About the millionaire Olympic Games

The first Olympic Games I really remember with any clarity was the 1968 event in Mexico City. They made a big impact on me as a sports-mad youngster. I remember Bob Beamon’s incredible long-jump record; David Hemery winning hurdles gold for Britain; and the Block Power protest by Tommie Smith and John Carlos.

I also have very clear memories of a boxer called Chris Finnegan. He might not be an Olympic household name any more but his victory in the middleweight division captured a nation. It was late at night UK-time/early morning Mexico time when I heard my parents saying that Finnegan had won the gold.

Finnegan was a pretty rough and ready character. Just before the games, he had lost his job as a hod carrier and Olympic records described him as an unemployed labourer at the time of his gold medal win. He was a strict amateur, as Olympic rules decreed, and had been in financial difficulties in the run-up to Mexico. Afterwards he went professional, but with only limited success. Mexico City 1968 was Finnegan’s moment in the sun.

David Hemery was a physical education teacher that year; Bob Braithwaite, who won shooting gold, was a veterinary surgeon who persuaded his local priest to operate the trap while he practiced; Lillian Board, who won silver in the women’s 400 metres, worked full-time in a typing pool; and Marion Coakes, who won equestrian silver, was the daughter of a farmer and learned her riding skills on the back of a donkey.

This week the British Olympic flag was carried into the stadium in Rio by Andy Murray, fresh from his victory at Wimbledon which earned him £2million. Murray’s net worth – before Wimbledon – was put at £36.55million. His professional tennis career has been responsible for every penny.

Murray, of course, is the pride of Scotland right now and hailed as possibly the nation’s greatest-ever sportsman. Chris Hoy, Eric Liddell and others might have a claim on that title but nevertheless it was wonderful to see a Scottish competitor awarded the privilege.

He’s not the only millionaire sportsperson in Rio of course. The USA golf squad includes Rickie Fowler, Bubba Watson and Matt Kuchar, all multi-millionaires thanks to their sport. The British squad contains Justin Rose. Fowler said this week he was proud to be at the Games but that winning a major golfing event such as The Open would trump an Olympic gold.

For decades the Olympic ideal meant love of sport, not love of money. The games were strictly for amateur athletes, people such as Chris Finnegan who sparred at the local gym in between labouring shifts. Then came megabuck television deals, corporate sponsorships, and slowly but surely the Olympic movement effectively sold its amateur soul. The commercial sponsors were fine with the Braithwaites and Finnegans as long as they got big names – Lionel Messi, Ryan Giggs, Roger Federer, Michael Jordan.

When Jordan and his ‘Dream Team’ US basketball squad, which included the likes of ‘Magic’ Johnson and Larry Bird, arrived in Barcelona in 1992, it signalled the end of the amateur era. They won their games by an average of 44 points. There was no competition.

The clock will never be turned back, it’s simply not possible. There is so much money slushing around sport – legally and illegally – that a truly amateur Olympics could never again happen. Having said that, there are plenty of amateur golfers, for example. Why shouldn’t they get their opportunity instead of the likes of Rickie Fowler for whom an Olympic gold is a distant second to a victory in the US PGA? Or is it really the case that the days when winning an Olympic event was the proudest moment of a sportsperson’s life are gone forever?

I’ll still watch the Olympics and admire the great sporting achievements. But I won’t pay the slightest bit of attention to whichever team of millionaires wins the golf, or the tennis, or the football.

As for Andy Murray, he has had many moments in the limelight and may well have many more. There are plenty of lesser-known contestants from throughout the UK, including Scotland, who arguably would have been more suitable candidates to carry the flag. But then another Andy Murray photo opportunity is good for Olympic business and corporate bank accounts.