Why Do we have such IDIOTS representing us at the Olympics???

[Abe Sargent]

Showboating causing one to lose a guaranteed gold?

Missing a bus causing another to "feel pressured" and mess up in the final competition and lose the Silver?

Complaining that the Olympic Village is spartan and underdecorated?

Stupid.

And then we have another atheletes actually defending the showboating by Jacobollis (something like that). Here's a US Olympian on her:

"Snowboarding is all about style, and many have said the best looking trick in snowboarding is the method air. It's one of the most photogenic of all the tricks, and a gauge of an individual's personal style. We saw Ross Powers do the same trick in the halfpipe in Salt Lake, and it grabbed him the gold. Lindsey did one in Torino, and it cost her gold.

She will have to live with the aftermath of that trick for the rest of her life. That is hard enough to bear without the rest of the world calling her out."



Except that, unlike, say, Leon Lett, she was representing our country. She wasn't racing for just herself when she puts on a uniform with the American Flag on it.


-Anxiety

[MrBigglesworth]

And another thing, what's with all this 'spirit of competition' crap?!?! If you represent my ass, you damn well better get the GOLD or die tryin'! You're an American, not a commie red Chinaman! Firebombing that girl's home may be an overreaction, but something must be done!

[TredWel]

Don't forget Bode Miller's classic "At least I don' thave to trudge down to Torino to pick up my medal" speech after being DQ'ed the other day. You could have given me days to write the most egotistical, idiotic, sour-grapes rejoinder to losing a race, and I wouldn't have come half as close to equalling his stupidity.

[Abe Sargent]

Here's another. Two teammates talking about each other, from America.

Todd Lodwick went one better, blasting teammate Carl Van Loan's performance in the Nordic Combined, where the United States finished seventh.

"We've got one guy way out of shape and picked for the team," Lodwick said. "(Van Loan's) the weakest link."

Oh, yeah, well take this, sniffed Van Loan: "Todd is not a team player and never has been. He has threatened not to ski this event because of selfish reasons."



-Anxiety

[Young Drachma]

Because in a lot of cases, these guys don't play together or anything. They train separately and compete against each other on the world stage. So...them not liking each other isn't that surprising.

But it is sorta ugly, since we never see some of these sports on the world stage except during the Olympics.

[Drake]

Jacobellis: She screwed up. She's 20 years old. I'm not going to hold it against her.

Miller: I think he's probably a funny, acerbic sort of guy with a really dry sense of humor. That sort of thing tends not to quote well.

I think Dark Cloud nailed the teammate cattiness.

As far as Johnny Weir goes: Well, it's men's figure skating. You couldn't pay me to care.

[Drake]

dola...

Another thing on the Jacobellis controversy: it's a good thing no one actually watches the Winter Olympics, otherwise it would be really embarrassing.

[tanglewood]

dola...

Another thing on the Jacobellis controversy: it's a good thing no one actually watches the Winter Olympics, otherwise it would be really embarrassing.

I watched it live and thought it was hillarous.

Proviso: Not an American.

[saldana]

lets not forget the shani davis nonsense....speed skating team pursuit, refused to race with the rest of the team so he wouldnt be tired for his personal race, and said he never intended to even though before the games he said he would

[Young Drachma]

In speedskating, you have Chad Hedrick, chewing out fellow teammate Shani Davis for not competing in Team Pursuit. Hedrick is trying to elude to the fact that Davis' pulling out of the event, a few days after pulling a hammy in the 5000m (which Hedrick won) was poor, because Davis was doing it to focus on the 1000m, where he is the #1 ranked in the world and world record holder.

By not competing in the Team Pursuit (a new event to this year's olympics) Davis probably cost the US a shot at gold, meaning Hedrick won't reach his goal of 5 gold medals. (providing he'd won the other 3 events after team pursuit.)

