A Scottish Olympic Team?

Not being one of life's natural athletes, with the exception of football and occasionally rugby, sport is something I find it hard to get too worked up about these days. I go to the gym, I occasionally play football, I like to swim when I can find the time, but nowadays life just seems to get in the way.

It's not that I don't admire the dedication of our athletes or their physical prowess, it's just that, well, in general I'm not very interested. Frankly, I'd rather go to the pub or read a book or stick on some music or phone a friend. But for some reason, regardless as to the sport, my interest level increases when it's a Scot that's competing.

There's nothing particularly logical or rational about it, it's just the way it is. Consequently, a lifetime of complete indifference towards cricket melted away when Scotland competed in this year's World Cup. Similarly, my disdain for tennis in general and Wimbledon in particular disappeared when Andy Murray came on the scene.

Suddenly, I started to see that men's tennis could be about much more than simply hitting the ball as hard as you could. There was, or could be, an artistry in there too, allowing brains to beat brawn. More interestingly, I began to see that each point was about manoeuvring your opponent into a position where you could play your winning shot, while trying to get them to run around so they would tire first. I saw subtlety where before I had seen nothing but brute force. And if I were 13 instead of 30, I'd probably be out on a tennis court right now, determined to be the next Andy Murray.

I'm racking my brains just now to think of any non-Scottish sports stars who've ever had that same sort of effect on me when competing at national level, and you know what? I'm really struggling. I used to be an alright sprinter, but neither Carl Lewis or Linford Christie did it for me in the way that Alan Wells did. Steve Redgrave's achievements in rowing are beyond compare, yet somehow I still feel more pride at the all-Scottish curling team wining Olympic Gold. As I said, there's nothing logical or rational about it. It's purely an emotional thing.

I was 10 when the Commonwealth Games last came to Edinburgh, and it inspired all the kids in my street to get into badminton, bowling, running, cycling - anything. It was happening in our city, in our country - there were friends of friends of big brothers competing; people from your dad's bowling club in the Scottish team - it was exciting, it was inspiring, and made all the more so for us because the athletes were competing as a Scottish team.

Like I said, there's no logic or reason for why we should have felt that way - it's just the way it was. In the 1980's, Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe might have had their titanic battles over the 800m crown, and Steve Cram might have been the golden boy of distance running. However, it was Tom McKean, Yvonne Murray and Liz Lynch as she then was, who got us putting on our trainers and running round the park in our little corner of Edinburgh.

Does wearing a Scottish shirt put an extra spring in your step; a British one make you run with the psychological effect of wearing divers' boots, or vice versa? I don't know. What I do know is that you could make Morris Dancing an Olympic Sport and I'd stay up till half 4 in the morning to watch the Scottish team. However, while I'll sit glued to the 6 Nations playing rugby, I'll switch over when the British Lions play, not because it offends me as a Scottish nationalist (it doesn't), but because I just don't care. There, I've said it. Go away and shoot me.

Individual talent is no respecter of national boundaries, and the best talents train at the best facilities all round the world. That's why I find the argument that athletes competing in a Scottish Olympic team would be shut out from British facilities that we'd helped to pay for, such a bizarre argument. Similarly, the idea that our athletes would win fewer medals than they would as part of a UK team is utterly risible, epitomising all that's worst about the 'awww, we're rubbish!', 'expect the worst and you'll never be disappointed', loser mentality that stifles so much talent and potential in Scotland.

Ultimately, the arguments for a British Olympic team hold the same force as arguments to scrap the 'home' nations' football and rugby teams to allow us to compete as a bigger entity. Shared facilities, no duplication of taxation to pay for it all, everyone working as part of a team, the shared camaraderie as we all come together as one, the pride in our collective breast as our flag runs up the pole to the sound of 'God save the Queen'... aye, right. There might be a logic in there, somewhere, but even if there is it still leaves me completely cold.

We rightly celebrate the individual talent, but what is it that inspires the talent to reveal itself in the first place, or develops the enthusiasm for sport which lasts a lifetime? If I and my friends from 20 years ago are anything to go by, it's from seeing people just like you, who come from places like you come from, competing and winning at the highest level. The way to ensure that is probably a Scottish Olympic team, which everyone can support, regardless as to their politics. But let's not fall out over it. It's only sport, after all...

UPDATE: Just found an opposing view from ex-Labour candidate Kezia Dugdale. Each to their own.