The 2004 Olympics were very good, but full of kickbacks and drugs. They were budgeted for three billion euros, but they finally cost Greeks twenty billion euros, because of the huge political corruption of Graecokleptocrats. This will not happen in UK.
The 2012 Olympics are going to be clean, exciting, and fun. There will be no steroids and no kickbacks. But there's something deadly serious it needs to achieve as well, something that could affect every child in every school in UK. That is to address the woeful lack of competitive sport in our schools.
After 13 years of Whigs, only a fifth of children play sport regularly against other schools - and more than half don't play any interschool sport at all. Last year a school in Kent cancelled sports day because they were worried a child might fall over. A school in Scotland even cancelled it because of uneven ground. This is the type of society Whigs created.
Where common sense is buried under bureaucracy. Where sporting excellence is stifled by political correctness. Where schools are more worried about being sued than being sporty. This has to stop. Which is why Lord Young's work is so important.
The left say our passion for competitive sport is because we only care about life's winners. What nonsense. We want to unlock the potential in every child. But to do that they need to learn to cope with setbacks too - which is what competitive sport is all about.
Like the runner in Chariots of Fire. It was only when he fell over that he found the inspiration to get up and win. Shakespeare said it is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves. Nothing betrays a child more than trying to pretend life doesn't have its knocks. Than taking away the confidence that comes from learning to take life in your stride. Than giving gold medals for mediocrity instead of rewarding the effort of true achievement.
Last year I said I wanted to launch an Olympic-style school sports competition that could involve every school in every town in the country. Well Colin Moynihan and the British Olympic Association are going to help us make it happen. And it isn't just Colin. We have the support of Michael Gove, the Youth Sports Trust, and Seb Coe. Together with all of those wonderful stars you have just seen in the video.
Next year we will have pilots in the Black Country, London, Cornwall, Manchester, Hertfordshire, Kent, Lincolnshire, Yorkshire and Tyne and Wear. And the first ever finals will be in the brand new Olympic Park in the spring of 2012. Bringing competitive sport within reach of millions of children for the first time. A lasting Olympic legacy. A lasting increase in the number of children playing competitive sport. And a lasting boost to values that will help every child make the most of his or her life.
And whilst I remember, there's something else I told you I was going to do last year. Something that will happen with an order I am laying before parliament in a few weeks time. After 13 long years of seeing the lottery plundered by Whigs, we will finally be returning it to its original four pillars. Grassroots sport - of course - but also art and heritage will all benefit by as much as £50m each year from 2012. We will also insist that lottery distributors spend no more than 5% of what they distribute on admin. Not lobbying. Not press officers. Because the lottery is the people's millions and not the politician's pot.
We ran that marathon of politics for one very simple reason: all of us believe in our country and know its potential. That potential starts with our young people. Not the mass mediocrity of prizes for all. Not the false comfort of avoiding competition. Not the heavy burden of low expectations. But the hope of a parent who says why not, go for it. The pride of a teacher unlocking hidden talents. And the confidence of a new government that knows that only by expecting the best from young people will we get the best from young people. Because when they start winning we all start winning. And our great country can start looking to the future with optimism again.
Basil Venitis muses that Olympics and other athletic competitions are not really competitions of athletes, but of pharmaceutical companies! Every year new untraceable dopes show up that bring gold medals. The current anti-doping code includes the whereabouts system, requiring athletes to select one hour every day to be available for no-notice drug tests. But these tests cannot find out the brand new drugs. Many governments subsidize these million-euro drugs as food supplements of their athletes!
Venitis notes that more than ten thousand East German athletes were doped in a program that ran for decades up until 1989 with approval from the highest levels of the East German government. Many were given the pills as minors. Three million tablets of performance enhancing drugs, mostly anabolic steroids, were given out each year to athletes. Many later developed cancer, ovarian cysts, liver damage, heart disease, infertility and other ailments. Some had children with health problems, such as blindness or club feet.
East German coaches, trainers and parents would watch as their young daughters suddenly exhibited unusual amounts of body hair, bulked up rapidly, and developed deep voices. There was a joke running around that when women Olympic swimmers would go into the changing room and see East German girls there, they'd say, oh my God, we must be in the men's locker room! Despite the near cartoonish appearance of some of their athletes, the doping program delivered results. From 1972 to 1988, East Germany of 17 million people won 384 Olympic medals, not including the 1984 Los Angeles Games, which they boycotted. They always placed well ahead of the much larger West Germany.
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