The real issue here is, Shani Davis (you know, the most visible black face of these winter Olympics..) doesn't train or even get funded by the US Speedskating. His mother/agent had a falling out with US Speedskating over sponsorships. Essentially, Shani Davis wanted to go outside of US Speedskating for his sponsorship 'cuz he gets more money that way and it got so ugly, that his mother requested they not have his bio on their site because they don't fund him.

He trains in Calgary, rather than in the US and so...in short, he doesn't have a lot of pals on the team. (The main exception is his best friend, Apolo Ohno, the short-tracker)

It'll be interesting how this plays out tomorrow night.

[Young Drachma]

Oh, one more sidenote.

The other thing about the Davis debacle that is not mentioned in most accounts of the story..

By pulling out of the Team Pursuit, two guys on the speedskating squad who were not entered in any individual events got to compete. Shani Davis, in 2002, was in their same boat, as he was part of the squad, but was an alternate.

He also consulted the US Team's coach and he advised him against it. He wasn't the only male in the event to do that, a few others skated in the first race and then withdrew.

I get the whole "team over self" thing, but...when you have a lot at stake and it's obvious the people on your "team" aren't really that big a fan of yours anyway..why would you stick your neck out for them?

Again, it goes back to the whole "just because these folks are Americans, doesn't mean they like each other" thing.

[Poli]

It could be worse. Imagine TO in the Olympics.

[thealmighty]

Well, it's men's figure skating. You couldn't pay me to care.
You COULD pay me to care......but you better bring a really big pile of money.

[Poli]

I pretend to care when my wife is watching...but secretly I'm sleeping.

[rexallllsc]

Complaining that the Olympic Village is spartan and underdecorated?

Who said that?

[ISiddiqui]

You don't hear this crap from other squads... and then people wonder where the US gets a reputation as being filled with arrogant idiots. We should think about having a personality exam to go to the Olympics.

[ice4277]

You don't hear this crap from other squads... and then people wonder where the US gets a reputation as being filled with arrogant idiots. We should think about having a personality exam to go to the Olympics. Is it really that the US squad is that arrogant? I think it may have more to do with the fact that we just don't hear about these kinds of things from other countries' athletes. Just because NBC does not find it worth reporting doesn't mean it does not happen.

That being said, I do think that Bode Miller is a douchebag. That is all.

[Kobeck]

I agree completly, except I don't know nor care about B. Miller

[ISiddiqui]

Is it really that the US squad is that arrogant? I think it may have more to do with the fact that we just don't hear about these kinds of things from other countries' athletes. Just because NBC does not find it worth reporting doesn't mean it does not happen.

That being said, I do think that Bode Miller is a douchebag. That is all.I don't get all my Olympic news from NBC. Perhaps other outlets (like the BBC) aren't playing up the assholish-ness of their athletes, but then again, we tend to hype up our guys much more because we still treat the Games in a Cold War mentality it seems... and then when they act like prima donnas we get surprised.

After all, I haven't yet seen anything quite like our lovely women's snowboard cross athlete showboating costing her Olympic Gold from anyone else.

[Young Drachma]

Who said that?

They've been saying that the Olympics quarters are spartan and boring for ages. When the NHLers went to Nagano that was their big complaint. Of course, they also trashed the place, some of them.

But winter olympians by and large can't do what high-profile summer Olympians do and that's just stay outside of the athletes village.

[sterlingice]

You don't hear this crap from other squads... and then people wonder where the US gets a reputation as being filled with arrogant idiots. We should think about having a personality exam to go to the Olympics.This isn't to say it's probably not fairly true about us, but, c'mon, we do tend to get such US-centric coverage that we wouldn't know if, say, one of the Norwegians urinated a teammate's name in the snow and then took a crap on it.

SI

[sterlingice]

As far as Johnny Weir goes: Well, it's men's figure skating. You couldn't pay me to care.Speaking of idiots, they had their obligatory stupid human interest story about him. It's just hard to take him seriously when, in his metrosexual lisp, he was talking about how he is "such a rebel and looking to shake up the US figure skating establishment". It was the saddest thing.

