Poor coverage of the Paris Olympic Games will not inspire children - Sarah Todd

24 million of us tuned in to the Winter Olympics in 1984 to watch ice skaters Torvill and Dean’s Bolero routine take gold and over the years others that have come along, from sprinter Linford Christie to rower Steve Redgrave, have all been guaranteed this viewer’s cheer across the finish line. Oh and, of course, we must not forget Yorkshire-born heptathlete Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill.

The 2012 Olympic Gold Medallist was such a proper inspirational role model for young girls. In such stark contrast to today’s hero-worshipped duck-billed Love Island types, who so often get their bodies from the surgeon’s knife rather than exercise. Their only physical activity seems to be scrolling down their mobile phones.

As an aside, the 1981 film Chariots of Fire is an all-time favourite and others must have felt the same, with the true story of two British athletes in the 1924 Olympics, ranked in the top 20 of the British Film Institute’s list of top 100 British films. Just thinking now about the title music sends shivers down the spine and brings back memories of the passion and heartbreak of Eric Liddell, a devout Scottish Christian who ran for the glory of God, and Harold Abrahams, an English Jew who took his place on the starting line to overcome prejudice.

So, what’s the problem with the 2024 Olympic Games? Put simply, watching them. Stupidly, no thought had been given to the television schedule as with France only an hour ahead of us it had just been presumed tuning in would be easy. Of course, one should never presume but it had just been taken for granted that it would all be there, at the flick of a button, on our nation’s broadcaster the BBC.

Whenever watching anything has been tried it just seems full of inane chat rather than any live action and this is because the BBC only has limited rights to screen the games. Why is this? The Olympic Games should be inspiring the next generation to get off their backsides. How are they going to achieve that when to get full coverage families must pay to subscribe to Discovery+?

Thinking aloud, younger people probably have all these extra channels. It is those of your truly’s age and older that maybe don’t have a clue how to get such a channel or can’t face tapping bank details into a screen and then getting a million and one emails and notifications. It’s a discrimination.

Horses are a main interest and what a shame that the well-documented and very viciously timed video release of Charlotte Dujardin will have so sadly cast a cloud over other areas of equine sport in the eyes of the general public.

It wasn’t dressage, but rather the cross-country and show jumping, that this viewer was especially keen to catch along with plenty of other action from different TeamGB hopefuls.

The regimented formality of those top dressage moves don’t have much in common with normal, everyday horses and riders. Unable to find a clear timetable it all just seems a higgledy-piggledy mess, rather like that Parisian opening ceremony.

Returning full circle to those earlier childhood memories, it would be fascinating to find out whether today’s youngsters can name all the athletes competing for Olympic glory like we could back in the day.

We ordered sticker books from the newsagents and carefully filled them in the run-up to the games, swapping any athletes doubled up on and watched Newsround to catch any training updates.

If the children of today can’t name even one medal hopeful - which would be no surprise - this country should be ashamed. And if they can’t, the next question must be why not?

Is it because competitive sport in schools is so often frowned upon - sports days run in a watered down way so as not to hurt anybody’s feelings - or is it because many people haven’t been given a sporting chance of tuning in to get behind Britain.