10/09/2012 Newsnight Scotland

regulator no longer has a tenable position and she will be one of the

first to go. The sporting scene It's been a

remarkable year so far, but does Scotland over-achieve or under-

achieve in the world of elite sport?

Good evening. As we speak there's a Scotsman playing a Serbian in New

York for one of the world's most coveted trophies in individual

sport. Andy Murray has won the first set, if you're interested. On

Saturday Scotland couldn't beat Serbia at our national game of

football - we had to settle for a draw. But we did have a hugely

successful Olympics, as part of Team GB, but then that was mainly

in the minority or special interest sports like track cycling and

rowing. So does Scotland punch above its weight in world sport, or

not? We'll discuss that question shortly, first David Allison

reports. Sir Chris Hoy -- to Olympic gold medals this time and

the face of Team GB who were parading through London to mark the

end of 2012 games. When I was a child, you supported you home team

but he did not expect to win. Now, people can think we have a good

chance of winning so why cats I go on to be a winner. Hopefully that

will be one of the legacies of this game. -- these games. Andy Murray

with an Olympic gold and tonight all lies on so sure unfair -- Sir

Sean Connery and Alex Ferguson who have gone to New York to CV can

finally win a Grand Slam. It is great to make them, their Scottish

and they are here for the final. I hope I can make them proud.

three-time Indianapolis 500 winner and Indy Car champion. There are up

and coming Scots like Paul Di Resta, tipped for a move to a top team

like Mercedes or McLaren. And then there is fit while... -- football...

Supporters booing at hand in who felt they had no reason to cheer in

the face of a miserable draw with Serbia at the weekend. It is a

disappointment but it is not a disastrous start for us. I Love

Like To Win Again. Back training for the match tomorrow against

Macedonia. What is really annoyed me more than anything else in the

last couple of days has been these sell for claimed ex bears. What do

they know about passing or glasses? -- self proclaimed ex bears.

glory days of 1978 seem like ancient history. What does it take

to become truly world-class? The velodrome and the 2000 into

Commonwealth Games in Manchester has become a centre of excellence

and has helped raise the standard of British cycling. I think I were

trying continue on and sell the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow end

2014. That is being used. A lot of it is down to my body, whether it

can hold out. You just have to try and earn your place in the team

because there are so many young and talented riders coming through. It

is a bit greedy but if I can have a home Olympics and a home

Commonwealth Games that will be a fantastic enter my career.

velodrome is being built here in Glasgow for the 2014 games. It

could also prove to be a catalyst for more elite athletes. What about

none a elite athletes, the average majority, what about us? What about

in schools? What chance are we giving our young people for the

future. The huge turnout for the parade of Olympic and Paralympic

sports stars shows that everyone loves a winner. In these tough

times, do we love it enough to provide the cash that our elite

athletes need? How committed are we to be able to not just inspire but

really open the doors of opportunity to a wider field?

us discuss now with our guest. I'm joined now by Tommy Boyle, former

elite athletics coach, now director of the Positive Coaching Scotland

programme with the Winning Scotland Foundation. Also here is Brian

Whittle, former Olympic 400 metres competitor, and Roddy Forsyth who

writes and broadcasts about sport, mainly football for his sins. Let

us start with you, Tom May, are we punching above our weight or not,

what do you think? I think the Olympics have proven that Scots can

compete successfully if we invest. If we have a positive approach to

world-class athletics, and then recent events prove that Scots can

produce at world level. We will continue to do so, if we capitalise

on the positivity that has come from the Olympics. One is your

assessment overall? I come from a generation where we did punch above

our weight. I remember Scotland being in the World Cup and the

semi-finals. In my own career, there were athletes there who were

winning medals on the track at the Olympic Games and the European

Championships. There is no doubt we can do it. I am coaching at the

moment and there has been a massive upsurge in the number of kids

coming into the sports. We have an opportunity, we have talent, we

always have had talent. We have not been good at nurturing that talent.

It goes back to extra-curricular sport. Especially sports that I

class as entry-level sports. We're not good at sitting down snores.

They are expensive. Things like swimming, track-and-field, handball,

netball, if we invest in those sports which are easier to get into

we would have more success. A we will pick up on some of those

points in a wee while. What about your assessment? I think we punched

be lock her weight in terms of potential. Do we achieve the

potential out there in Scotland? We do not. We over-achieve in terms of

our facilities. We achieved in spite of the facilities that at out

there. We are not a warm weather country. Any sports person will

tell you it is easier to accomplish things if you have the sun on your

back. We do not have that and we do not make any great a tent as some

countries do to provide the facilities which allow you to put -

- to proceed in doors. For 2014, they are hoping to have two hours

of physical education in primary schools and in the first two years

and secondary. Australia is having difficulties getting its physical

education through schools. The state of Victoria has three-hour us

for example. Even our target for two years' time is 50 % behind some

of the nations of a relative rate comparable size. Lots of different

influences, positive and negative. What about facilities and the

opportunity to play sport and sample sport at an early age?

