Olympic size headache for individual liberty

By common consent, smoking is not conducive to a long and successful sporting career.

That, at least, is the modern view, although there are exceptions.

Sixty or 70 years ago it wasn't an issue because a great many sportsmen, including athletes, were smokers.

The list from that time is endless but to pick one at random, I'm pretty sure that Jimmy Greaves, the greatest English goalscorer of his time, was a smoker, and it was alcohol not tobacco that prematurely ended his top class football career.

Around the same time there's a famous photo of Billy Bremner, captain of Leeds United and Scotland, casually smoking a cigarette in the changing room at half-time.

Google it and you'll also find a picture of Jack Charlton, his Leeds teammate, smoking a cigarette during training.

A decade later the two biggest stars of the 1982 World Cup – Paolo Rossi (Italy) and the brilliant Socrates (Brazil) – were both heavy smokers, and although they both died prematurely (Rossi at 64, Socrates at 57), it would be hard to argue their habit ruined their careers.

Today very few top sportsmen smoke (publicly at least) and it's probably no coincidence that today's athletes are considered fitter than ever.

Nevertheless, smoking is not unknown, which brings me to the case of Shoko Miyata, the 19-year-old captain of Japan's women's gymnastics team, who has been sent home and won't be allowed to compete in the Olympics in Paris.

Her 'crime'? Smoking a single cigarette (allegedly).

To put this in perspective, reports say it's illegal to smoke under the age of 20 in Japan, which was news to me.

However, to deny a young athlete what might be her only chance of competing in the Olympics seems incredibly harsh, especially given the pressure she was said to be under.

Her 'punishment' has therefore received a mixed response but an article in The Spectator (Why the punishment fits the ‘crime’ for Japan’s smoking gymnast) is interesting because it explains the cultural differences between Japan and the UK, and why the Japanese authorities have acted – in our eyes – so severely.

According to the writer, Philip Patrick:

The protection of societal harmony is paramount, easily trumping any personal circumstances or sympathy for an individual who is seen to break the rules, however young. Miyata is really being punished as a representative of her country (literally in sporting terms and figuratively in terms of Japan as a whole). She has let the side down, with the side being Japan.

Compare that to the reaction in Britain to the English golfer Dan Brown who was seen smoking during play at the Open Championship at Troon at the weekend.

Apart from a handful of people who didn't approve of him flicking his cigarette butts into the (very wet) grass, very few of the comments I saw or heard were judgemental or negative.

'Man of the people' was one, but amusement was the overriding reaction.

His image did however take a bit of beating when he confessed that he hoped his parents hadn't seen him smoking, which was strange on two counts.

One, he was on national television (Sky) and they were no doubt following his progress closely. (He was briefly in the lead before finishing in the top ten.)

Two, he's 29 and a bit old to be worrying what his parents think, or perhaps that's a sign of the times.

My guess is that in ten or 20 years, when the sale of tobacco is prohibited to anyone under the age of 25 or 30, British Olympians may also find themselves banned or sent home for smoking.

How long too before a future UK government (Conservative or Labour) bans not only the sale of tobacco to thirtysomethings, but also makes smoking under a certain age a criminal offence?

(We keep being told it's only the sale of tobacco that's being made illegal to future generations, but I can't see how any government can achieve a 'smokefree' society without making smoking illegal too, and even that will only push it underground.)

Nor will it end with tobacco.

Initially, most reports about the Japanese gymnast said she had sent home for smoking. What the majority of reports and headlines didn't say is that she was also caught drinking alcohol.

The point is, the war on smoking is much further advanced in the UK than the war on alcohol, hence it was more of a story for the media (including the BBC) to frame it around smoking.

Nevertheless, fast forward 15 or 20 years and I can envisage even Brits falling foul of strict anti-drinking laws, including a ban on the sale of alcohol to anyone under the age of 21 or 25.

Given the current trajectory, it's almost inevitable, isn't it?

See also: Cutting an athlete from the Olympics for smoking is a ban too far (Independent)

Comments

[Pat Nurse]

How long before young people will be tested at job interviews to see if they smoke and then denied the job on those grounds even though smoking does not affect their ability to do their job as many generations before have proved. Lest we forget, this country and its institutions were built by smokers during a time when almost everyone smoked.

It's all part of the drive to make smokers less equal than others using "health" as a smoke screen. No one knew when they began talking about "Tackling health inequalities for smokers" that they meant they were busy working on making sure smokers were treated less equally than others. Before talk of smokers' inequality, no smoker was ever treated less equally than non smokers.

It's when the Orwellian Newspeak first made its appearance in the real world. Tackling health inequalities for smokers meant creating health inequalities for smokers. After all, what can be more damaging to health than being treated as a second or third hand citizen, outcast from society, made to feel constant shame and self loathing, stripped of any rights and denied the opportunity to work for a living?

One thing is for sure. Making smoking illegal to new generations will affect everyone. Making it illegal to smoke for everyone will be the only way to enforce it but you are right, people will smoke but they will go underground and you can bet this new stupid law will make smoking even more dangerous.

They are ruining future lives for the sake of political ideology. it absolutely stinks. I can't believe how gullible people can be.