Barnaby

I'm making the assumption that the comment was depracating towards The Superstars competition by putting it in the same category as curling. I'll leave it to others to defend curling, although there is much to be said for it, most would agree that it is largely non-athletic. But Budgie Budd should not be disregarded by winning the Superstars event for 3 years in a row. The event itself had a great format in my opinion. It answers the question that always has popped up, namely "cross disciplines, who is the fittest athlete." The ironman tries to address this question, as does the decalthon at the Olympics. It is natural to wonder who would win if the athlete were taken out of the comfortable waters of their own discipline and were forced to compete in areas out of their norm. All single sport events are to some degree artificial; there is nothing in life to mimic an event that requries something like 20 days of intense effort in 21 days on a 16 pound bike while wearing plastic clothing. The Superstar competition, was aired Friday nights and was seen and very popular in Britian as well as North America. I just viewed the video of Budd coming from behind to win the obstacle course event one year, and it was very exciting to say the least. It is much cheaper for the networks to air programs like Celebrity Rehab, and cator to the publics appetite for voyeurism. These type of competitions were much more popular in the later 1800's and early 1900's. They captured the imagination of the public. Torchy Peden's victories in the team six-day bicycle team competitions helped establish him as one of the top athletes of his day, so this type of competition should not be seen only as a modern contrivance.

Brian Budd was a competitive soccer player in both North America and Europe. He competed in the World Cup. He started as a competitive swimmer, and trained in figure skating. The spirit that he epitomised that I find lacking today, and that was so evident in Lovell and Davis was uber-competitiveness, and a ferocious desire to compete and win. Lance had it in spades, and it is interesting to note Lance's history in Triathlons and his New York City marathon entries as a testament to something other than a single-minded dedication to cycling.

I guess what I was attempting to do was to voice displeasure at what I perceive as the vacuousness of Canadian sport compared to the eighties, especially in cycling. The Aussies have the more condusive climate for all-year training in cycling, but they are getting way ahead of us in all respects in this sport. It wasn't always this way. Our tight-a**ed business comunity should get the wallets out and follow through on some hard-core support. As a public, for the love of Christ, we should stop this over- reliance on government to nanny us from cradle to grave.