think there has been a massive investment by the government and

sportscotland over the last 10 years. The use of those facilities

is really where we need to see the benefits of the positivity that

comes from the Olympics. The real challenges are that it is not

difficult, after two months of non- stop success to motivate young

people to go along to a sports facility, the really difficult

thing is their capacity there. Is it there to get them into the club

and retain them? Have we got the coaches who have been developed to

take them to the next level? That is their places where leaders in

Sport and the clubs have got to focus on in the next couple of

years leading up to Glasgow. What a fantastic opportunity to learn and

invest. Do you think we have got the capacity? It is a fact we do

not have the capacity. I hear about how lazy children are these days. I

think that is nonsense. It is not part of our national make-up?

clubs and I coach at clubs and the reality is kids are coming down and

cannot get in because there is a waiting list. We need to be looking

at the development of coaches and clubs, engaging more appearance

into coming into the clubs and taking an active part for their

children's developments. I hear the best caught a child Oliver had his

his parents. We have to bring parents back into sport. We cannot

have a situation where BC the Olympic Games and then a child goes

to a club and cannot get a 10. We have to increase the capacity and

capability of clubs. They are countless stories of great

footballers who started by kicking a ball in the street. I would argue

that the 30 years ago f people had access to smartphones and personal

computers, they would not have been out in the street playing football.

People would not do that by choice on cold and wait days if he could

do something else in the warmth of your own home. People did go out in

those days. You could argue the best way to hot house Scottish

footballers would be to recreate a tenement buildings and make

children play outside like these two but those days are long gone.

There is a trend now in all developed countries for children,

they are assessments of how much the news, this declines as they get

into their teens and less than as a sporting culture around them and

they are facilities which are safe Well at the summer of sport

encourage more people to be more active, whether they aspire to be

at the top level or just want to enjoy sport for its own sake?

will certainly encourage people to go along to sport, encourage

everybody for a short period of time. The real trick is going to be

that we start to work harder at the culture in Scotland, the culture of

sport. How we see the value of sport. The reality is that sport

can bring so many things to young people but what we have to do is

look at all the influences of the young people, starting from the

leaders in government, leaders in schools. The what about parents?

so lately vitally, the parents. In some of the work we have been doing,

that is the real focus because the key influence or and key role model

in at child's life is their parents, right from the day they are poor

and, through primary-school, into secondary school, every single

point. The Olympics has almost ignited a flame which will fuel a

fire. The thing is, can we communicate that to parents and

help them to understand the real potential for a lifelong learning

and health of their child and if we can do that, that would be a

fantastic thing. Do we give sport a priority that will make that change

and I don't just mean government, parents, all of us? We have lost

this in society, there is a big culture shift. Both parents and now

at work or are there are lots more single parents. I don't get here to

the fact that DVDs and gaming is the big issue, for me, it is who is

giving them that those things and who is giving them an alternative?

In my experience, kids do want to get out and get involved but

unfortunately, a lot of the clubs are treated a little bit like a

creche where parents will drop them off and go away. We have to get to

a point where parents can be brought into a club and become part

of the club and they learn about the advantages of support for the

health of their kids. It is a big thing, but we got to knock the door

at Holyrood and say, have a look at this. We need to be doing more.

we have our sporting icons, whether it is Chris Hoy or Andy Murray, who

is now 5-2 up in the second set, having won that first set. Does it

matter because we are a football nation, aren't we? It almost seems

sometimes that no matter how well we do in other sports, if the

national team does not perform as it didn't over the weekend, then

that is all that counts? I would not chastise football for being

successful and others for not being successful, I am glad we have one

sport that we are relatively successful in. But if you pass any

public park in the City where there are tennis courts after Wimbledon,

they are full. People have time and they encourage to go out and the

facilities to do it. It troubles me and the point made about parents

being facility -- facilitators. It is teachers who are the next line

of having inspiration and it worries me that in the time I have

looked at sport, the idea that achieving or succeeding was

something to be either ashamed of or not to be discussed, something

that came second to simply taking part. I think we lost our way a bit

there. I agree that taking part is crucial, without doing that you

cannot succeed but there is a distinction between saying, we must

not merit those who win, we must also protect those who do not went.

Just saying, let's forget about succeeding and in many cases we did

that. A is a dilemma for those physical education teachers with

all those children in the class of mixed-ability, which side should

they come down on? A thing this comes back to the issue of culture

that we have in the country. How are we confuse this word, winning.

Winning in the dictionary means success through effort. It is not

scoring goals for winning the 100 m, it is success through effort so if,

as a nation, we can try and change the way it that all of the key

influencers see winning it, that young people are encouraged to try

harder to succeed to sport and that is going to be the key going for it.

It is all about effort, encouraging young people when they fail, dust

themselves down and pick themselves up, and through sport, they can

learn to try harder and learn the life lessons that will help them

become if they are talented enough to make the top level, that is

great but it also help them succeed in life and there is a proven

correlation between that had of stuff in Sport and academic

performance. Perhaps that is a topic for a future edition of

Newsnight. Now a quick look at tomorrow's

front pages. All the papers going on the Olympic