As the entire country collectively draws breath in preparation to sigh with disappointment at what will probably be a spectacularly disappointing 2012 Olympic Games, I can’t help but feel the temptation to take part this time round!  Seriously; instead of being one of the millions – nae, BILLIONS – of people watching the Games at home, maybe this time I round I should take part and earn the world’s respect, instead of their pity at being a British citizen for what will no doubt be the least-organised and underwhelming Games in modern history.Alright so maybe three years isn’t quite long enough to reach Olympic-standard at anything, but I am definitely feeling inspired to get myself into some kind of sport before the Games come around to make me feel even more guilty for being a couched potato.  The thing is, most the sports that you see in the Olympics – let’s be honest here – are aching boring! Running?  Whether it’s for long or short periods of time, running is essentially just fancy walking that is done very quickly indeed.  So quickly is running done, in fact, that there’s no time to even take the scenery – which is the only point to walking in the first place!  Other Olympic events involve swimming, which is like running but harder; throwing things, for which you have to be exceptionally large; and jumping – the popularity of which defies explanation. What is also uninspiring about these events is that we, Britain, rarely do very well at any of them!  Americans can run fast, Kenyans can run far, Australians can swim and Eastern Europeans can throw – what is left for us that doesn’t involve two wheels and legs that defy every shape of jeans?  For the answer to this question, I turn to history; what, may I ask, do we declare to rule?  I think you all know the answer; it may not be the track, the pool or even the balance bar, it’s a long cry from the shooting range and it certainly doesn’t involve tossing anything over distance!  No my friends, what this isolated island is good at should come as no surprise at all – Britannia rules the waves! The art of Olympic Sailing has been around since 1900 and we have been the best at it in 2000, 2004 and 2008!  The general idea is to use technique and strength to guide your boat around a special Olympic course in as short a time as possible, making it immediately more interesting than running in a straight line for ten seconds!  What’s more, the huge variety of different sized craft you can learn to sail means that there will be ten different classes of sailing in the 2012 Games!  You can’t need much more incentive to get involved, but I haven’t even told you the best bit yet!  Although the true art of sailing takes a lifetime to learn, the basics can be picked up in a couple of weeks!  Take a few lessons in tacking, learn your port from your starboard and you’re away on your path of Olympic glory!  If ever there was a sport to get stuck into at the next Games, or even just for fun and recreation, it has to be sailing – it takes strength, skill and determination in quantities that jumping-people can only dream about!  What’s more, if you learn to sail you are making available a host of potential stories – far more than anything offered by all the other popular Olympic events put together!  They can wear all the shiny lycra in the world but, at the end of the day, throwing is throwing, jumping is jumping and running is stylish fast-walking – sailing is a whole world of new and exciting experiences, as well as being a constant mental and physical challenge!  How much thought can really go into a 100m sprint?  If Britain is going to bring anything to the 2012 Olympic Games, it will be an element of class – that is what sailing offers and that is why we are the very best at it!