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さえない英国のスポーツ界
サッカーもラグビーも英国が発祥の地ですが、最近英国チームは、国際舞台で目立った成績をあげていません。またクリケットは、競技人口の減少に悩まされています。スランプにあえぐ英国のスポーツ界を救うヒーローは現れるのでしょうか?
Can U.K. Sports Find Way Out of Slump?
By STEVE HILL
Britain may have given the world the sports of soccer, rugby and cricket, among many others, but we're now struggling to compete on the global stage at many of our national pastimes.
It's been a depressing summer for millions of television viewers and spectators who are fast becoming used to the sporting failures of our teams.
Let's start with the footballers of Scotland and England, who tried bravely to make an impact in the World Cup finals in France but ultimately failed, yet again, to fulfill expectations.
The Scots won widespread acclaim in the cities of Paris, Bordeaux and St. Etienne for the way in which their supporters behaved. But, sadly, that was their only success. The team scored just two goals, drawing with Norway and losing to finalists Brazil. And it lost 3-0 to Morocco, a nation many British people still fail to take seriously as a soccer power.
England's remarkable teenage star Michael Owen scored a memorable solo goal that led to him being acclaimed as one of the world's leading players. But despite his best efforts, the team did little better than Scotland. We (I am English, after all) qualified for the second stage of the competition, despite the scare of losing to Romania, only to lose to Argentina in a penalty-kick shootout.
The heartache of the dramatic nature of that defeat served to partially hide national disappointment at not progressing further in the World Cup and coming close to repeating the great success of 1966. At least we went further than the Scots though, and for the main part the supporters behaved themselves.
While the soccer players can at least look to the future with some hope and optimism, it's a very different story for our rugby players.
England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales all sent teams on tour to the Southern Hemisphere — and all returned home with their tails between their legs after a series of crushing defeats.
England, admittedly missing many of its leading players through injury, suffered record defeats against Australia and New Zealand, while Scotland fared little better, losing to Fiji and Australia. Wales, who in the 1970s was widely regarded as the unofficial world champion, was crushed 96-13 by World Cup holder South Africa. South Africa also beat Ireland twice, though by lesser margins.
The scale of these defeats has made our rugby players a laughing stock in the Southern Hemisphere. One newspaper in New Zealand even proposed that England on their next tour should play the All Blacks' women's team, instead, to ensure closer games.
If we were hoping that all this humiliation could be forgotten thanks to the achievement this summer of our crickets, then we were wrong again.
The performance of the English team has largely matched the weather, which has been gloomy and uninspiring. South Africa, which only recently returned to international competition after the overturning of apartheid and the end of a sporting blockade, has once again proved far too strong for us.
Although England recovered after a typically poor and disappointing start to the series of games, it's clear that we now lag a long way behind other cricket-playing nations such as Australia, the West Indies, India and Pakistan.
The problems facing the national side are symptoms of the crisis that cricket, our national summer sport, must now deal with.
Fewer people are playing at the grassroots level. That's partly because there is so much more for youngsters to do these days. The situation is not helped by yet another dreadful summer in terms of weather ― cricket cannot be played in rain or bad light. Many small village and town clubs are struggling to keep going and that will eventually have a knock-on effect at the top end of the sport.
The situation is not much better in other sports when you consider British success. Tim Herman at least managed to reach the semifinals of this year's Wimbledom tennis championships, but it has been another disappointing year for our golfers and athletes.
Britain did not win a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, but there is one sporting hope for the future. The 19-year-old Christian Malcolm, of Wales, won the 100-and 200-meter sprints at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Annecy, France, earlier this month. And he is showing such promise that the legendary Carl Lewis is tipping him to become a star, perhaps even at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Britain may have given the world the sports of soccer, rugby and cricket, among many others, but we're now struggling to compete on the global stage at many of our national pastimes.
It's been a depressing summer for millions of television viewers and spectators who are fast becoming used to the sporting failures of our teams.
Let's start with the footballers of Scotland and England, who tried bravely to make an impact in the World Cup finals in France but ultimately failed, yet again, to fulfill expectations.
The Scots won widespread acclaim in the cities of Paris, Bordeaux and St. Etienne for the way in which their supporters behaved. But, sadly, that was their only success. The team scored just two goals, drawing with Norway and losing to finalists Brazil. And it lost 3-0 to Morocco, a nation many British people still fail to take seriously as a soccer power.
England's remarkable teenage star Michael Owen scored a memorable solo goal that led to him being acclaimed as one of the world's leading players. But despite his best efforts, the team did little better than Scotland. We (I am English, after all) qualified for the second stage of the competition, despite the scare of losing to Romania, only to lose to Argentina in a penalty-kick shootout.
The heartache of the dramatic nature of that defeat served to partially hide national disappointment at not progressing further in the World Cup and coming close to repeating the great success of 1966. At least we went further than the Scots though, and for the main part the supporters behaved themselves.
While the soccer players can at least look to the future with some hope and optimism, it's a very different story for our rugby players.
England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales all sent teams on tour to the Southern Hemisphere — and all returned home with their tails between their legs after a series of crushing defeats.
