I was absolutely gob-smacked when I read that a senior UK Athletics official had branded heptathlete and gold medal hope, Jessica Ennis fat in an email to her coach Toni Minichiello.

Nothing could be further from the truth, she is massively ripped with great abs and is 100 per cent fit in every way!

Jessica has the kind of physique that I think young girls should aspire to have and it is ridiculous and dangerous that a statement like that has been made.

Of course there are going to be instances in some sports, like judo, where athletes have to make a specific weight for their category and will have to weigh themselves regularly but others will just set out to be as physically fit as possible and do what they have to do to achieve their goals.

Anyone can make a flippant comment about a woman's weight but they will not necessarily realise the consequence of their actions and the person that made the statement should be ashamed of themselves.

I read recently about Holly Avil who has retired from Triathlon competition after battling an eating disorder triggered by comments made by a coach who didn't work with her.

Hollie was a swimmer who moved over to Triathlon and one of the prominent features of us swimmers is our broad shoulders.

I have to say that my shoulders are one of my proudest features but when Hollie moved discipline it was suggested that she should think about losing weight.

From that day she battled an eating disorder because she was so worried about being too bigger her sport.

Jessica is not carrying any extra body fat but comments like that could influence young girls who maybe don't have her self-confidence.



As athletes you sometimes have to put up with these kind of comments made by ignorant people. When I was desperately trying to get back to fitness from a broken back I suffered in a car accident in 1996, one swimming official suggested that, at 24, I was a bit long in the tooth for swimming and that I should just retire.

In that position, all you can do is surround yourself with people who believe and have faith in you and I know Jessica's coach, Toni Minichiello, has that.

My coach Dave Champion was the same and he never suggested that I was too old or that I should give up.

He had faith in me and that faith was realised when I won 2 golds at the 2002 Commonwealth Games at the age of 30!

Mario Balotelli, the Italian striker, this week said that he will walk off the pitch should he be racially abused at this summer's tournament and I would hope that, if there are any incidents, the culprits are thrown out.

There needs to be zero-tolerance to racism, there is no place for it in life, never mind in sport.

It would be a shame to shy away from a country or city that wants to host a major tournament because of a minority and I hope the legacy left by Ukraine and Poland is that the authorities did what they needed to do to sort the problem out.

It is easy to say that abuse is part of the game and that players should just get on with it, but imagine if you were having to put up with such vile abuse in your work place, that would not be acceptable.

In American basketball, if anyone hurls abuse or crosses the line they will be thrown out and that is something that has gone back years.

As for walking out like Balotelli has threatened, I would understand why he or any other player would want to do that if the authorities were turning a blind eye to such matters.

The players have to believe that they are being looked after and the issue is not being brushed under the carpet.

I don't care how much money they are being paid, no one should have to put up with that kind of behaviour. It is disgusting.

Just a couple of weeks ago it was Gavin Hensons wasted talent being discussed and now its Mario Balotellis after his antics at Arsenal at the weekend. Manchester City's Balotelli was sent off in the closing moments of the game, having already escaped punishment for a couple of reckless challenges, as Arsenal won 1-0.  

This week, it emerged that 400m runner Dai Greene purchased several tickets for his Olympic semi-final and final from a sports fan after expressing his frustration on Twitter. Greene was guaranteed two tickets for friends or family for each session he competes in and although I can understand why he would be unhappy at not being able to purchase more this is actually the first time that Olympians have been afforded this benefit. It might seem a bit tight but this is a massive step forward, especially when you consider the number of athletes taking part in London.

When I was competing at the Olympics, my mum and dad had to buy their tickets from travel companies and would have to purchase a package which might have included events that they did not want to see. They did not necessarily know where they were going to be sat and it cost them a fortune each time.
Quite often you don't want to buy tickets before you know your relative has qualified too so it was always really expensive.

What is happening for the London Games is a big step forward and two tickets per athlete is a big number to put aside. And Logistically it will be vey complicated too since until the heats are completed you wont know who is going to be in the semi-final or final. It will be a big operation. With so many more family and friends guaranteed the two tickets it will add to what is expected to be an amazing atmosphere. If the test events at the velodrome and aquatic centre are anything to go by, it certainly will be loud!

The BBC is to make 24 live HD Olympic streams available to cable and satellite providers. The technology is there if someone has an interest in a certain sport and the red button facility already means there is so much choice available now. People will be able to watch uninterrupted hockey, or table tennis for instance during the Olympics, whereas before they may have had to rely on a highlights package.

There will always be people interested in the early rounds of certain events, especially friends and family of competitors who, before, may have had to wait until the semi-final or final to see the person they were interested in on TV.

We seem to be losing more and more sport to non-terrestrial channels which is a shame for the many people who dont want to pay for extra channels or one off sporting events. I dont have Sky TV in my bedroom and so im already missing the Formula 1 in bed at the weekends

The Olympics is one of the protected events that has to be shown on terrestrial TV and I think it is great that every person in the country will be able to watch the Games.

The FINA Diving World Cup, which doubles up as an Olympic Games test event, begins on Monday, in London, and I will be commentating for Radio 5 Live at the event.

