Olympians

Photograph Quiz:

Photo no. 159: Which athlete is the Olympian and what might his name be?

Dear Blog,

   I have mentioned before that when  a fact appears in the press or is quoted on the radio or relayed on the television it becomes a FACT with a capital ‘F’ whether it is subsequently proved untrue or evidence to the contrary is provided.

  Approaching 2012 with the prospects of public interest in the London Olympic Games growing, both the local newspaper and the local radio station decided to compile lists of local Olympians. You know the sort of stuff Blog. And so it came about. All well and good so far but ….. Despite attempts on my part to correct the omission of a local Olympian on many more than one occasion, my information was ignored and the Olympian never made any local list not nowhere nohow!!! Question for you Blog. If a youngster moves with his parents when he was very young to live in Coventry, was educated in Coventry (Barkers Butts School), took his apprenticeship in the city, worked in several factories after leaving the ‘Morris’ where he qualified as a tool maker, joined a Coventry athletic club and became second claim for another, operated a business in several different locations around the city and continued to provide a service to a local running club until his death when another family member took over the business, would he qualify as a Coventry Olympian. (I won’t say an Olympian from Coventry as many aren’t, including yours truly!!! O.K. he did join Birchfield Harriers and moved outside the city boundary …. all of six miles (10km Blog) from the centre of the city or just over a mile (1600 metres Blog) from the city boundary!!!! But would these last two facts militate against a total exclusion for an inclusion as an Olympian on any official City list, I ask you Blog???

   Another Olympian who joined the same athletic club after his performance on the Elysian Fields of Olympia (excuse that Blog … but it sounds good!!!) was but a memory, has similarly received no recognition or photographic acknowledgement!!!

  Mind you an Olympian at the London Olympic Games of 2012 has fared no better; not doing particularly well at any kind of recognition in the photographic stakes either … perhaps a photograph of said Olympian in the athletic club’s clubhouse might be appropriate??? Just a small token, say?

   Now Blog, keep with my wanderings … contrast the above with another Olympian who joined the same club post-Olympic career.. He makes the picture gallery in the clubhouse and hangs proudly with the other club Olympians. Makes you wonder Blog, doesn’t it????????????????????i

                                                      Colin