Triumph for China, boost for 2012: our champion Olympo-sceptic admits defeat

Andrew Gilligan
22 Aug 2008

"Come on," said Boris Johnson to his jetlagged staff, "let's go and see a man from Hackney win a gold medal." It was 8.30pm in the courtyard of Beijing's London House, the lovely traditional Chinese club that has been converted into the GLA's showcase for the duration of the Olympics.

After an overnight flight in economy, followed by a full day of meetings, a press conference, a speech and a reception, London's First Citizen was having a badly-needed quiet drink and looking forward to bedtime.

But then I mentioned that Phillips Idowu, Britain's best hope in the athletics, was competing down the road at the Bird's Nest stadium. "He's from Hackney, you know," I said. "He's probably going to win a gold medal." I may have left out the probably.

Beneath all the hair, Boris's ears pricked up. "How far is the stadium?" he asked. And suddenly, with the faint objections of aides fluttering in our wake, the Mayor, his press secretary Guto Harri and I were sweeping out of the club in the official Johnson motorcade (one car).

"You've got to be spontaneous," said Boris. "This was 100 per cent right," he said firmly as we charged into the Beijing night. "100 per cent right," repeated Harri. I got the feeling that in Boris-ese this probably meant 100 per cent wrong.

Driving straight through the security barrier and almost up to the stadium, we were wafted into the VIP area (escalators with crocodile-skin patterns on the walls, red velvet seats in the stands and saggy sofas in the IOC delegates' lounge) - just in time to see Idowu settle for silver. Like everyone, Boris was taken aback by the sheer scale of the stadium. "Ours isn't going to be this big, is it?" he asked, approvingly. It was, he said, very impressive but "a bit Commie".

Boris's real contribution to the day had come earlier, when he became the first public figure to articulate the impact that the Beijing Games have had in Britain. "These Games are changing public perceptions of the Olympics," he told the press. "In London the city is in ferment of excitement about the Games. Olymposceptics are being repeatedly converted.

"People who have never shown the slightest interest in a bicycle race are hurling themselves at their television sets and shouting themselves hoarse with excitement."

The fact is, Boris is right. As a hard-line, militant member of the International Olymposceptic Committee myself, I have to confess that the last week or so has been British Olymposcepticism's equivalent of the Battle of Balaclava, a humiliating defeat from which we Games nay-sayers will take some time to recover. It was symbolised in a very minor fashion by the way in which I found myself, last night, acting as the Mayor of London's Olympic tour guide.

All the old questions about London 2012's ridiculous cost, broken promises, draining effects on grassroots sport and limited or non-existent regeneration legacy have been swept away in a tsunami of ecstatic headlines about the "Golden Wonders", the "Great Haul Of China" and any other pun the newspapers can think of.

Every political party in Britain is now desperate to hitch itself to the Olympic bandwagon. Gordon Brown had his picture taken today with all the British medal winners (one athlete at London House last night suggested, sotto voce, that Mr Brown should be awarded a bronze medal for political leadership).

John Major has been on the BBC reminding us that it was he who started the National Lottery elite sports funding programmes which are credited with Team GB's success.

Phillips Idowu may have staged a late comeback in our traditional discipline of not coming first. But even from Beijing it is possible to sense the lift which Britain's extraordinary tally of (to date) 18 golds, 12 silvers and 11 bronzes has given the country - and the previously embattled representatives of London 2012.

"My task has just become a lot easier," said Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister, sitting next to Boris in the stadium last night. "What Beijing will have done is to remind people what the Olympics are for - it's been a while since we had this sense of national feelgood."

Simon Clegg, head of Team GB, said: "I've always said the success of the Games in 2012 will be judged across the country not on how efficient the transport is or what the stadiums are like but on how many men and women stand on the podium with medals around their necks. This is very, very good news for 2012."

As the Games draw to a close it is also clear that Beijing 2008 has been a triumph for China. Nobody important has, so far, tested positive for drugs. There have been no bombs, no boycotts, no major rows. The organisation has been superb, the facilities extraordinary, the hospitality quite without fault. The (perfectly true) image of China as a dynamic, modern giant has been delivered to the world.

There are mixed emotions about that, of course. It has been a privilege to witness the clearly genuine delight of the Chinese people in their Games. But as well as a triumph for the people, it has been a triumph for the regime.

"We have been banging away about human rights abuses throughout the Games," says one British human rights activist. "At the beginning there was quite a lot of [British media] interest and then suddenly we started winning medals and it dropped away like a stone. It's a bit depressing - all we seem to care about is medals."

Medals, you might retort, are the story here. But the human rights of thousands in China have been directly and massively infringed for this Games, and the rights of 1.3 billion have been set back more generally. The regime will end this fortnight even stronger than it was before.

The questions and concerns about the London games are still there and will eventually return. Britain's Olympic euphoria will wear off - although not for some months, with the victory parades, the sportspeople-of-the-year awards and the Honours List still to come. But for London 2012, for the moment, the only real problem is how on earth they match this British medal haul in four years' time.