[zt]中国奥运普世价值普到了英国，英国牛B了

[鲁莽电工]

华尔街日报《伦敦2012，日不落的复苏，举国体制的胜利》

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...Tabs%3Darticle
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以下为翻译：


　　1996年亚特兰大奥运会英国队仅仅收获了一块金牌，比哈萨克斯坦还要少两块，这让老迈帝国的国民心理非常受伤。16年后，英国队已经重新振作起来，这要感谢英国像机器一样高效运作的乐透产生的收益来支持帮助国家培养运动员，因此东道主很有可能上演创纪录的表演。


　　在过去的15个年头里英国队悄悄地崛起，他们从1996年仅仅获得15枚奖牌到2008年获了47枚，这是个教科书般的大逆转。英国队对于即将到来的伦敦奥运会已经跃跃欲试，而公共特许机构也将提供丰厚的奖金来刺激运动员们，对象也包括“雇佣兵”和聘请的国外教练，旨在将注意力集中到东道主能够获得奖牌的项目上。


　　最终的结果可能让英国从长期以来奥运奖牌受如美国、中国和俄罗斯等大国垄断的阴影下走出来，让自己登上头条。高盛投资公司预测英国队这个夏天赢得的金牌数量将超过俄罗斯，如果成功将会成为奥运历史上的一个里程碑意义的故事。高盛还预测英国队将总共获得65块奖牌，比起2008年要多38%。


　　（下面这句是重大亮点~~~~）

　　“比赛并不在于重在参与，而是为了赢。”英国体育委员会首席执行官莉兹-尼科尔（Liz Nicholl）这么说，这个部门的工作就是让英国运动员在奥运会上赢得奖牌。

　　尼科尔认为英国队可以在这个夏天上演他们在现代奥林匹克时代里最好的表现。“事实上，我毫不怀疑。”自从在2006年说服政*府提供更多的资金后，英国代表队就享受着“最好的资金支持”。

　　但是英国运动员们的道路并不总是那么平坦，1996年亚特兰大奥运会上的灾难般的表现遭到了媒体的痛斥，媒体揭露出运动员恶劣的生存状况，包括两名英国跳水运动员鲍勃-摩根（Bob Morgan）和托尼-艾利（Tony Ally）不得不在亚特兰大的街头兜售自己的奥运装备来换取现金。

　　而队伍输给了哈萨克斯坦则自然受到了特别的嘲讽：“某国的牧羊人在昨晚狠狠羞辱了大英帝国奥运代表队。”《每日镜报》当时这么写道，谴责堂堂英国居然耻辱地输给了一个人们“需要靠鹰来捕获食物的国家”。

　　这场危机促使英国政客们将资金通过从新开的乐透彩票的收益投入到一个工作旨在培养顶级运动员并维持国家荣耀的运动部门。

　　这个机构就是英国体育局，建立于1997年。它最开始先划分出英国的少数几个优势项目——赛艇，帆船，自行车和田径——随后重点培养这几个项目中有可能夺得奖牌的运动员们。

　　这是一个非常势利的尝试，英国体育局甚至清除了“体系中的障碍”，指那些已经错过自己巅峰期不太有可能再度获得奥运奖牌的运动员。自那以后，英国体育局会给那些将来有机会拿到奥运奖牌的运动员以充足的资金支持。

　　“我们的投资是以金牌产出为目的”尼科尔这么说，“我们完全没有任何歉意，我们会做出艰难的抉择的。”

　　因此英国的目标就是夺牌，他们鼓励那些在一些项目上有高光表现的运动员们能够将重点转移到那些他们更有机会夺得奥运奖牌的项目上。比如丽贝卡-罗梅罗（Rebecca Romero），她在2004雅典奥运会上夺得了赛艇的银牌，但是之后被说服将重心转移到她在2008年获得金牌的场地自行车项目上。

