Four years till 2012: get your kit on

by Jo-ann Hodgson in At home on 30.09.08

This summer’s Olympics was pretty inspiring stuff. I’m not ashamed to admit that I welled up with pride at Britain’s unexpected success on a number of occasions.

While I have also been known to become tearful at BBC1’s Last Choir Standing and even X-Factor during times of heightened emotional fragility, sport doesn’t usually do it for me. But even I, habitual school PE class ‘messer-arounder’, became temporarily overwhelmed with fantasies of dedicating my time to physical excellence and making my country proud - all in Rocky-style montage sequence of course.

These moments lasted at tops an hour before the vicarious euphoria gave way to the comfort of my usual evening activities, which generally involve eating, drinking and sitting down.

But it seems that many Brits got a little bit carried away with Olympic fever. Recent research by a nutrition company claims that 34% of Brits have been inspired to exercise by the country’s success in Beijing, spending over £930 million on new fitness items since the games. However, only a third of those surveyed expected that their new found enthusiasm for fitness would last longer than three months.

The biggest expenditure of this new national fitness fixation was home exercise equipment, with gym membership and sports clothing making up the rest of the top three.  So when staying with the family this Christmas, be prepared to share the spare room with a rowing machine, and don’t be offended if you receive keep-fit paraphernalia in your stocking.

But even if you’re not enthralled by the idea of prancing around in Lycra, Olympic glory could still be yours. “There are four whole years until 2012,” an unemployed friend of mine recently enthused, “plenty of time to get good at one of the more rubbish sports. Archery, for example, was full of fat blokes in glasses this year. And then there’s table tennis and darts. The government are so concerned with getting medals that they’ll be throwing money at you.”

So consider your options before giving up on gold.

IMAGE by Flickr Sister72