I love the smell of controversy in the morning
Now.. *here* would have been an opportunity to "do the right thing."
Today, as I was enjoying my morning cup of tea (gawd-- I feel so old), I flipped on NBC to check out the final day of competition in the Olympics. Imagine my dismay when I realize that it's the beginning of the Marathon. *sigh* 2 hours of watching people run-- yay, fun!!
Don't get me wrong-- I completely admire the amount of drive and discipline that it takes to *train* for the Marathon, much less actually finish the damn thing.
But I digress-- of course, after stating out loud that "I would *never* watch an entire marathon", I found myself mesmerized by it and could NOT turn it off.
Approximately one hour into the race-- Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil took an impressive lead. He was approximately 45 seconds ahead of the pack. And he was trucking his way to Athens. I was reeled in by the "A Brazilian has never even medalled in the Olympics in the Marathon event." All of the sudden- I feel a lump in my throat-- I am such a sucker for a story like this.
I watched, transfixed, as he led the pack, and dominated the event.
And then *it* happened. Every Marathon director's nightmare. Someone ran onto the road and basically attacked de Lima on the road. This man, whose name has not been released, shoved de Lima off the road and into the crowd. And the people watching the race, freed de Lima from this madman's grip-- and de Lima was able to continue the race.
Had this happened with 10 miles to go, I might not even be writing this. But it wasn't. There were a mere 3 1/2 miles left to go. That is the HOMESTRETCH, people. This kid had at least a 30 second lead at this point.. and lost basically all of it due to this loser's vendetta.
Commentators for the event claimed that they read the sign on the back of said loser's little costume. He was originally "unidentified", but now-- he appears to have been revealed as an Irish priest who has an affinity for disrupting events like this-- and has the ablity to write unreadable words on the back of his little costume, apparently protesting something. Whatever his little sign on the back of his "Scarborough Faire" costume said-- I don't even care. Whatever this guy was protesting.. he had NO right to interrupt an Olympic event.
Meanwhile, a little ways back-- Stefano Baldini of Italy and Mebrahtom Keflezighi of the United States were able to make up some badly needed ground, due to this insane attack on an innocent runner. A little less than 10 minutes later, Keflezighi and Baldini overtook de Lima for the lead. Baldini then led all of them into the stadium, where Baldini took the gold, Keflezighi took the silver and de Lima rounded out the top three to take the bronze.
de Lima's heart was overwhelming. He did the "airplane" pose down the homestretch and has not so much as even mentioned that he felt he was cheated out of the gold.
Well-- if he won't say it-- I will. This is a travesty. To see the Italian take the gold without so much of a mention of the incident involving de Lima is a sad day. Baldini is so obsessed with getting his gold, he doesn't even seem to care that the results were flawed.
With the atrocious actions of the FIG with Paul Hamm and the unfair request that Hamm give up his gold-- why is there *nobody* clamoring for Baldini to sacrifice his own medal?
Yes-- of course there is no way to know what the outcome would have been had de Lima not been attacked. Maybe he would have dropped to third anyway after having led the race for so long. Maybe he would have won it all. The fact remains that de Lima finished a mere 1 minute and 16 seconds behind Baldini. That small of a deficit should have at least been addressed by the IOC. Instead the only word from the IOC is, "The IOC is saddened by the incident."
Yeah-- I'm sure.
Baldini should have done the right thing-- and willingly made a deal with Keflezighi, Baldini gives de Lima the gold, Baldini would take the silver and Keflezighi would take the bronze. This way-- everyone who medalled would *still* medal, but the integrity of the race would remain in tact. Especially since all three of them were quoted as saying, after the event that "I didn't care what medal I got-- it is just an honor to even *finish* a course as tough as this one." Hey-- if everyone wants their own medal-- HUZZAH!! Let's just make sure they are handed out in the right order.
This *would* have been the right thing to do. But of course, it won't. And nobody will clamor for Baldini to give up his gold in the name of "sportsmanship" as the FIG did to Paul Hamm.
And why is that? I'll tell you why-- and I might take a little flack for this-- but hey-- that's kinda the point of this blog, right?