Dude, you're a figure skater, you are part of the establishment. Your voice doesn't scare 8 year old girls, you couldn't beat anything up. And you wear sequined skin-tight clothes to work, you're not a rebel.

SI

[Coder]

Interesting column on yahoo's Olympic site after the US Women lost to Sweden in the Hockey Semi Finals.

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/ice_hockey/news?slug=dw-whockey021706&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Sort of expresses some of the opinions you've been saying here.

[Marc Vaughan]

Hey you should take the approach that England do to the winter olympics most of our entrants have been self funded or in the case of one medal winner sponsored by their local pub .... people don't show boat when they aren't sure if they'll make it there next time ;)

(on a serious note I find it a bit sad that our soccer stars get over £xk per week in wages and people who are near the best in the world at a more minor sport here have to scrimp and save just to compete ... do other countries fund their sportsmen/women as badly if the sport isn't in 'vogue' ?)

[Tekneek]

It doesn't bother me. We have even bigger fools in government here and we keep sending those people back to important positions that actually have a direct impact on our lives. When all of that is corrected, I might be a little concerned about morons in the Olympics.

[Flasch186]

hey, Jacobellis was simply trying to steady herself in the air.

[miami_fan]

I did not care when they were selected. I have not cared enough to watch. I don't care how they act now. That is all

[sovereignstar]

Would the above be considered a spoiler? I don't care personally, but some might (if it is).

[Grammaticus]

Speaking of idiots, they had their obligatory stupid human interest story about him. It's just hard to take him seriously when, in his metrosexual lisp, he was talking about how he is "such a rebel and looking to shake up the US figure skating establishment". It was the saddest thing.

Dude, you're a figure skater, you are part of the establishment. Your voice doesn't scare 8 year old girls, you couldn't beat anything up. And you wear sequined skin-tight clothes to work, you're not a rebel.

SI
When I saw the Weir story I thought I was watching the Chappelle show. Took me a minute to figure out that crap was real. All in all, it was some of the best comedy on TV so far this year.

[ISiddiqui]

I especially liked when he said "Republicans hate me". No... no one cares about your 'rebel' lifestyle. Weir is such a prick.

[rexallllsc]

It doesn't bother me. We have even bigger fools in government here and we keep sending those people back to important positions that actually have a direct impact on our lives. When all of that is corrected, I might be a little concerned about morons in the Olympics.

Good point.

[pennywisesb]

Except that, unlike, say, Leon Lett, she was representing our country. She wasn't racing for just herself when she puts on a uniform with the American Flag on it.


-Anxiety

Exactly.

[Tekneek]

Exactly.

Come on. More people are watching American Idol than the Olympics.

[Dutch]

I'm sure the girl feels bad, regardless of whatever she or anybody else says, so I give her a break.

There's no way a more mature, serious snowboarder does that. The reality is, however, that those that were more mature and serious were 50 yards behind her when she screwed up, so they aren't perfect either.

It was a dumb risk to take and she paid the price. Some other chick has the gold medal and is damned proud of it. But in the end, I hope Jacobellis gets a chance in 4 years to redeem herself, but opportunities like this don't always happen. There are bound to be American competators that will be more than happy to take her spot 4 years from now.

Never take the opportunities that you get or earn for granted.

[Maple Leafs]

Shani Davis (you know, the most visible black face of these winter Olympics...)
Um...

http://www.calgaryflames.com/images/roster/12_iginlaWEB.jpg

[Senator]

What we are seeing on TV in front of the world (the attitude) is what many of us work with everyday in our place of business.

[Young Drachma]

Um...

http://www.calgaryflames.com/images/roster/12_iginlaWEB.jpg

I meant, American.

[Young Drachma]

What we are seeing on TV in front of the world (the attitude) is what many of us work with everyday in our place of business.

Yup.