　　英国奥运代表队悄悄崛起，他们在2000年悉尼奥运会上夺得了28块奖牌，在奖牌榜上位列第十。四年之后他们夺得了30块。在北京，他们赢得了47块奖牌，仅仅落后于美国，中国和俄罗斯。

　　今年，英国的眼光将放的更高。英国奥运会的东道主代表队将是有史以来资金支持最充裕同时也是最庞大的队伍——542名运动员，这些运动员们的目标是巩固自己在奖牌榜第四的位置，继续将德国和澳大利亚甩在身后，如果他们走运的话在金牌榜上可以超过俄罗斯。“我认为这是我们自1908年之后最强大的代表队。”体育历史学家和《英国人的奥运》（The British Olympics）的作者马丁-波利（Martin Polley）这么认为。

　　英国人将会占有主场优势，根据高盛统计的自1972-2008年的夏季奥运会的数据显示东道主国家会赢得比在其他时候参赛多获得54%的奖牌。

　　英国人最大的希望将会是他们的自行车项目，这个项目上克里斯-霍伊（Chris Hoy）在2008年成为了整个世纪以来第一个在单届奥运会上获得三枚金牌的英国人。其他曾经获得两块金牌的运动员还有英国历史上最具竞争力的帆船运动员本-艾恩斯利（Ben Ainslie）和在2008年赢得两块游泳金牌的丽贝卡·阿德林顿（Rebecca Adlington）。


　　当然，英国队同样也要寄托那些雄心勃勃的第一次争夺奥运奖牌的选手上，尤其是自田径项目，队伍聘请了荷兰的以其争议的“杀无赦”手段闻名的铁腕教头卡勒斯-范-科梅内（Charles Van Commenee）来带队。


　　杰西卡-恩尼斯，这位肖像印满了英国的各个广告牌的田径明星有希望在女子七项全能项目上夺冠。而兄弟组合阿利斯泰尔-布朗利和乔纳森-布朗利是英国人首度摘下男子铁人三项金牌的大热门。


　　男子5000米世界冠军法拉赫（Mo Farah）有机会在伦敦奥运会上打破埃塞俄比亚选手16年来在男子10000米项目上的垄断。法拉赫出生在索马里，在8岁的时候移居英国。他一直在肯尼亚的大裂谷训练，依靠新进的强劲资金的注入，英国人在那里为运动员们建了一个高海拔训练基地。


　　为了避免在伦敦主场遭遇到表现不佳的窘境，英国政*府在2006年同意给予英国体育局额外的资金支持。在（2009-2013）这个四年周期中，英国体育局已经给自行车项目的个人和团队投入了3亿1千2百万英镑（合4亿8千8百万美元）相对于上一个四年周期（2005-2009）的2亿6千5百万英镑有了大幅增长。而美国队没有从公共资金上面获得那么好的支持，他们很大一部分的资金是从私人捐助中获得的。


　　英国体育局用额外的资金来支持运动员获得奥运会参赛资格的办法已经实行了8年，英国队在女子长距离游泳项目上的夺标热门凯莉-安 佩妮（Keri-Anne Payne）最初是由英国教练在她只有8岁时在南非发现的。


　　英国体育局使用了非常势利的方法，其中包括给运动员，团队还有机构本身制定了严格的目标。


　　体育局给英国所有运动员通过他们在奥运会上的夺牌可能性来排名，那些可能赢得多枚奖牌的运动员们排在最前面。这个每年都会更新的排名将会决定每个运动员获得资金支持究竟有多少。排名越高，拿到的钱也更多。


　　“我们不会做出任何妥协，比如给每个运动员都分一点。”尼科尔这么说，“我们将会根据我们的精英排行榜来分配我们的资金支出。”机构还会根据项目的情况来改变资金分配。


　　尽管2012伦敦奥运会英国代表队可能是现代奥林匹克历史上英国最强大的队伍，可能会打破1908年创造的英国队的奖牌纪录，那时的英国人自己制定了一些项目和规则，包括一些奇怪的项目如汽艇竞速和只有英国人参加的壁球比赛使得他们可以囊括146枚奖牌。“除了英国人自己，没人知道规则。”波利这么说道。


