BackAgainst the Odds | From a fire station to British folklore
Against the Odds | From a fire station to British folklore
PremiumGreat Britain’s Shauna Mullin sets the ball for Zara Dampney during a beach volleyball match against Italy at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Tuesday in London. AP
London: Some of the most dramatic moments of this Olympics took place late into Monday night at the Earl’s Court volleyball venue in West London. What’s more it wasn’t a decisive match at all. There were no medals and no national rivalries at stake. And, before that match in any case, it featured no stars anyone in Great Britain or abroad had heard of.
It was merely a group stage women’s volleyball match between African champions Algeria and rank outsiders Great Britain. The gulf in quality between both teams was immense. Algeria is currently ranked 16th in the world. Team GB features some 50 ranks below them, in the nether regions of volleyball where almost everybody is equally rubbish. At least on paper.
By the time the Algerians and British stepped onto the court there were many, many empty seats. Which was a pity. Because what transpired next will live on in British TV sports montages, Olympics highlight reels and in the memories of those who witnessed it for years to come.
When the match finally got over well past midnight, Team GB had pulled off an upset 22-25, 25-19, 23-25, 25-19, 15-8 win over the vastly more experienced and, indeed, talented Algerians.
But instead of moaning about their predicament, the girls moved on. Like so many great champions of the past, the girls immediately decided what they would do: whatever it took. They raised money from schools, through a charity bike ride, and from local sponsors. Last summer, the girls struck a deal with the South Yorkshire Fire and Rescue training centre, essentially a small sports facility for firemen, to host the team and let them use the facilities.
The year before that the team trained in Dorset. The 16 players stayed at the home of one of the players and two helpful neighbours.
In May 2012, Lucy Wicks, the team’s setter, told the BBC that they were undeterred despite the funding problems and the fact that Team GB had never played in an Olympics before: “We’re still going for exactly the same goals that we would have done had we had funding, that hasn’t changed, because we still believe we can make the top eight at the Olympics."
Several players quit jobs, sold houses and moved across the country to make their dream come true.
No wonder then that the team, the crowd and the commentators celebrated each and every set victory as if it were a medal. After the girls won their first set, one of the commentators was momentarily speechless and quite clearly emotional. Never before in volleyball, perhaps, has the winning of a single set been called “a significant moment" in the history of the sport in a nation.
Far too many times there is a tendency to reduce Olympic success to a matter of national interest, sophisticated infrastructure and state funding. Far too many times, especially in India, we look at a sparse medals tally and immediately think sports reform and legislation is the answer.
The Team GB girls have shown that sometimes champions are born not of millions of dollars in funding and international coaches. But of desire, community, sacrifice and grit.
sidin.v@livemint.com
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