So in the last week Andy Murray went out in the semi-finals of Wimbledon while Liam Broady lost the boys singles' final, David Haye lost his WBA title to Wladimir Klitschko, the England Cricket team lost the 2nd ODI against Sri Lanka and the top Brit in the first stage of Le Tour was 6th. As a nation we crave success, and deem the last week to be an abject failure. But is it really that bad? Given our relative size I'd say not.
Starting with Murray, he's the 4th best player in the world. That's not something to be sniffed at, especially when you consider that the men at 2 and 3 are always mentioned in any discussion about the greatest of all time, and the man who beat him hadn't lost at Wimbledon in his previous 19 matches. Murray's won 17 titles and been in 3 grand slam finals. Most players would love to have those statistics by the end of their careers, and Murray still has plenty of time left in his, with the hard courts of the US and Australian opens more likely to give him success than the grass of SW19. He may not have a Slam yet, but he's had enough success for us to be more than happy to have him. Broady came from nowhere and got to the final. In my book that's a success.
David Haye lost his unification bout, but at least he had the ambition to go for one. In the end he just wasn't good enough, but that's been true for anyone that's faced either Klitschko in the past 5 years. He stepped up a weight division having been hugely successful at cruiser, and became a world champion multiple weights. He's done brilliantly in his career, and brought fresh life into the heavyweight champion with his approach, even if it wasn't to everyones taste. Unfortunately, it is quite possible that this fight will be all people will remember of his career, which is a sad way to remember a former champion.
The England cricket team is not great at ODIs. The loss against Sri Lanka was not hugely surprising - the world rankings show them to be the better side - but we beat them in the first one and there is plenty of time left in the series. This is a fledgling team, with a new captain. We will have to wait and see how they develop over the next year or two before we can fairly judge their progress. And in the mean time the test side is doing brilliantly and the series against India later in the summer will see if their goal of becoming the best team in the world is a feasible one.
Similarly with Le Tour, we can't comment after only one stage. However there we have Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins, two people who will both want to be at least in contention for jerseys. Cavendish, with 15 stage wins in 3 years, will be disappointed if he doesn't don green at least once this year and will believe he can win it. Wiggins, 4th two years ago, will be looking to improve on that and get onto the podium. Cycling in the UK is in a strong position, and will be looking to lead a gold rush at the Olympics next year.
I don't believe these should be viewed as failures but as success, especially given our population, and when you combine them with the success in golf - top 3 in the world are all British - the England football team are up to 4th in the world rankings, although unfortunately haven't had any tournament success for far too long, and all of the home nations feel confident going into the rugby world cup this summer, although the Tri-Nations are favourites, and at the last Olympics we came 4th in the medal table and 2nd in the Paralmypics. We should be proud of our sportsman and celebrate their success, and not criticise them so readily.
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