England, admittedly missing many of its leading players through injury, suffered record defeats against Australia and New Zealand, while Scotland fared little better, losing to Fiji and Australia. Wales, who in the 1970s was widely regarded as the unofficial world champion, was crushed 96-13 by World Cup holder South Africa. South Africa also beat Ireland twice, though by lesser margins.
The scale of these defeats has made our rugby players a laughing stock in the Southern Hemisphere. One newspaper in New Zealand even proposed that England on their next tour should play the All Blacks' women's team, instead, to ensure closer games.
If we were hoping that all this humiliation could be forgotten thanks to the achievement this summer of our crickets, then we were wrong again.
The performance of the English team has largely matched the weather, which has been gloomy and uninspiring. South Africa, which only recently returned to international competition after the overturning of apartheid and the end of a sporting blockade, has once again proved far too strong for us.
Although England recovered after a typically poor and disappointing start to the series of games, it's clear that we now lag a long way behind other cricket-playing nations such as Australia, the West Indies, India and Pakistan.
The problems facing the national side are symptoms of the crisis that cricket, our national summer sport, must now deal with.
Fewer people are playing at the grassroots level. That's partly because there is so much more for youngsters to do these days. The situation is not helped by yet another dreadful summer in terms of weather ― cricket cannot be played in rain or bad light. Many small village and town clubs are struggling to keep going and that will eventually have a knock-on effect at the top end of the sport.
The situation is not much better in other sports when you consider British success. Tim Herman at least managed to reach the semifinals of this year's Wimbledom tennis championships, but it has been another disappointing year for our golfers and athletes.
Britain did not win a gold medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, but there is one sporting hope for the future. The 19-year-old Christian Malcolm, of Wales, won the 100-and 200-meter sprints at the World Junior Athletics Championships in Annecy, France, earlier this month. And he is showing such promise that the legendary Carl Lewis is tipping him to become a star, perhaps even at the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
Shukan ST: Aug. 21, 1998
(C) All rights reserved
- (are)struggling
- 苦労している
- compete
- 張り合う
- global stage
- 国際的舞台
- pastimes
- 娯楽
- depressing
- 気のめいるような
- viewers
- 視聴者
- spectators
- 観客
- are fast becoming used to 〜
- 急速に 〜 に慣れてきている
- failures
- 不出来
- make an impact
- 影響を与える
- finals
- 決勝戦
- ultimately
- 結局
- fulfill expectations
- 期待に応える
- won widespread acclaim(for 〜 )
- 〜 のため広い称賛を得た
- behaved
- 行儀よくしていた(英国のサッカーファンの中にはフーリガンと呼ばれる過激な観客がおり、しばしばもめごとを起こす)
- drawing with 〜
- 〜 と引き分ける
- finalists
- 決勝進出チーム
- soccer power
- サッカー強国
- memorable
- 記憶に残る
- did little better than 〜
- 〜 とたいして変わらなかった
- qualified for 〜
- 〜 に残った
- scare of losing to 〜
- 〜 敗れ驚いたこと
- only to 〜
- 結局 〜 した
- penalty-kick shootout
- PK 合戦
- heartache
- 胸の痛み
- dramatic nature
- 劇的な試合内容
- 〜 served to partially hide 〜 〜
- 〜 のおかげで 〜 〜 は部分的に影に隠れた
- national disappointment at 〜
- 〜 に対する国中の失望
- great success of 1966
- 1966年の大勝利(この年のW杯イングランド大会で、イングランド・チームは唯一の優勝をしている)
- optimism
- 楽観
- Southern Hemisphere
- 南半球
- with their tails between their legs
- 尻尾を巻いて
- admittedly 〜
- 実は 〜 であるが
- leading players
- 主力選手
- record defeats
- 記録的な大敗
- fared little better
- 同じような結果だった
- was crushed(by 〜 )
- ( 〜 に)負けた
- World Cup holder
- 優勝杯保持国
- by lesser margins
- より僅差で
- scale
- 度合い
- laughing stock
- 物笑いのたね
- proposed
- 提案した
- All Blacks
- オールブラックス(ニュージーランドのラグビーの代表チーム)
- to ensure closer games
- もっと伯仲した試合ができるように
- humiliation
- 屈辱
- performance
- 成績
- matched 〜
- 〜 に似合っていた
- gloomy
- 曇り空の
- uninspiring
- ぱっとしない
- overturning
- 崩壊
- apartheid
- アパルトヘイト(人種隔離政策)
- sporting blockade
- 競技会から閉め出されること
- typically
- 典型的に
- lag a long way behind 〜
- 〜 から大きく遅れをとる
- symptoms of the crisis
- 危機の兆し
- deal with
- 対処する
- grassroots level
- 一般大衆レベル
- youngsters
- 若者
- dreadful
- 悲惨な
- in terms of 〜
- 〜 の点で
- bad light
- 薄暗がり
- knock-on effect at the top end of the sport
- 将棋倒しのようにだめになり、トップにも影響するということ
- managed to 〜
- どうにか 〜 した
- semifinals
- 準決勝
- athletes
- 陸上競技選手
- sprints
- 短距離走
- promise
- 有望さ
- legendary
- 伝説的な
- is tipping 〜 to become a star
- 〜 の名を挙げてスターになるだろうと言っている