Dark Arts

90-second read

There’s just something about the dark arts of sports. If your team does it, you’re ok with it. But if the other side does it, then suddenly it’s cheating and you’re having a good old moan about it.

Let me take you back to the opening night at the cycling velodrome at the 2012 London Olympics.

Team GB were competing in the men’s team sprint against Germany. Three riders, three laps, and Philip Hindes was the man responsible for getting them off the line quick.

In this event, the start matters a lot. The first rider has to get off to an explosive start, and get the team up to speed quickly. A poor start can cost you the race.

Anyway, Hindes got off to a slow start. Within the first few seconds, he wobbled, lost control and went down.

It then turns out that according to the rules of the race, if there’s a mishap and a rider falls in the opening half-lap, then the race has to be stopped and restarted.

Hindes got off to a slow start, and because he understood the rules, he just so happened to lose his balance and fall, and he managed to sell it well. So he managed to get his team a restart.

So Team GB got another go. They progressed through the competition and eventually beat France in the final to win gold.

Afterwards, Hinds admitted that the team had discussed what to do if they got a bad start, and that he had deliberately gone down.

British Cycling quickly said that his comments had been misunderstood, and Hindes later said he had simply lost control, and the result stood.

That is the dark arts. And if I'm honest, I was impressed more than I was outraged.

Had a French rider done exactly the same thing against Team GB, I probably would have spent the evening complaining about cheating and lack of integrity.

As sports fans, let’s be honest now, most of us are hypocrites in one way or another. Sports makes that pretty obvious. We want our team to win, and we’re happy to overlook the small, mostly harmless bits of cheating when they work in our favour, and complain about them when they don’t.

So when the new season starts, and a decision doesn’t go your way, by all means complain about the ref. Just remember, if the exact same thing had gone your way, you probably wouldn’t be complaining at all.