From the Sidelines (From Your Local Guardian)

From the Sidelines

9:17am Friday 15th August 2008

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Isn’t it just typical of British sport that the incident that has attracted most column inches at the Olympics has nothing to do with gold medals, great achievements... or even China’s appalling human rights record.

No, it is the supposed tiff between our synchronised divers, Tom Daley and Blake Aldridge, who finished eighth and last in their final having found the Beijing pool a stage too far.

Notwithstanding the fact that their dives still looked pretty sensational to me, performing all sorts of acrobatics in unison on their way into the water, we seem to love nothing more than a failure to dwell on.

The fact is, however, that the pair would hardly have attracted a mention but for the hype that built up over Daley over the past few weeks... basically because he is a 14-year-old.

Daley has received extremely favourable press throughout all of this and appears to have handled it all pretty well.

But, what concerns me is the hypocritical flak handed out to 26-year-old Aldridge for having the temerity to give an honest appraisal of the final when he was interviewed afterwards.

Aldridge’s crime? To suggest that Daley had not dived to his potential and that nerves had got the better of him in an Olympic final.

From the poolside view in the living room, admittedly as I pointed out above with a fairly limited knowledge of what makes a perfect dive, that seemed like a pretty fair appraisal to me.

Perhaps he could have chosen his words more carefully, but Aldridge’s dreams of an Olympic medal had just been dashed.

He will be 30 by the time London 2012 comes around and – while Daley gets a second chance in the individual event next week – obscurity may well beckon for B&Q shelf-stacker Aldridge.

So, after the biggest moment of his life, why shouldn’t he be allowed a say on what happened without a host of smug columnists tearing into him simply for voicing an opinion.

In football, David Bentley and Gary Neville are notable for being among the few who don’t talk in clichés and – platitudes – and they get stick for it too.

It is hypocrisy because the same columnists will be first to complain about our sports heroes having no personalities and using interviews to thank their sponsors.

They should give Blake a break.