　　但对于今天的英国队来说，最大的挑战将来自伦敦奥运会后。历史上几乎所有的东道主在本国举办的奥运会后都出现了表现下滑。但尼科尔说她在那之后的目标是在四年后的里约奥运会上英国队的成绩要超过伦敦奥运会。“这将会是给全世界的一个声明：这个体系很有效。”


Great Britain came home from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with just one gold medal—two fewer than Kazakhstan—and a wounded national psyche. Sixteen years later, Team GB has been overhauled and rebuilt thanks to a machine-like agency flush with cash from the U.K. lottery that grooms British athletes. The result could be a record-setting performance here for the home squad.



Great Britain came home from the 1996 Atlanta Olympics with just one gold medal-two fewer than Kazakhstan. But in just sixteen years, Team GB could a record-setting performance. WSJ's Jonathan Clegg reports. Photo: Reuters
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Britain's quiet rise in Olympic competition over the past decade and a half—from winning a paltry 15 medals in 1996 to scoring 47 in 2008—is a textbook turnaround story. The U.K. has turbocharged its Olympic apparatus in anticipation of the London games, filling the coffers of the publicly chartered agency that grooms athletes; recruiting foreign-born competitors known as "Plastic Brits"; importing top coaches; and ruthlessly focusing the country's efforts on events where it could win medals.


Britain's 13 for 2012
A baker's dozen athletes are Britain's greatest hopes for 2012.


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Scottish cycling superstar Chris Hoy, of Edinburgh won three gold medals in Beijing, another gold in Athens and a silver in Sydney and is Britain's most successful Olympic cyclist ever.
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The outcome is that Britain could step out of the shadows from longtime Olympic powerhouses such as the U.S., China and Russia and make some headlines of its own. Goldman Sachs & Co. forecasts Britain will win more gold medals than Russia this summer, a potential upset that would mark a major milestone in Olympic history. The bank's analysts estimate Britain will win 65 medals overall, 38% more than it did in 2008.


"This is not about taking part. It's about winning," said Liz Nicholl, chief executive of U.K. Sport, the agency tasked with winning Olympic medals for Britain.


Nicholl predicts the U.K. will see its best performance in modern times this summer. "I have no doubt about it, actually," she said. Since persuading the government to hand over extra money in 2006, the U.K. team has enjoyed "optimal funding," she said.


It wasn't always this way for British athletes. The disastrous performance in Atlanta was devoured by the British press, which pointed to tales of hard-up athletes, including that of two U.K. divers, Bob Morgan and Tony Ally, who hawked their official Olympic gear on the streets of Atlanta for cash.


The loss to Kazakhstan merited special scorn. "A nation of goat-keepers and shepherds last night humiliated the might of Great Britain's Olympic team," the Daily Mirror tabloid wrote at the time, decrying the indignity of losing to a country "where locals use eagles to catch food."


The crisis prompted British politicians to divert money from the newly created U.K. lottery into a sports apparatus that would churn out medal-winning athletes and restore national pride.


That agency, U.K. Sport, was launched in 1997. It initially prioritized the few sports where Britain excelled—rowing, sailing, cycling and track and field—and focused on athletes within those sports who had a shot at medals.


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Alistair Brownlee (right) and his brother Jonathan
.It was a hard-nosed approach. U.K. Sport even rooted out "system blockers," or athletes who were competing internationally but had passed their prime and appeared unlikely to win Olympic medals. From then on, U.K. Sport would provide ample funding to athletes—if they had a metallic future.


"We are investing in the outcome of medal success," Nicholl says. "We are absolutely, unapologetically focused on that. So we will make the tough calls."


