Hand on heart, I couldn’t tell you who the Olympic tennis champions are.

I don’t care, and chances are neither do they.

That’s the trouble with the Olympics. For some sports the Games are the absolute summit, the very definition of excellence. For others, it’s a random event on an already choc-a-bloc calendar.

I’ll give you two examples. Roland Schoeman is a four-time Olympian with a gold medal win from 2004. He embodied what it means to be an Olympian and the Olympic ideal sustained him from before the turn of the century. Until Durban last weekend, when he fell just short. His failure to qualify for the 2016 Games shattered him.

Then along comes Adam Scott, the 2013 Masters golf champion. He’ll be skipping the Olympics because he “wants time off”. Fair dinkum.

And then there’s Louis Oosthuizen, who has also withdrawn.

You would think that golf’s big names would be doing cart wheels at the prospect of winning a gold medal, but everyone knows the Majors are golf’s Holy Grail.

The Olympics? Good fun.

Having cracked the Olympic code, golf hasn’t even got it right beyond that. The format is up and down stroke play, not even a team event, and won’t have the strongest field.

A couple of decades ago the Olympics were truly Corinthian in spirit. Former IOC boss Avery Brundage wouldn’t entertain the notion of professionals participating, but once he shuffled off, the doors burst open. How well we remember the original Dream Team basketball superstars of 1992, who were so accomplished their coach never called a single timeout during the shindig.

Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley were among the luminaries that year. They were multi-millionaires in sneakers for whom an NBA championship ring held far greater value.

Professional boxing is also trying to into the act. The world body that oversees amateur boxing is flirting with the idea of allowing professionals to fight for Olympic gold, leading to the perverse suggestion that someone like Floyd Mayweather, who was robbed of gold at the 1992 Olympics, could finally secure some justice.

It’s a dreadful, stupid idea. Just imagine world champion Manny Pacquiao lining up against a 17-year-old from Bermuda.

It’s wrong on so many levels. Former heavyweight champion David Haye summed it up best, labelling it “insane”.

Oscar De La Hoya agrees, although Wladimir Klitschko is taken with the idea; a consequence of taking too many shots to the head no doubt.

It’s easy to see what drives the IOC in wooing sports like tennis and golf. It’s all about getting eyeballs on TV and people tune in to watch people they are familiar with. Big sponsors also come running.

Why not throw in horse racing and Formula One while they’re at it?

It’s true that no-one is really amateur – almost all athletes receive some type of funding – but the measure should be a simple one: is the Olympics the ultimate?

Which brings me to Sevens, which makes its bow in Rio in August?

This is a huge milestone for rugby because it’s the switch for massive funding, which follows Olympic recognition.

For now, the big deal in Sevens is winning the World Series or the World Cup. But the game hasn’t matured enough for either to represent anything in the manner of a Stanley Cup or a Wimbledon crown. Having spoken to a number of Blitzbokke, they’re positively foaming at the mouth at the prospect of winning an Olympic medal. Even a veteran like Bryan Habana, who has won a 15-man World Cup, is like a kid in a sweet shop at the prospect

The Blitzbokke won Commonwealth gold, but an Olympic triumph would be beyond compare.

It’s difficult to imagine Bubba Watson breaking down in tears, as he did after winning the Masters in 2012, were he to claim golf’s Olympic crown.

Much the same in tennis. Remember Jana Novotna’s meltdown, which left her sobbing on the shoulders of the Duchess of Kent after losing the 1993 Wimbledon final?

The Olympics needs to evolve, but golf shouldn’t be part of that change, not when it’s a mere date on golf’s endless treadmill of tournaments.

Oh, it’s Andy Murray and Serena Williams who are the reigning Olympic champions (thanks, Google). – © Sunday Tribune

What if I told you that you could have got better odds of Andy Murray naming his first born Novak (500-1), or Sir Alex Ferguson winning Strictly Come Dancing (1000-1) than you would have for Leicester City winning the Premiership?

Betting company William Hill had them at odds of 5000-1 against at the start of the season. Last week, bookies were scrambling to save money by offering payouts of £2800 for every £1 bet. They best get used to it – before season’s start 25 bullish bettors placed their cash on Leicester doing the unthinkable.

A year ago they were nowhere. Now, the East Midlands club is seemingly on the verge of a fairy tale with just three defeats in their last 32 matches. They play Sunderland away later today and then have just five games to go, with a comfortable points cushion separating them and the rest.

What makes this tale so remarkable is that the Premiership, unlike, say, the PSL, is a virtual closed shop. Only five teams have claimed the title since the league began in 1992, Blackburn Rovers breaking the big teams’ lock on the trophy in 1995.

What the other four teams (Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City) have in common is that they rank among the richest and best funded teams in world football.

Money buys success has long been a mantra of the Premiership, although Claudio Ranieri’s men have emphatically turned this truth on its head. Leicester City don’t spend nearly as much as the big teams, relying instead on old-fashioned virtues like stability in the boardroom, an excellent academy system and smart scouting.[pullquote align=”right” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]’I always tell my players to find the fire within themselves’ – Ranieri[/pullquote]

Of course they need someone to pull it all together. Thai Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who sponsored free beer and a doughnut for fans to celebrate his birthday last week, has owned the team since 2010, but Ranieri is given a free hand to do as he must.

His touches have been light. The avuncular coach takes the view that less is more with coaching, preferring to hold back instead of grinding his players day after day, as the English system typically prescribes.

“I always tell my players to find the fire within themselves,” he said.

Ranieri has brought refreshing change to the King Power Stadium, a sharp counterpoint to Gary Lineker’s view at the time that his appointment was an “uninspiring” choice.

