Sports Personality Thingie

[Snoop Doug]

Ahoy there - I wonder if Ms Cooke will get this tonight...? Would like to see her and Beth Tweddle slug it out for the glory. Just given Nicole 6 votes, well I think she's worth £1.50 any road up. We'll see.

Cheers - Snoop

[sid_day]

I physically retched when I heard about this.

How is it possible that somone who is so copiously over priviliged was even nominated?

Her sport is not only minority it is barely accessible to people outside her class.

In her interview she couldn't even thank the "girl" who helped look after her horse by name even though she was refferring to a team effort!

Digusted doesn't even come close.

Whats very worrying is that this is voted by the population of the UK: get me out of here!!!

[Graham O]

Watched this and was quite disappointed...

Basically, if you look at what was said...

Introduced Nicole as the finest female cyclist in the world....pretty good.

Then said - do you fall off much

Then said - Only I was looking at you knees for scratches..

Then said - How many miles do you do...

No questions about what she had actually achieved...

Think that this was a Pretty P*ss Poor effort from the BBC. If it aint football they aint interested !!

Thats me off my high horse...

[richv]

It's harsh to knock someone who is World and European Champion in one of the few sports where women compete directly against men. Nicole Cooke (who I voted for several times) has yet to win a senior world championship. Whilst Zara Phillips may be privileged because of the funding around to help her in her sport she is not the only one (and is far less well off in terms of funding/horses available then many of the riders she competes against). Nicole Cooke was hardly held back by her parents herself.

Cooke was hard done by by the BBC whose coverage of her was pathetic. But she was never going to win as most of the public are not going to support a candidate from a sport where "everyone is on drugs" in their eyes. Cycling has an image problem of its own making and a professional cyclist is never going to win any popularity contest with the british public.

[siwickm]

Did you see the video stream on her third place in the world champs on the BBC site. Wow, that was impressive riding, but I doubt that lay people would have looked at it and realised what a gutsy performance it was.

Cheers

Marek...

[huw williams]

They should've given the award to the horse I reckon

[Stu Merckx Man]

it certainly had more personality!

[Grahame]

[quote]They should've given the award to the horse I reckon

[Andrew G]

I can't knock Zara for winning, she's Euro and World Champ and coming from a society background doesn't actually help you win the events when you're on the horse. Mind you the horse got no bloody credit.

Cycling coverage was as expected, 1 minute of 3 inane questions. Well done Nicole for managing to answer with the contempt they deserved.

Young sportsman award, what was that about. Given to someone who's sole claim to fame in 2006 was occaisionally polishing Arsenal's bench with his backside.

BBC coverage - pathetic. As "the nation's broadcaster" they should cover more sports equally. What I managed to catch from the in passing token mentions was that we have some useful young sportsmen and women at European and World level but in minoroty sports and they are given no support or credit at these events. Hardly going to inspire kids to take up sport by just parading the football, cricket and rugby failures around all the time. This should be done more now than ever with the Olympics coming to London.

Bar humbug.

[sid_day]

A tiny minority of people have a chance to get on a horse in the first place.

I didn't expect Nicole to do too well but I'm disappointed the public went with somone on the civil list.

[Richard (Apples)]

I think you'd be surprised how many people in this country actually do ride a horse . There are plenty of horsy people who come from ordinary backgrounds. The racecourses are full of them everyday . I bet there are plenty of poeple who are priced out of our sport -

[richv]

[quote]I'm disappointed the public went with somone on the civil list.

[Snoop Doug]

Yee haww, let's have us a lynchin'!!

Realistically Ms Cooke was never in with a shout - although she did at least make the short list. I wonder how Beth Tweddle felt about getting third given her achievement? I believe she comes from a modest background and worked bloody hard away from the gym/sports hall/whatever raising her own funds to help her compete. You can't blame Ms Overprivileged personally for winning but I find it odd that someone who gets soooo much financial support cen be pitted against those that don't. I expect a few telephone exchanges in the Shires overheated last night, what what?

Cheers - Snoop

[richv]

Marco the civil list has never paid anything to Zara Phillips or her brother, it's not a matter of it being "trimmed down". I also doubt that if liz wants to support her granddaughter she is going to dip into civil list money which is all pretty much accounted for, it's not as if she's short of a bob or two (or county or two) from her own private resources.

Yes Zara Phillips comes from a privileged background. So does Nicole Cooke. Nicole had and has the benefit of a hugely supportive family who have made great sacrifices to get her where she is today. Perhaps we should ban all sportspeople whose parents help them out as there are plenty of deprived kids out there who get no help and it's all so unfair. We can also ban the footballers, cricketers, rugby pros and tennis players (oh, and proper pro male cyclists) whilst we're at it because they get paid far too much and how can they be compared to those who have to work for a living and struggle to get by.

Or perhaps we should recognise that being best in the world at most sports requires a fair bit of talent. I could spend all the money in the world buying horses, it's not going to help me become a 3-day eventer (I've already spent a load on bikes and I still couldn't keep up with Nicole Cooke).

It's not ZPs fault that she was voted spoty because she has a famous granny and there's a lot of people who for some reason fancy her. If you watch 3 day eventing in the flesh you will realise it takes a lot of skill and guts and you may also appreciate why it's regarded as one of the most dangerous sports (after angling of course which always amuses me )

[Jon H]

Angling is the biggest participation sport in the UK, and where did Captain Birdseye come in the SPOTY? Nowhere, not even in the top ten. It's a disgrace I tell you, a disgrace. A strongly worded letter will be sent to the DG of the BBC forthwith.