The return of the curse

It's been a decent week for Britain at the Olympics, but it's been hard to sustain the medal run since last week. And not for lack of trying on the BBC's part. Don't get me wrong, you know I love the BBC and you surely know by now I love the Olympics, but sometimes I just wish the BBC would talk something down. I'm sorry to say, the curse has returned. Just ask Shanaze Reade.

Reade is the world champion in BMX and in all the build up to the event, the way the BBC talked about it, it seemed all she had to do was show up and she'd be given the gold medal. If I heard one more time about her explosive power and superior thighs...

I've never watched BMX before. It's like the street has come to Olympics, tattoos and piercings a-go-go. Although I think my mum said it best when she said 'I still can't get past the fact that they look like they're riding kids' bikes!' 

But my goodness, it is brutal! To think they took away the nice, safe, and indeed simple 1km time trial for this carnage! It's not a word of a lie to say I watched some of the races through my fingers. If you didn't see any of it, I think this will sum it up nicely for you. An Australian rider has legally changed his name to 'Kamakazi', you know like the Japanese suicide pilots from World War Two. I wish I was joking.

It's a complicated system of qualifying individuals rounds, 3 rounds of group semi finals and a group put-your-life-in-your-hands-and-race-for-glory final. Poor Shanaze, after the build up the BBC gave her, you just knew it couldn't end well. 

She fell in her first qualifying round. And remember this isn't just falling. This is full on over the handlebars stuff. She fell again in the first semi-final (this time someone even rode over her ankle). Somehow she put it together and got into the final, only to tip the back wheel of the French girl leading in the last corner to go went crashing out again.

I haven't quite fallen in love with it, and it's definitely not my favourite Olympic sports, although I'd rate it above sailing, which seems just plain unsporting, calculating meanness (but you know, ra ra Team GB with 6 medals and all that. And in fairness, sailing is better than Judges Score the Points sports). That said, you can't help be slightly addicted to guts and glory stuff of BMX. And hopefully come 2012, Shanaze Reade will not have the BBC curse upon her.

The BBC didn't just scupper Shanaze of course. They took out whole teams in the relays. 

I honestly think it was one of my favourite Olympic moments ever when Britain won the Men's 4 x 100m in Athens. It even surprised Steve Cram commenting. All the talk was of the Americans, but there GB were, quietly working away with good changeovers. Take a moment now to remember that Britain (and indeed America) can get the baton round.

No doubt you'll know of the absolute havoc which ended with both the men's and women's American and British teams going out. And today, even the Jamaican sprinting women couldn't withstand all the BBC talk of medals and messed it up.

Mind you, it did bring about one of my favourite Michael Johnson punditry moments (on the iPlayer, go to 51.20 in )while he was talking over the slow motion of the USA slow baton drop. 'Why doesn't he just put it in there? Put it in there! Ok he didn't do it then, put it in now! Well put it it now! Don't just drop it!!' 

He's so up there with Adrian Chiles.