SKY BRONZE IS RESULT OF RUTHLESS RECRUITMENT
NOBODY had to recruit sarah hardcastle to swim for Great Britain at the 1984 Olympic Games. she was an extraordinarily gifted athlete, who happened also to still be a pupil at shoeburyness high school in southend-on-sea. she won silver and bronze in los angeles and was, until this week, the youngest British medallist at the summer Olympics. Not the youngest British Olympic medallist, because that was cecilia colledge, a figure skater who won silver at the 1936 winter Games. she wasn’t recruited either. she was born and lived in london, where her father was a surgeon, eminent in the field of throat cancer. There is still a substantial fellowship fund in the family name at the royal college of surgeons of england. Yet these Olympians, hardcastle and colledge, will now be erased from the record books and replaced by sky Brown, who has become the youngest British Olympic medallist with a bronze in the women’s park skateboarding. and Brown most certainly was recruited to this country’s cause because she was born in Japan, and lives in Japan, apart from those months when she resides in the United states. and she is a wonderful athlete; courageous and competitive, but with the winning demeanour and energy of a supremely gifted 13-year-old. Yet there remains an element of expediency about her Britishness. it is her father’s nationality, so there is no question she qualifies. But Brown was targeted after she impressed as a nine-year-old at a competition in Bath. Great Britain scouted her; otherwise she would compete for Japan. Probably. Japan won gold and silver in Brown’s event in Tokyo. One of the girls, second-placed kokona hiraki, was even younger, just 12. and Japan have five of the world’s top 10 female park skaters; and two of the top five street skaters. as a British athlete, Brown has no competition. her nearest rival, Bombette Martin, is ranked 27th in the world. The explanation for Brown’s recruitment is that Team GB were more relaxed, and that appealed. Yet how relaxed do you have to be if you’re out poaching children of primary school age? Team GB can hardly play the cool uncle. Behind that cheery, laid-back façade is a ruthless recruitment programme that will lose nationality in the paperwork if there’s a medal in it. and without young sky they’re nowhere. You may find this mean-spirited. Our medallist is 13. Who would begrudge a 13-year-old girl this moment of pure joy and wonder? Yet hardcastle was 15. Just because she’s 52 now does not mean she wasn’t immensely proud of her record. angie Thorp was utterly distraught when her British 100metres hurdles record was broken by Tiffany Porter, recruited by Team GB once it became apparent she wasn’t going to make the american team. The first British medallist on skis is izzy atkin, an american teenager when she was recruited, later landing a milestone achievement that would have been truly special had it been recorded by an athlete who genuinely came from a country that didn’t have significant winter sports facilities — unlike Massachusetts or Utah, where atkin spends her time. Perhaps you think none of this matters. Perhaps it’s just about the medals, and the resultant funding. Team GB is not alone in exploiting the shifting sands of modern nationality. in a globalised world, so much is grey. Mark Bullingham, the Football association chief executive, says that 80 per cent of the young players in england’s age group teams have dual nationality. and sarah hardcastle’s daughter, eve Thomas, competed at the 2021 Olympics but for New Zealand, because the family emigrated there when she was three. it’s complicated, true. all the more reason, then, to fight hard to preserve the sanctity of international sport, and what sets it apart: the best of ours versus the best of yours. it’s not just about where you’re at; it really should be where you’re from, too.