This is a particularly fine vintage of rule making stupidity:
However, Cabinet Office rules state that the sport committee, which is chaired by the Locog chief Lord Coe, can recommend only one knighthood a year, along with four CBEs, 20 OBEs, and 38 MBEs.
The general rule is that Olympic gold gains an MBE, with advancement to OBE, CBE, for subsequent such at subsequent games.
One of the things we might like to note about this event is that it happens on a four year cycle.
Those bureaucrats, the Rolls Royce minds of our generation, have the gong giving based upon annual quotas.
With this level of rule making stupidity it\’s not all that surprising that that planned economy idea never really worked, is it?
Never understood why anything beyond the “Gold” is appropriate. IF the athlete over time demonstrates commitment to furthering his sport, fine. We have not had that time yet, in most cases. Perhaps revisit in 8 years or so ?
As to civil servants ….
Alan Douglas
Does seem odd that you often need to wait 20-30 years to get a science Nobel Prize and yet some sporting gongs are awarded in the same year of your success.
Just abolish the honours systems and fire all the administrators. Desperate times call for desperate measures.
Brings a whole new meaning to the term – picking winners.
Score 50 goals in a Premiership season and you won’t even get on the first rung. Prance around on a fucking dancing horse in a sport only about three countries compete in and you get a gong.
“Score 50 goals in a Premiership season …”: who’s done that?
“Score 50 goals in a Premiership season and you won’t even get on the first rung.”
Score 50 goals for England and you will.
Curiously, as dressage derives from the skills necessary to manage a war horse, along with possibly fencing, it’s the only sport really merits a knighthood. Archery being so “other ranks”.
@bis: Modern Pentathlon was designed with the modern officer skillset in mind… running, riding, swimming, fencing, shooting.
Tom,
For a pre-WW1 idea of the “modern officer skillset”.
Nowadays, competitive form-filling can replace the riding; fencing, let’s see – intricacies of the interpretations of the International Law of War (all US entrants automatically dis-qualified for believing that ‘International’ actually means ‘UCMJ’); swimming – disembarking and re-embarking a helicopter landing site in a hot LZ.
Shooting is a bit OR, but probably can stay. Running? Yup. But carrying 40lb or so of kit. And wearing full body armour.
SE
Dost thy master’g of these divers skilles winneth hande of maiden faire? (Or payge faire, this being the modern army)
Nah.
But mastery => money => beer tokens => compliant partner of your choice of sexual preference.
Fair(e), however, is variable; maiden most unlikely.
SE – carrying 40lb of kit while carrying weapon and wearing body armour is for the namby pamby lightweights. Try it with weapon, body armour and 40KG+ of kit for some real fun.
For both running and shooting.
Not recommended long term however, good chance of joint damage.
Tim said: “One of the things we might like to note about this event is that it happens on a four year cycle.”
Is the committee just considering olympians or sport as a whole?
“Prance around on a fucking dancing horse in a sport only about three countries compete in and you get a gong.”
To Phil fucking Collins, no less.