THE OLYMPICS are just around the corner with the spotlight firmly on track and field medals so what would be the biggest boost for our athletes – a media witchhunt as to who is a ‘Plastic Brit’.

On becoming captain of the Great Britain team for the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul Tiffany Porter was treated to being asked if she knew the words to ‘God Save The Queen’ at a press conference.

Hopefully the reporter who decided such a cheap shot was worth it is now eating humble pie as Porter led Team GB to a nine-medal haul in the championships in Istanbul.

And this is an athlete who cannot hide the fact that she was born in Ypsilanti, Michigan in the United States, but who can point to the fact that her mother Lillian is English.

While I would not wish a nationality-based assault on anyone, it was perhaps most fitting that if mild xenophobia is going to be bandied about it is best involving someone like Porter whose background provides the perfect example of why questions over nationality are so frequently problematical, if not entirely redundant.

There are so many factors which can be brought into the argument as to whether an athlete should represent England or Great Britain.

Family links with the British Isles or choosing to be resident in Britain seem to crop up as the most popular criteria for those wanting to make a judgement.

But in many ways it is the curious methodology used by certain parts of our national media as to who should be harried which would seem to be more ripe for questioning.