So intent was Britain on winning medals that it encouraged some high-performing athletes to switch into sports where they would have a better shot at making it to the Olympic podium. Rebecca Romero, for instance, won a silver medal in rowing at the 2004 Athens Olympics but was later encouraged to switch to track cycling, where she won gold in the 2008 Games.


The U.K. Olympic team started rising. It won 28 medals at the 2000 Sydney Games, 10th in the medal standings. Four years later it notched 30 medals. By 2008 in Beijing, its 47 medals ranked behind only the U.S., China and Russia.


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This year, Britain has even loftier hopes. The London Games will host the country's biggest and best-funded team ever, with 542 members. The athletes aim to fend off Germany and Australia to retain Britain's No. 4 spot in the overall medal haul. If they're lucky, they'll win more golds than Russia. "I believe it's our strongest team since 1908," said Martin Polley, a sports historian and author of the book "The British Olympics."


Britain enjoys a meaningful home-field advantage. Nations win 54% more medals when they are host countries rather than ordinary participants, according to Goldman Sachs calculations that measured Summer Olympics from 1972 to 2008.


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Perhaps the U.K.'s biggest hope is in cycling, where Chris Hoy became the first Briton in a century to win three gold medals at a single Olympics in 2008. Other British competitors with multiple past medals include Ben Ainslie, one of the best competitive sailors in history, and swimmer Rebecca Adlington, who won two golds in 2008.


Team GB is also relying on a raft of first-time medal aspirants. This is particularly so in track and field, where it recruited Charles Van Commenee, a Dutch coach controversial for his take-no-prisoners approach, to improve the team.


Jessica Ennis, the track and field star plastered on billboards across Britain, could take gold in the heptathlon, while brothers Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee could snatch Britain's first-ever medals in the triathlon.


Mo Farah, the current men's 5,000-meter world champion, has a realistic chance of ending Ethiopia's 16-year reign in the men's Olympic 10,000-meter event at the London Games. Farah, who was born in Somalia but moved to Britain at age 8, has been training in the Rift Valley in Kenya, which has started hosting an annual high-altitude training camp for British athletes thanks to newly robust funding.


To avoid the pain of underperforming in London, Britain agreed in 2006 to provide U.K. Sport with extra funding. U.K. Sport is almost done doling out £312 million (about $488 million) to teams and individuals for the London cycle (2009-2013), up from about £265 million spent for Beijing (2005-2009). U.S. teams don't enjoy a similar pot of public funding for Olympic sports and instead raise money largely from private donors.


U.K. Sport has used the extra money to support athletes as far as eight years in advance of Olympic qualification. Keri-Anne Payne, the 24-year-old British gold medal favorite in long-distance swimming, was first spotted by British coaches in South Africa at age 8.


U.K. Sport operates via a shrewd method that includes strict performance targets for the athletes, the teams and the agency itself.


The agency ranks British athletes across all sports on the basis of their chance of winning an Olympic medal, slating athletes with multiple-medal winning potential at the top. The ranking, reviewed annually, determines how much individual funding each athlete gets. The higher the ranking, the more money.


"Our no-compromise approach says we're not going to compromise and give everyone a bit," Nicholl says. "We are going to invest absolutely the right amount of money from the top down on our meritocratic list." The agency also shifts money to sports that show more promise.


Though the 2012 team may be the finest in Britain's modern Olympic history, it isn't likely to beat the country's medal tally from the 1908 London Games, when British officials drew up the program of events and included oddball sports such as motorboat racing, the tug of war and rackets, allowing Britain to scoop 146 medals. "Nobody else [besides the British] really knew the rules," Polley said.


Still, for today's British team, the biggest challenge may come after London. Almost all teams see a dip in performance after their country hosts the Olympics, but Nicholl says she aims to replicate or beat the U.K.'s 2012 medal haul four years from now in Rio de Janeiro. "That," she said, "would be a real statement to the world that this system really is working."


Write to Paul Sonne at paul.sonne@wsj.com and Jonathan Clegg

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