11/21/24
August 18, 2004
Making Canada pround (because the athletes sure as hell aren't): Canadian man, dressed in a tutu, dives into an Olympic diving competition pool; embarasses the $1.9billion security force with his stunt; gets beat up by the police; gets convicted for 5 years, and, finally, is released. Not surprisingly, in a country not enjoying many Olympic successes, this success scored the front page of many Canadian newspapers. Go Ron Bensimhon!
What kind of justice system do they have in Greece if this clown could already be tried and convicted? Seriously, there doesn't seem to have been enough time to hire a competent lawyer. And I think the sentence is five months, not years.
posted by billsaysthis at 06:05 PM on August 18, 2004
whoops. I meant months. Months, years... really, for something like this, either one is idiotic.
posted by mkn at 07:26 PM on August 18, 2004
I don't know if I'd call the Toronto Sun a "newspaper". More of a "dish rag". But it was on the Star's front page too.
posted by DrJohnEvans at 08:41 PM on August 18, 2004
I'd like to heartily congratulate the police for duffing the attention-seeking twat up.
posted by squealy at 03:23 AM on August 19, 2004
I too thought that to be a suitable punitive arrangement. After all - can't make it look like your security can be compromised by anyone after 4 beers, but you also can't make too big a deal about it or it looks like desperate overcompensating. So you drag him into the bathroom and beat the shit out of him all the time daring him to try it again. I mean, he's not even banned from going to any of the other events he has tickets for. Sweet stuff.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 01:49 PM on August 19, 2004
Oh and Canada makes me proud all the time. For a team with snazzy clothes and miniscule funding they do pretty good. A top ten in the Olympics is phenominal and a level of success any of us would be lucky to get within sniffing distance of in our respective lives. When I was a kid I used to always measure the Canadian medals against the US medals by using the factor of 10 - that being the amount larger than us they are. So if we win 15 medals, it's really like winning 150. Then goddamned Australia and Cuba came along and blew that justification out of the water.
posted by WeedyMcSmokey at 01:57 PM on August 19, 2004
Yes, Weedy, I think I thought the same thing. In the late nineties, someone carried this per capita Olympic medal calculation to the end: Namibia was the most productive nation because Frankie Fredericks took four silver medals.
posted by Philfromhavelock at 11:38 PM on August 22, 2004
My fiance continually points out that while Canada may not be winning a ton of medals, they do have both the best-looking unis and the company that outfits the US.
posted by wfrazerjr at 09:01 PM on August 24, 2004
Hey, don't forget the Canadian women's water polo comeback victory over the women of America. And forget the 75 straight wins, including 3 mercy wins this weekend alone, for the U.S. women's softball team. Hmmmm, Finch. I was actually just rambling on to my frustrated american roommates how, well, frustrating it has been to watch the summer Olympics as a Canadian over my life time. Ben Johnson and Donovan Bailey.....and that is it. Sure there have been other triumphs, but those define the Canadian summer olympic experience for me. Both times the Canadian runner beat the almighty american summer athlete, and both times the win was discredited. BJ, well he had it coming, but Lewis was juicing too. And with Bailey, all of a sudden the 'fastest man in the world' benchmark is changed to the 200m? I guess my point is that even when Canada manages to pull off a victory at the SumOlymp, something doesn't feel quite right about it. Either it will be taken away or overlooked or something. As for Mr. Tutu, and his previous Golden Palace tomfoolery, he should've got a check this time as well. (can't find the link, but GP has denied involvement with this stunt)