[Shkspr]

Um...

http://www.calgaryflames.com/images/roster/12_iginlaWEB.jpg

Or maybe he meant, gold medal winning. ;)

[Young Drachma]

or that :)

[Rizon]

hey, Jacobellis was simply trying to steady herself in the air.

No, she was trying to roll a joint.

[flere-imsaho]

The Jacobellis "showboating" incident is, in a microcosm, everything that is wrong with the Winter Olympics. As in too many other sports, a constant drive to add "spectator-friendly" or "TV-friendly" elements (or, in the case of the Olympics, events) to the sport has only served the muddle things.

The fact is that a lot of these newer "sports" are poorly thought out, and in many cases don't have well-defined rules and/or norms. Thus, when they get to the Olympic stage, a lot of the BS arguments that normally give these new "sports" some flavor get blown out of proportion and become the story, as opposed to, you know, sport. Of course, this in itself is good for TV, which is probably part of the reason they're courted and tolerated.

Snowboard Cross (and, hell, the snowboarding events in general) is a good example of this. Here's a sport that's basically anarchic in its "natural" state, and whose practitioners clearly can't be bothered to nail down a comprehensive and, importantly, consistent set of rules for Olympic competition. Thus we end up with an idiotic scenario where Jacobellis gets penalized for doing something in competition which is completely and totally consistent with the ethos of the sport in which she is competing. To whit: you can't tell me that any snowboarding event has, at its heart, and element of showboating. Let's face it, that's the reason the entire sport exists - because a bunch of kids found skiing too boring.

The same goes for ice dancing: "Oooo, regular ice skating doesn't provide enough TV time, and at least half of the event (the technical part) isn't fun to televise, so let's make up a sport that consists only of the TV-friendly part of ice skating!" And freestyle skiing, in which Moguls is just a variation on a theme (go down the hill fast, over more bumps) and ballet is just freaking stupid.


You know, we keep on doing this to sports, we keep on trying to make them more interesting to the "casual fan". The Olympics keeps on adding sports to be more interesting to a general TV audience. But you know what? The casual fan comes and goes. What interests him or her right now is, frankly, unlikely to hold their interest in the long term. So all you've done, in the end, is alienated the people who loved the sport (or event) to begin with.


The Winter Olympics are a niche event. And critically, this is their charm. Every four years you get to see some sports events you generally don't otherwise see unless you're from Scandanavia. Except for hockey, but hockey's a niche sport anyway. But just like the idiots who want to change hockey to make it more interesting to a "general" audience who will still only watch it for a few games before turning it off, there are a bunch of idiots who want to make the Winter Olympics more "relevant" to garner a few more eyes.


I don't know, call me a curmudgeon, but give me back the days when the Winter Olympics consisted of hockey games for the guys, figure skating for the girls, skiing for the Scandanavians, curling for the Canadians and bobsled & luge for the certifiably insane.

[Coder]

bobsled & luge for the certifiably insane.

ze germanz love ze bobsled!

[oliegirl]

Thus we end up with an idiotic scenario where Jacobellis gets penalized for doing something in competition which is completely and totally consistent with the ethos of the sport in which she is competing. To whit: you can't tell me that any snowboarding event has, at its heart, and element of showboating. Let's face it, that's the reason the entire sport exists - because a bunch of kids found skiing too boring.

How did she get penalized? Other than losing the Gold medal - which is penalty enough. They didn't strip her of the Silver and give her a Bronze in it's place because of point deductions or anything. She lost the race. It was her own fault. There was no penalty...

[flere-imsaho]

Aarrgghh, my good rant ruined by the facts!!! :( Truth be told, I didn't see the race, and assumed she got DQ'ed for showboating, not that she crashed.

However, having said that, aside from that paragraph, I stand by my rant. :)

[oliegirl]

Aarrgghh, my good rant ruined by the facts!!! :( Truth be told, I didn't see the race, and assumed she got DQ'ed for showboating, not that she crashed.