One of the main names at the event will be Tom Daley and I managed to grab a five minute phone interview with him this week. He always gives a very good interview and he has been in front of the cameras since the last Olympic Games, so he is always very slick. He is never going to give much away but it was nice to speak to him. There will be an element of pressure on him this year, competing in his home Games, but the Chinese divers were so dominant at the World Championships in 2011 that may be off him somewhat.
British diving's performance director, Alexei Evangulov has suggested that Tom might have to cut back his media commitments or risk missing out on a medal.

Tom is massively in demand but I don't think he is doing that much media work. It is very hard to get him for an interview and the day I spoke to him was on the day that all the GB team were carrying out media commitments. Tom also has his work with his sponsors to fit in too. But his performance director knows him best and the two parties need to discuss his schedule. As an athlete you have got to do the interviews but you have also have to do the work, otherwise there will be nothing to talk about afterwards.

It was disappointing to see the Blues' game with Middlesbrough abandoned after 37 minutes at the weekend, due to a frozen pitch. There was a pitch inspection held in the morning of the game and then another one at 1.45pm, with referee Dean Whitestone, which begs the question, why was the game allowed to go ahead at such a late stage?
Obviously there was player safety to think about and nobody wants to see anyone get hurt on the pitch but I guess the decision was made all the more frustrating as the Six Nations game between Italy and England was played, in worse conditions. In cricket, once the game has progressed past a certain amount of overs, supporters don't receive a full refund and there probably should be something similar in football but the dilemma would be, what would constitute a full refund and what wouldnt?

Ipswich are not doing great in the Championship and yet the supporters turned out in their thousands, on a cold day, to support their team, so the club have to be careful that they do not shoot themselves in the foot.
They have to respect the fans that turn out, especially with the position the team are in, in the Championship.
I know of one person who took his young son, who was desperately disappointed when the game was abandoned. I don't know whether or not they will be able to make the replay.
If you are local I guess the subject of travelling is not as bad but I know the Blues have a big London following and I can understand them being gutted, especially when there is not a huge amount of money around. Since the game, the club have announced the people who had tickets for the original game will be entitled to a significant discount.

I don't know all the facts and I will understand if the club say that they can't afford to do anything more than that, but they do have to be aware that the people losing out are the fans.

I was at Portman Road on Tuesday night to see the Blues demolish Sam Allardyce's West Ham United 5-1 and I have to say I was not expecting that! It was an amazing performance and Ipswich did not look like a team that are struggling at the bottom of the Championship, while West Ham did not look like a side that are topping the division. The Blues looked like they had an extra man and were running rings around West Ham. I just hope they can keep it going now away at Coventry City on Saturday and pick up another three points.
I thought Jay Emmanuel-Thomas' first goal was really good while Luke Hyam impressed me with his strong running in midfield.

It has been a good few days for myself on the football front, especially with my home-town team Brighton pulling off an FA Cup shock when they beat Newcastle, 1-0, at the Amex Arena in the fourth round, thanks to Will Buckley's deflected strike. It's been really tough for Brighton over the years. They did well in the FA Cup in the Eighties but then could not maintain the wages and the old Goldstone Ground was sold by the club without the team having anywhere else to play. They are lucky that they have been able to come back although when I go back home and see that the old ground is now a Toys 'R' Us, is quite heartbreaking.
But the new stadium is fantastic and the club has some really devoted fans that have stuck with the team throughout.

Off the pitch, Tuesday night also saw the closure of the transfer window for clubs in the Premier League, the Football League and Blue Square Bet Premier, although the window opens again next Tuesday for emergency loans. Having the transfer window close on the same night as games were being played was strange and it must have been carnage with managers, players and agents trying to get deals done.
It must have affected the concentration of the people playing and managing in games and it just shows that the workings of football are incredible. How do you decide on a player when there so many to choose from and while there are already some sitting on your bench and others not even in the squad? There are so many players and they can't all go out on loan yet the clubs have to be able to sustain their wage budgets and most clubs can't afford to have all these players in their squad.

Finally, on the football front, I was in Ipswich this week with my good friends, former Town midfielder Simon Milton and his wife Jaime as they celebrated the first birthday of their little daughter, Halle.
She is a little star and she actually swims at my swim school at Red House Farm, Shotley on a Thursday so she enjoyed a birthday swim.

Happy Birthday Halle!



CHRIS ROBSHAW has been named as England skipper for the first two games of the Six Nations tournament, against Scotland and Italy. It must be a great honour for him to have been selected to lead out his country. He has only won one international cap so far and that begs the question, how does he conduct a team talk? The fact is he will have some experienced guys alongside him so he wont be on his own and he is already doing a great job leading Quins this season. He represents a new breed of player to come through, a player that wants to work hard and does not want to be out at the wrong times partying and being in the public eye. If this policy is to be a success then the RFU have to bring through this type of player under similar, more experienced players that are just as committed and have the same ideas. I don't know him personally but Chris is one of the Harlequins players that takes part in the KP SWIM Elite swim programme that i run at the club.