12/03/24
March 24, 2011
Clijsters Withdraws from September Japan Event: Kim Clijsters has withdrawn from the Pan Pacific Open to be held in Tokyo over nuclear radiation concerns -- even though it doesn't take place until September. "I wish everybody a lot of courage," she said.
Seems more like an excuse than a reason.
posted by feloniousmonk at 08:39 PM on March 24, 2011
Really. "Oh thank god, now I've got an excuse not to haul ass halfway around the planet."
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:13 PM on March 24, 2011
Weak sauce, Kim. Just pull a Williams and commit only to pull out with a remarkably quick-healing injury a few weeks before. Don't reinvent the wheel, sister.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 09:40 PM on March 24, 2011
Radiation has been found in vegetables, raw milk, the water supply and seawater since a magnitude-9 quake and tsunami hit the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant nearly two weeks ago.
She gets some slack here. Her kid's young and Clijsters might not want to take some nuclear goodies home with her from Japan.
posted by roberts at 07:33 AM on March 25, 2011
She had months to wait to make an informed decision. It's not like the country of Japan has become an irradiated wasteland. Though it's true that radiation "has been found in vegetables, raw milk, the water supply and seawater," it's significantly lower than the radiation she receives from a single airplane flight. How many times does she fly a year?
posted by rcade at 09:12 AM on March 25, 2011
She's afraid of Godzilla, which seems reasonable to this Chicken Little.
posted by billsaysthis at 11:46 AM on March 25, 2011
Of course, the timing of the US Open wouldn't have anything to do with this.