Olympics are gone . . .

And I am pleased to have my wife and the television remote control back.

Elsewhere in South Africa there are questions about the performance of our athletes (the Proteas) or maybe their lack of performance, whichever way you may wish to read it. I am reminded of a spat that occurred between those that are in charge of the national olympic team and those that are meant to be in charge of those that are in charge of the national olympic team. If that does not ring any bells with you, I am referring to the little tiff between one Mashishi and one Khompela, he of parliamentary standing committee for sport and such matters. He who was said to have lost all senses of his extent of power. You will also recall that the two gentlemen (and presumably their respective offices) kissed - ok, hugged - and made up on national television and newspapers.

I still don't know what the apology meant. Was it that SASCOC was not full of Whites and Indians or that it did know what it was doing? I guess we will never know. What for me was telling though, was the statement by SASCOC, through its fearless leader, to the effect that it will take lots of money for our athletes to perform satisfactorily (i.e bring more than 1 medal from the next olympics). One is reminded here of the Great Britain athletes who apparently benefitted from loads of money from the UK lottery and the government. This I hope for SASCOC's sake, is not a recent discovery. The fact that the tennis players had to play their matches in their leisure T-shirts should have alerted them to this, at the very latest.

Just in case there is any confusion; please note that I am very pleased with the distance from which I comment on these matters - in the comfort of my home and not in the shoes of any of those involved. Having said that, I am inclined to think, like Mr Khompela before me, that SASCOC may well not know what it is doing. About the Whites and Indians, that's just a numbers issue and the facts are likely to spoil what is so far a rather nice story. Unlike Mr Khompela however, no-one gives a doughnut what I think.

I would however be interested to see the budget of SASCOC from the time that "operation let's get ready for Beijing" started, to the time everyone who did go to Beijing was safely back to his or her home. It would be interesting to see what the money was spent on and how and when - all of the questions us arm-chair sports administrators so love to ask. Do the members of the committee get paid, if so how much; does the committee have full-time staff, how many, who, where, doing what? You can by now see where this is going right? It is all supposed to be in the money isn't it? By the way, would it not just be absolutely entertaining to compare the budget of SASCOC with those of their Kenyan, Jamaican and Ethiopian peers?

This reminds me of one more thing, all the recent medals we got, at the last 2 olympics, did they really have anything to do with what the administrators (then and current) did? Is there one athlete's achievement that the administrators can honestly take credit for?

I ask again, what is it that they do, that the coaches in conjunction with the various codes' associations cannot or do not do? Ok, so we all make mistakes; and we all get lucky sometimes, should we not now get deliberate about our performance and actually formulate a strategy that will bring us some results? The memorandum and articles of association of SASCOC makes for rivetting reading though. There are objects, main purpose and even ancillary objects. There are even processes and protocols.

Hey, I can write and say these things, I have a computer and bandwith.