Don't We Like Winners?

It’s true to say that, for a small nation we are more than capable of pushing our weight in a sporting sense.

Some of the more recent worldwide success and acclaim for British sportsmen and women has focused on the likes of Andy Murray, Lewis Hamilton, Chris Froome, Jessica Ennis and Jude Bellingham.

We can now add Lando Norris to the list as well as George Russell. Driving to thrive.

Going back a little further there are names to conjure with like David Beckham, Nick Faldo, Steve Redgrave and Paula Radcliffe.

Plus plenty of others.

Now, here’s a question for you.

Apart from their unerring capability for success at the very highest level, what else do all of those great sporting names have in common?

It’s that they are all, without exception, far more lauded for their achievements in other countries than they are, or probably ever will be, in this one.

I’m serious. The British population, on the whole, doesn’t seem to like winners. Or, more to the point, it doesn’t like British winners.

They make us feel uncomfortable.

Is it because their triumphs magnify our own perceived failings?

Or is it a simple case of jealousy?

Take Andy Murray as an example.

Some years ago, the Daily Telegraph ran an article wondering if he would ever be loved? Not much has changed today with his elevation to world number one in the ATP rankings in 2016 seeming only serving to give people more ammunition to have a go at him.

We’ve all seen it. 'He ‘hates’ the English'. 'He’s a ‘miserable so and so’. 'He only wins matches ’if other players are injured’.

Nothing has changed. He even got criticised for being disappointed when his chance of playing mixed doubles at Wimbledon ended when Emma Raducanu withdrew from the event, a decision he added he would also have made if their circumstances had been reversed.

Nick Faldo used to get the same sort of stick when he was dominating golf in much the same way that Tiger Woods did a few years later.

Type “Nick Faldo unpopular” into Google. It’ll save me linking up all the articles here. But I’ll warn you. It’s a veritable character assassination. Fans, journalists, fellow golfers. They don’t like him.

Never have, it would seem.?

It’s almost as if Nick should have to apologise for having the single mindedness, the tunnel vision that led him to becoming one of the most successful British golfers of all time.

Not that he would of course.

Who’d be a winner? Not the person who coined the phrase “winning isn’t everything”. He or she probably never won anything.

Because in the minds of those who are serial winners, winning IS everything.

Yet they seem to be forever vilified for it.

And all this whilst the plucky loser all too often assumes a place in popular folklore for ‘having a go’.

The archetypal plucky Brit.

We love them. I won’t disrespect them by naming names here. But you know the people I mean.

Don't get me wrong. I have as much respect and admiration for them as anyone.

But the fanaticism and favouritism always seems tilted in their favour.

It’s a conundrum. How can we expect people to aspire to success if they see those that have already attained it subject to personal criticism and, in the era of social media, plenty of personal abuse.

Abuse for simply being amongst the very best in the world at what they do.