Christopher Horan is unimpressed by the sport and Olympics gravy trains.
All year round, we taxpayers fund a group of athletes to fly from country to country doing exactly what they love doing. Yes, they train hard but it's not work, it's fun. It's what most people interested in sport do after work.
And now that some of these "elite" athletes, coaches, managers and therapists of this and that and the other have been selected to represent us at the Olympics, we are going to pay much more.
Does anyone know how much taxpayers are being charged for this party?
That's doubtful. Only in the past week has it come to light that it has cost us $215,846 just to rebrand, yes, rebrand, Sport and Recreation New Zealand. It's a nice little industry if you can get away with it.
Apparently, we are happy to have our hard-earned money siphoned away like this to pander to the vanity and insecurity of the few, and I don't necessarily mean athletes. Every day we hear terms such as "world class", or something puts us "on the world stage".
Why oh why are we still so desperate to be noticed?
Some New Zealanders are so desperate for recognition they'd sell off the top of Mount Cook if it could be achieved in a world-class way and put us on the world stage.
If "we" win 10 Olympic medals they'll notice us, won't they?
Well, yes. For 10 minutes. And after that, we're still left with third-world public television because no-one in another country would waste five minutes looking at Television New Zealand.
And here's the rub: Those of us who do not subscribe to Sky Television's monopoly will get to see only snippets of the Olympics, squeezed between advertising.
No doubt, if we get any medals, we will see those award ceremonies until we are sick of them, and be denied the accomplishments of lesser mortals from other competing countries.
We live in an age of unashamed me-first professionalism.
Athletes change countries at will.
And it is now routine for top athletes to forgo the unpaid honour of Commonwealth Games competition for a highly paid tournament elsewhere.
Considering the values to which young people have been exposed the past 25 years, who can blame them?
It's their career, their money, right?
Wrong. It's our money. And we are paying through the nose to keep these pampered hothouse plants in the manner they demand.
So why not be honest and set them loose. Go where you like, represent who you like and good luck to you, but don't expect the taxpayer to be your sugar daddy.
The farmers did it years ago. The sports industry, or part of it, still wants it both ways. Peter Snell and Murray Halberg managed without Sport and Recreation New Zealand. They were "world class" and they certainly put New Zealand on the "world stage".
Self-interest is clearly the motive of sports industry lobbyists to stay on the gravy train. The others, the desperate patriots clamouring for attention, probably have no genuine interest in sport. What they seek is the sensation of triumph, such as they experienced when the All Blacks won the World Cup. And did that triumph really hit the spot, fill the ache of yearning?
Triumph is not all it's cracked up to be. Better to go along and cheer on the kids on Saturday morning. Now, if my taxes must be spent on sport, that's where I want it to be spent.
• Christopher Horan lives at Lake Hawea.
