- 09:17 AM
- 11/21/24
| Name: | dan hartung |
|---|---|
| Member since: | February 20, 2002 |
| Last visit: | June 12, 2002 |
lakefxdan has posted 0 links and 4 comments to SportsFilter and 0 links and 0 comments to the Locker Room.
I'm sorry, I got over the need to be politically correct about the swimsuit issue years ago. Nobody's being forced to read every thread. And I think "all kinds of people" i.e. women are smart enough to avoid a thread where men's tongues are likely to be hanging out. And the swimsuit issue pron? Turn off the adult filters, dude.
posted by lakefxdan at 11:13 PM on February 20, 2002
salmacis, the medal table I see has Germany at the top, because they have the highest number of all medals combined. Norway does have the most gold, but only places 3rd in the overall count. The story also states flatly that she is not just the first African-American, but the first black athlete from /any/ country to medal at the Winter Olympics. Given the propensity of medaling nations from the northern European nations, this isn't all that surprising -- but it's about time that door was kicked down.
posted by lakefxdan at 11:00 PM on February 20, 2002
Me, I think you're looking at a molehill and seeing a mountain. What I've seen in these Olympics is much what I've seen before -- team spirit made concrete by individual achievement. The coach's remark was kinda dumb trash talk but hardly rises to the level of "xenophobia". A xenophobe wouldn't be at the Olympics. Generational VENDETTA? Overcooked patriotism? Could you possibly use more loaded words? (well, we can blame boisvert for using the word jingoistic). The "original form" of the Olympics is shrouded in mythology, whether you're talking about Coubertin's revival or the ancient games. I don't feel that Coubertin's vision of the games has been compromised. He believed that sports and athleticism were an important basis of adult character, not to mention national character, and that competition was the refiner's fire of this alchemy. With few exceptions we have seen individuals achieve their medals by exemplary sportsmanship and long years of determination marked by the unstinting support of a small group of fans. I don't know what you see in it, but when I watched Flowers just weep as she stood on the podium and sang the national anthem, I knew what that was all about. She'd done well for herself, she'd overcome the odds and the irony of having quit the team to come back and ride with a dark horse to a gold. Then she got to stand up and say, "in the values that got me here I represent the best of my country". I can't see a thing wrong with that. Besides, it's hardly the first Olympics where people have waved the flag. You can concentrate on the exceptions, but certainly the figure skating debacle doesn't have to detract from what everyone else has achieved, whether or not they're in a judged sport.
posted by lakefxdan at 10:55 PM on February 20, 2002
"Apart from the tango and football, there are few things in Argentina at the moment to pin our hopes on. ... Poverty is good for nothing, except for playing football."
Guess it was Sweden's day after all. This Argentina's earliest ejection from the tournament since 1962, they say.