Paul Hamm was asked to give up his gold by the FIG and hinted to do so by several columnists and commentators-- in the name of "sportsmanship".. but let's call a spade a spade. When these people chose to mention "the ill will" that the world holds against the United States as some sort of punching point for Paul Hamm to "do the right thing" and "honor the sport," all that talking amounted to "The entire world hates the United States for many things-- and our dominance in the Olympics doesn't help." Tom Celizic of NBCSports said the same exact thing. He said that Paul Hamm should give up the gold to "win back a little self respect for the United States, so the world would not see us as bloated pigs who *need* to win everything" (I'm paraphrasing-- but I'm pretty close.) Read his article here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5790612/
So-- when it is an American's medal in question during something that is deemed to be a controversy-- we should do the "right thing" and "win back a little world good will."
But when it is an Italian's gold on the line-- hey-- *they're* not imperialistic jerks who throw their weight around the world-- so somehow his gold is more valuable and less susceptible to question.
These two incidents are exactly the same.. in both incidents-- someone (Yang Tae Young, de Lima) was affected by outside forces, (FIG judges, a ridiculous protestor) and the outcome *may or may not* have been different.
But with no protest looming by Brazil for their "own gold medal", this will never see the light of day. de Lima will go home with the bronze medal, happy with what he did-- and when he comes back in 2008 to win the Marathon decidedly in Beijing-- the whole incident will be a "come back from adversity" tale that will inspire kids all around the world to pick up their Nikes and head for the nearest side road to begin training. Thousands of children in Brazil will cheer de Lima's name for accepting his bronze with no ill will towards Baldini (who may or may not have "done the right thing" in keeping the gold for himself) and everyone will move on.
Yet-- Paul Hamm will more than likely be plagued by this for the rest of his career. The South Koreans will not let this debate go, and have continued to appeal to agencies (the CAS--their third protest now) to give Yang Tae Young his "rightful gold medal."
Mama Mia, I smell dissention in the world.. and since the world seems to be in agreement that we, as US citizens, are all of one face and one action-- and that we all should be judged by the actions of our government-- I say-- pass the keys and let's head on over to Mickey D's, baby.
I'm lovin' it.
Today, as I was enjoying my morning cup of tea (gawd-- I feel so old), I flipped on NBC to check out the final day of competition in the Olympics. Imagine my dismay when I realize that it's the beginning of the Marathon. *sigh* 2 hours of watching people run-- yay, fun!!
Don't get me wrong-- I completely admire the amount of drive and discipline that it takes to *train* for the Marathon, much less actually finish the damn thing.
But I digress-- of course, after stating out loud that "I would *never* watch an entire marathon", I found myself mesmerized by it and could NOT turn it off.
Approximately one hour into the race-- Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil took an impressive lead. He was approximately 45 seconds ahead of the pack. And he was trucking his way to Athens. I was reeled in by the "A Brazilian has never even medalled in the Olympics in the Marathon event." All of the sudden- I feel a lump in my throat-- I am such a sucker for a story like this.
I watched, transfixed, as he led the pack, and dominated the event.
And then *it* happened. Every Marathon director's nightmare. Someone ran onto the road and basically attacked de Lima on the road. This man, whose name has not been released, shoved de Lima off the road and into the crowd. And the people watching the race, freed de Lima from this madman's grip-- and de Lima was able to continue the race.
Had this happened with 10 miles to go, I might not even be writing this. But it wasn't. There were a mere 3 1/2 miles left to go. That is the HOMESTRETCH, people. This kid had at least a 30 second lead at this point.. and lost basically all of it due to this loser's vendetta.
Commentators for the event claimed that they read the sign on the back of said loser's little costume. He was originally "unidentified", but now-- he appears to have been revealed as an Irish priest who has an affinity for disrupting events like this-- and has the ablity to write unreadable words on the back of his little costume, apparently protesting something. Whatever his little sign on the back of his "Scarborough Faire" costume said-- I don't even care. Whatever this guy was protesting.. he had NO right to interrupt an Olympic event.
Meanwhile, a little ways back-- Stefano Baldini of Italy and Mebrahtom Keflezighi of the United States were able to make up some badly needed ground, due to this insane attack on an innocent runner. A little less than 10 minutes later, Keflezighi and Baldini overtook de Lima for the lead. Baldini then led all of them into the stadium, where Baldini took the gold, Keflezighi took the silver and de Lima rounded out the top three to take the bronze.
de Lima's heart was overwhelming. He did the "airplane" pose down the homestretch and has not so much as even mentioned that he felt he was cheated out of the gold.