The Italian also never arrived in Leicester with his own backroom team trying to impose his methods. He inherited a solid management team and let them carry on.

By all accounts Ranieri has managed to establish a family-like culture at the club. He asked his players for just one thing when he arrived: everything.

He had the vibe of a friendly uncle rather than a dictator, urging his players to develop a team ethic. They could play games and have fun, but stability had to be at the core.

As Argentine striker Leonardo Ulloa put it, “The first thing is to fight and work for the team. The second is to win.”

Ranieri has blended the extreme talents of a vibrant group of men. Jamie Vardy has exploded into the light, his high-tempo game and powerful striking transforming the Sheffield Wednesday reject into a poster boy for English soccer success.

Keeper Kasper Schmeichel gets few headlines, but he’s one of the best in England and inspires the Foxes’ defence.

And then there’s captain Wes Morgan, the big defender described by Ulloa as the team’s “big brother”, a lurking presence whose experience is central to Leicester’s self-belief.

“We stay together, we fight together,” Ulloa told the club’s website.

There’s no flash about their tactics either, which embrace the ancient 4-4-2 formation, which works when players can pull it off.

Their method is grounded in the basics: tight defence, not too much flash at the back and fast, efficient forwards who mangle the opposition.

People laughed when Srivaddhanaprabha, the owner and chairman, spoke of his ambitions to crack the top five.

No-one is laughing now.

Down Leicester way they are planning the biggest of parties. Theirs is the great soccer story of 2016 and affirmation that sporting romance still exists, even now. – © Sunday Tribune

The most selfless, extraordinary act I’ve seen in a boxing ring took place in the UK last weekend.

As Chris Eubank jnr piled on the pain and hurt against Nick Blackwell, his father, former champion Chris sr, urged him after the eighth round to stop hitting his opponent’s head.

“The next time you throw a flurry like that, if the referee doesn’t stop it then I don’t know what to tell you. I will tell you this, if he doesn’t stop it and we keep on beating him like this he’s getting hurt.

“Why hasn’t the referee stopped the fight? I don’t get why. So maybe you shouldn’t leave it to the referee. You’re not going to take him out to the face so take him out to the body.”

After the doctor stopped the fight in the 10^th, Blackwell was rushed to hospital with bleeding on the brain and later placed in an induced coma.

The irony is that Eubank snr was one of boxing’s supreme prats, a self-indulgent ponce obsessed with his own importance.

[pullquote align=”left” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]Eubank snr was one of boxing’s supreme prats, a self-indulgent ponce obsessed with his own importance[/pullquote]

Eubank, though, has unique insight into the perils of the fight game: he endured a life-and-death ring battle against Michael Watson 25 years ago that left Watson in a 40-day coma with brain damage. Watson has recovered somewhat but the scars remain.

Eubank has long had a complex relationship with boxing and even at the age of 49 he courts controversy. He is an advisor to his son, but his arrogance in dealing with managers and promoters is seen as an impediment to his son’s progress.

If Eubank’s moment of compassion offered a striking paradox to his personality, it also illuminated the often complicated father-son dynamic that is occasionally found in sport.

Recently there were reports in Johannesburg of Lions coach Johan Ackerman favouring his son Ruan, like his father a big, loping forward with mongrel. The rumours weren’t born out by any substantive facts, but you can imagine the tight line Ackerman snr must walk to ensure he isn’t just fair, but seen to be fair. From what I’ve seen of Ruan he looks like an outstanding player, although he’ll have to play out of his skin to convince the doubters he deserves his crack.

There’s a similar situation at the Sharks where assistant coach Robert du Preez oversees two of his three sons, Jean-Luc and Daniel, both members of the squad.

By all accounts there is no special treatment from the old man, who raised his sons with a firm hand and encouraged them from the moment they first laid their hands on a rugby ball.

But if the players’ form wanes and hard conversations must be had, just how dispassionate could Du Preez snr be? It’s a fraught position to be in, but you would hope that a professional view, rather than a familial one, would hold sway. We shall see.

One excellent reference point comes by way of England where for many years Owen Farrell played under his father, Andy, at both Saracens and England, where his dad was an assistant. Owen had to dodge questions about his dad’s coaching role from the age of 16 and it flared up a few years ago when he lost form for England and there was pressure to make a change.

“I’ve had him around a fair bit since I started playing but it’s always been separate to him being my dad,” said Owen, emphasising the point that Andy was his father at home and his coach at work.

It gets a bit stranger, though, because Andy has since taken up a big job with Ireland, part of which will include plotting how to neutralise his son, England’s No 10.

There are many more father-son examples, some good (Manchester United’s Daley Blind’s father Danny is the Netherlands head coach and Daley also plays for him), some bad (like boxer Roy Jones jnr, who threw his father out as his trainer) and others ambivalent (like Kaizer Motaung jnr, son of the great Kaizer himself).

History dictates that the father-son dynamic in sport is much as it is in family life: there are highs and lows, good and bad. The ones that work best are those based on trust and honesty.

Not everyone manages it. – © Sunday Tribune

 

 

 

For the first time, SuperSport will have two channels covering the Masters golf tournament, beginning at Augusta on Thursday.

In response to requests from viewers, SuperSport will also, for the first time, offer four live internet streams.

The streaming will begin on Monday with coverage from the practice range, including analysis and interviews. This will be supplemented from Thursday with daily streams of featured groups; Amen Corner; and holes 15 and 16.

All the streaming can be accessed via supersport.com and the SuperSport app.

Traditional TV coverage of the international feed supplied by the Masters broadcast team will run on SS1 from 9pm on Thursday, except for Saturday when the action will be on SS6.

In addition, SuperSport 8 will have a daily feed from 4pm that consolidates all the best of the separate feeds.