, hate to say it but current Team GB reminds me of the USA teams in the past 'all clean' or so we thought.
Great article... Although I disagree with pointing out specific members of Team GB as drug cheats we all know it goes on and the downfall of a big winning GB athlete would highlight this fact
It would perhaps be interesting to compare East Germany's Olympic performance with Great Britain's if you had taken the opportunity to actually analyse the different political, social and economic situations at play in the two countries. Instead, you spend most of your time grasping at straws to equate the two or to denigrate the British athletes. GB's cyclists could be dopers because a French newspaper poll conducted amongst random people think they have. That billboards for Jess Ennis must equal some form of pro state propaganda. And that GB's funding strategy goes against the participation for all ethos of East Germany. And by doing that you completely miss the point behind why there is such a huge difference - East Germany was a totalitarian state of unquestionable brutality. The reach of the Stasi was so extensive that, when totting up the total of officers, informers and unofficial informers, historians reckon up to about 1 in 15 people were working with them. Such a reach meant that failing to co-operate with them was a route to imprisonment or, more often, simply an impediment to your life. They could block your route to a better job, follow you at all points and even eject you from the country. When you combine this repression with the economic hardship facing the DDR in the 1980s, it explains why "Sport for All" was such an insidious influence. It was the reason why coaches were forced to co-operate with the Stasi, why there was such widespread doping and why they were able to mobilise their resources - people were forced to break the rules and do all they could i.e. to legitimise and prop up a morally bankrupt regime. Once you take this factually accurate position, then you can explain British funding. Mass participation is a state responsibility; selective funding comes from the organisational body. With targets set and rules in place, it is in their interests to fund the athletes who represent the best and cleanest chance of medals. They also want to invest in sports that have the organisational structure to succeed. So that's why we see successful athletes. It's not hidden doping, just the result of economic calculations from a sporting body on where best to spend their funding. And the narrowness comes from the fact we have a capitalist democracy; that people are allowed to choose which sports they play, with some being more popular, and that funding follows the route to success (i.e. lots of people cycle; hey that's a good place to fund). So to summarise. It was a nice idea to try and compare the two. It's just a shame that you forgot to actually do any comparing or analysis when you wrote this.
A very interesting piece, i'll give you that. But i have to say i found it very negative. We're in the middle of the worst recession for 80 years, times are tough for everyone. Why cant we just enjoy what has been a great couple of weeks for our country?
Not sure why it's a ridiculous lie that the tactical battle was played against Team GB? They could have chased down the break, but they weren't to know that no-one would help drag the peleton - this negativity lead the Germans and Australians (who had the other best sprinters) to also not medal......
@Seb The Germans and Australians planned tactics that would give their sprinters the best chance- letting the British riders burn themselves out during the chase so that they would have no-one left to lead out Cavendish in the anticipated sprint. The British press, including the BBC and their army of non specialist reporters, spun the actions of the Aussies as a bunch of foreigners conspiring against Britain rather than putting themselves in the best position to win gold.
@JohnWayne The British press have no problem raising their eyebrows at the performances of medalists from other countries yet turn a blind eye when Team GB members do incredible stuff. Bradley Wiggins himself used to have no problem with calling out drug cheats and saying that everyone has a right to be sceptical about cycling because of its recent history.
I don't know what the point of this is. Are British athletes on PEDs? Of course they are. So is every other athlete that received a medal in the Olympics with the exception of maybe something like Air Rifle, but even then, they're probably on depressants so they can keep their heart rate down and remain steady. Michael Phelps (the greatest Olympian in history!) openly admits he sleeps every night in a hyperbaric chamber. That might not be "doping" but it's darn close. If that's what he'll say then you know there's way more that he's not saying. So the British press isn't raising the alarm about British athletes? Well, surprise, the American, German, French, Chinese, etc, press aren't either. In 2012 all athletes "dope" to some degree. If they don't, then frankly, they're not doing their job.