Well-- if he won't say it-- I will. This is a travesty. To see the Italian take the gold without so much of a mention of the incident involving de Lima is a sad day. Baldini is so obsessed with getting his gold, he doesn't even seem to care that the results were flawed.
With the atrocious actions of the FIG with Paul Hamm and the unfair request that Hamm give up his gold-- why is there *nobody* clamoring for Baldini to sacrifice his own medal?
Yes-- of course there is no way to know what the outcome would have been had de Lima not been attacked. Maybe he would have dropped to third anyway after having led the race for so long. Maybe he would have won it all. The fact remains that de Lima finished a mere 1 minute and 16 seconds behind Baldini. That small of a deficit should have at least been addressed by the IOC. Instead the only word from the IOC is, "The IOC is saddened by the incident."
Yeah-- I'm sure.
Baldini should have done the right thing-- and willingly made a deal with Keflezighi, Baldini gives de Lima the gold, Baldini would take the silver and Keflezighi would take the bronze. This way-- everyone who medalled would *still* medal, but the integrity of the race would remain in tact. Especially since all three of them were quoted as saying, after the event that "I didn't care what medal I got-- it is just an honor to even *finish* a course as tough as this one." Hey-- if everyone wants their own medal-- HUZZAH!! Let's just make sure they are handed out in the right order.
This *would* have been the right thing to do. But of course, it won't. And nobody will clamor for Baldini to give up his gold in the name of "sportsmanship" as the FIG did to Paul Hamm.
And why is that? I'll tell you why-- and I might take a little flack for this-- but hey-- that's kinda the point of this blog, right?
Paul Hamm was asked to give up his gold by the FIG and hinted to do so by several columnists and commentators-- in the name of "sportsmanship".. but let's call a spade a spade. When these people chose to mention "the ill will" that the world holds against the United States as some sort of punching point for Paul Hamm to "do the right thing" and "honor the sport," all that talking amounted to "The entire world hates the United States for many things-- and our dominance in the Olympics doesn't help." Tom Celizic of NBCSports said the same exact thing. He said that Paul Hamm should give up the gold to "win back a little self respect for the United States, so the world would not see us as bloated pigs who *need* to win everything" (I'm paraphrasing-- but I'm pretty close.) Read his article here http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5790612/
So-- when it is an American's medal in question during something that is deemed to be a controversy-- we should do the "right thing" and "win back a little world good will."
But when it is an Italian's gold on the line-- hey-- *they're* not imperialistic jerks who throw their weight around the world-- so somehow his gold is more valuable and less susceptible to question.
These two incidents are exactly the same.. in both incidents-- someone (Yang Tae Young, de Lima) was affected by outside forces, (FIG judges, a ridiculous protestor) and the outcome *may or may not* have been different.
But with no protest looming by Brazil for their "own gold medal", this will never see the light of day. de Lima will go home with the bronze medal, happy with what he did-- and when he comes back in 2008 to win the Marathon decidedly in Beijing-- the whole incident will be a "come back from adversity" tale that will inspire kids all around the world to pick up their Nikes and head for the nearest side road to begin training. Thousands of children in Brazil will cheer de Lima's name for accepting his bronze with no ill will towards Baldini (who may or may not have "done the right thing" in keeping the gold for himself) and everyone will move on.
Yet-- Paul Hamm will more than likely be plagued by this for the rest of his career. The South Koreans will not let this debate go, and have continued to appeal to agencies (the CAS--their third protest now) to give Yang Tae Young his "rightful gold medal."
Mama Mia, I smell dissention in the world.. and since the world seems to be in agreement that we, as US citizens, are all of one face and one action-- and that we all should be judged by the actions of our government-- I say-- pass the keys and let's head on over to Mickey D's, baby.
I'm lovin' it.
posted by Censor at
9:32 PM
1 Comments:
Aww... my ever faithful Ally-- I totally agree. They should have locked that guy up. The sad thing was-- you could see de Lima's face as he saw the guy running up-- and there was a police officer following behind de Lima (very closely--maybe 10-15 feet behind).. and I swear-- that cop was on auto-pilot or something.
He never made an attempt to get into the way of "Mr. Scarborough Faire." On the sidelines, where the fans watching saw de Lima shoved into the crowd-- that cop never even came into the frame of the camera-- the FANS pushed SF man off de Lima, NOT the police.
Sad, just sad.
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