I've got an idea that Tom Daly attends Kelly College near Plymouth. The same college that Sharron Davies attended. They have first class coaching facilities and coaches. They also used to take other swimming clubs in for a while during school holiday periods. My lad attended there for a week and was coached by Sharron Davies's father. A damn good place and it also teaches the normal subjects to a very high standard of course.

When china becomes "democratic" and "transparent" maybe we can assess their sporting prowess.I dare say that some of these athletes have been to specific institutions catered for a specific sporting achievement and that any other schooling is circumstantial to that endeavour.If i am wrong on that point then i apologise.

Never the less the "sour" grapes,so far with no absolute definitive statement on wrongdoing,maybe a reflection on other major shifts in orientation.

Murdoch has 'cottoned' on to a debate that has been going on for years ,one which i agree with,that taking part is more important than winning,as if this imparts an elitist view which is wrong in certain liberal eyes because it implies superiority.

."I dare say that some of these athletes have been to specific institutions catered for a specific sporting achievement and that any other schooling is circumstantial to that endeavour.If i am wrong on that point then i apologise."

I would say that American Unis offering scholarships based of sporting prowess is exactly that and has been their practice for a long long time.

Read more: http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/16/speakers-corner/4161524/winning-is-not-important--or-is-it/#ixzz22QRvF7EO

"it's no wonder they don't match China in the medal count."

One of the reasons for China's success in the medal tables is that they have so many people to choose from. For every person competing for a place in the British national team the Chinese will have 1000 hopefuls. They can afford to be very selective, and the communist state spends huge amounts of money on training top athletes. It doesn't have anything to do with us not being interested in winning.

Inevitably, Western athletes depend on funding in order to concentrate on training, and inevitably the children of wealthy parents are going to have an advantage if they decide to take up sport. Until and unless we decide that we want larger amounts of taxpayers' money to go into sport we'll have a rather unbalanced situation - wealthier people will have an advantage.

That's the way it is, and not just in this country.