"Cast the dye"? Oh, my! It's "cast the die" as in "the die is cast", being the little known singular form of the plural "dice", the gambler's cube(s). Of course, you can "dice" vegetables, but that's a different story . . . . .
@Mick Bower I agree with the fact that the British press openly throw accusations at "lesser known success stories" and my point is that a High profile Team GB drug cheat would sort of open the door as a way to maybe investigate t further (the majority British press have a hard time doing anything right at most of the time though). They way you word the article is does come across as labeling Hoy and Wiggins as drug cheats... I feel the only cheating they do is equipment cheating as they have 24 hour access to the best training facilities in their sport. As my slightly racist Dad says "Stick a Jamaican on a bike for a year in a Velodrome ans he'll beat all around him".
Great article with all the negativity I'd expect from some one follows SUFC. All the world is a dark place full of cheats when you're a Blade.
If I had the journalist skills, this is pretty much what I would have written.
@Tim You've got me sussed. When I see tens of millions invested in sport, I expect see poor results, incompetent players and a budget hotel. Any other outcome confuses me.
I know it must be exciting for you, to out Wiggins et al as drug cheats, but the sports science is dead against you. Wiggins has got faster, for sure (mostly by losing 15kg, and by all accounts training like he gives a shit these days) but the truth is the tour has got much slower since the EPO ridden 'glory' days of Armstrong, Contador, Landis, and so on. Those who know about cycling (not just the readership of a French national newspaper) know how difficult it is to cheat these days. Biological passports, extensive testing, random police raids, criminal prosecutions; doping is tricky these days. Most of all, the Team Sky brand is basically based around winning without doping. They recruited the best domestiques they could, they have the best bikes, the best training and the best time trialist. I know it's fun to speculate, but until Ennis, Farah, Wiggins and Trott are caught with the needle in their thigh, it's hypocritical to throw around accusations whilst criticising the British press for doing the same.
Well what can I say about this article...I have never read so much anti British drivel since I glanced at a 1980's Sinn Féin flier I came acros when I visited the New York last. All I can say is get a life...
Anti British! Get a life? Hello! This needed to be opened up. What is the Modern Olympics really about. It's good to consider about what we espouse about British sporting play. Look at the boxing: notorious for dodginess but even then the decisions in that sport were a sham. I want to know what other countries are thinking and what some of their athletes are doing, plus the relevance to which ones are missing / retired / still hold records in the events - the US score in the female Heptathlon in 1988 would have been enough to secure gold against Ennis. What did they think of Tom Daley getting a bit of exceptional treatment to do another dive at that stage of the competition. As for anti British: We criticise others then turn a blind eye - just springing to mind: Remember years ago the British press lambasted another cricketing nation but did not react the same way when Mike Atherton was found doing the same and in fact made excuses for him - then completely ignore Paul Scholes scoring with his hands: once in a qualifying game against Poland, I keep hearing about a certain Hand of God though. The article does insinuate about certain individuals and I am keeping the faith just now, Chris Hoy is a gent, works like a Spartan and put in a masterful performance but then previous, instances would lend weight - we have Dwayne Chambers swanning about with his chemically enhanced musculoskeletal base and David Millar is on Bradley Wiggins support team for goodness sake. Then there's that German boy on Hoys team who admits he crashed on purpose because he didn't get a good start! Could you imagine if Usain Bolt tried that in his sport. The tv pundits explained that he didn't have good English! From way before the time of hormonal masking agents millionaire athletes have won golds and managed to avoid being caught when the money mattered ( to everyone involved) and,as World In Action tried to publicise years ago, and were somewhat vindicated later, were possibly assisted in this by the action / inaction of national sporting bodies. Let's be honest - some great moments. Mo was great but part of the story is that he is a Somali who is trained by Americans in America and his American training partner seemed to run the race in support of him. What were the others doing jogging round that last race and playing into his hands? It's just a point, and maybe some of the pundits old have put me right on that if they hadn't been so busy jumping up and down on their chairs. Thanks for the article.
Kay I couldn't have written it any differently.I echo your every word.
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