Our Olympic heroes well worth funding

DEAR Editor, If any young people can be inspired to compete in sport after watching the Olympics the £347 million of lottery funding invested in our sportsmen and women will be worth it.

Someone once complained to me that the young people who cycled in Darlaston all came from middle-class families as they had a bike? We already pour millions down a hole in the failed attempt to stem a tide of drug addiction and drunkenness. Involving young people in sport would benefit so many. An argument raised is that with lottery funding the poor are subsidising the better off by buying a lottery ticket.

People buy a lottery ticket of their own free will. The sheer effort, individual athletic endeavour, blood, sweat and tears on show capture my support. Athletes, mostly in sports where there is little financial reward, who put careers on hold and sacrifice normal daily enjoyments, are deserving of our admiration.

It’s a sacrifice most local people could not contemplate and, if it takes lottery money to help them make it all happen, then that’s all right with me. Having a beer and a late night kebab is one thing but the sheer joy and despair, the human drama of sport, is at another level.

Only the killjoys would deny it to our young people and future athletes.

Coun Doug James, Walsall