Games can stop Euro slide: Clegg

Baku ( Azerbaijan), Oct. 20: Europe’s decline as an Olympic sporting superpower can be arrested by the European Games which ushers in its inaugural edition next year in Baku, claimed the event’s Chief Operating Officer Simon Clegg.

The 55- year- old Englishman — a pivotal figure in London’s successful bid to host the 2012 Olympics — said it was alarming how Europe had gone from winning 74 per cent of the medals in Seoul in 1988 to just 38 per cent by Beijing in 2008.

Clegg, saw the British team them finish fourth in the medals table of Beijing Games, said he believed the experience of competing in a major Games would set the European athletes up nicely for the challenges of an Olympics

Europe has lost its dominant position as a sporting continent. Europe is the last continent to have its own Games and I think the others have benefited from having them. SIMON CLEGG — Chief Operating Officer of Euro Games

the following year.

“The figures of winning 74 per cent of the medals in 1988 to just 38 per cent in 2008 clearly show that Europe has lost its dominant position as a sporting continent,” he said.

“Europe is the last continent to have its own Games and I think the others have benefited from having them. European athletes have found it hard to adapt to the atmosphere at an Olympic Games,” Cleg added.