However, having said that, aside from that paragraph, I stand by my rant. :)



Hahaha...sorry to burst your bubble :) No - she wasn't dq'd - the other 2 in the race had crashed earlier so she was able to get up and finish second...a Canadian finished a minute or so later to get the Bronze medal.

We just watched it on TiVo, and even though I knew it was coming, it was SO painful to watch! I kept saying "just don't do it!" hoping she'd hear me and just finish the race and then celebrate instead of being an idiot and trying to show off...but alas, she didn't hear and wiped out anyway :(

[clintl]

I'm sure the girl feels bad, regardless of whatever she or anybody else says, so I give her a break.

There's no way a more mature, serious snowboarder does that. The reality is, however, that those that were more mature and serious were 50 yards behind her when she screwed up, so they aren't perfect either.

It was a dumb risk to take and she paid the price. Some other chick has the gold medal and is damned proud of it. But in the end, I hope Jacobellis gets a chance in 4 years to redeem herself, but opportunities like this don't always happen. There are bound to be American competators that will be more than happy to take her spot 4 years from now.

Never take the opportunities that you get or earn for granted.

Seth Westcott said he did exactly the same thing in his gold medal race, but no one noticed because he didn't fall. So I think your assertion here is wrong. What she did is part of the sport's culture.

[Dutch]

Seth Westcott said he did exactly the same thing in his gold medal race, but no one noticed because he didn't fall. So I think your assertion here is wrong. What she did is part of the sport's culture.

Apparently it's not part of the girl's culture that has a gold medal right now.

[Wolfpack]

I don't know, call me a curmudgeon, but give me back the days when the Winter Olympics consisted of hockey games for the guys, figure skating for the girls, skiing for the Scandanavians, curling for the Canadians and bobsled & luge for the certifiably insane.

Who knew? All it took was the Winter Olympics to turn flere into a raving conservative (if only briefly). :)

One other thing. If you were truly traditionalist, the Canadians wouldn't even have curling to fall back on since that's only been in the Olympics since 1992 (demo'd in 1988 in Calgary, I believe).

[Logan]

Hahaha...sorry to burst your bubble :) No - she wasn't dq'd - the other 2 in the race had crashed earlier so she was able to get up and finish second...a Canadian finished a minute or so later to get the Bronze medal.

We just watched it on TiVo, and even though I knew it was coming, it was SO painful to watch! I kept saying "just don't do it!" hoping she'd hear me and just finish the race and then celebrate instead of being an idiot and trying to show off...but alas, she didn't hear and wiped out anyway :(

Can someone give me a quick rundown on what the announcers were saying as it went down?

[Rizon]

Can someone give me a quick rundown on what the announcers were saying as it went down?

"Oh my god, she dropped her bong!"

[Warhammer]

This has never been seen before in the history of Women's Olympic Snowboard Cross!

[Dutch]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/snowboarding/index.html

There is video on the right hand side of the page. Aptly named "Jacobellis crashes, gives up gold"

You can see her get off to an amazing start and watch her lead build and build and then disappear. Then you can watch the jubilation of the Swiss team and Jocobellis just standing their staring at them dumbfounded.

Like I said, I feel really bad for the girl, really.

[Senator]

I don't know jack about that sport, but it looked pretty fun. And the crashes were a mess. Hope this doesn't plague her life like Buckner, but what am I saying, this is the olympics, no one will remember a thing.

[KWhit]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/snowboarding/index.html

There is video on the right hand side of the page. Aptly named "Jacobellis crashes, gives up gold"

You can see her get off to an amazing start and watch her lead build and build and then disappear. Then you can watch the jubilation of the Swiss team and Jocobellis just standing their staring at them dumbfounded.

Like I said, I feel really bad for the girl, really.
Maybe I'm a heartless asshole but I don't feel bad for her at all. I hate showboaters - in any sport or competition.

When your goal is to win, don't try to show off and rub the other competitors' faces in your victory. If you want to celebrate, do it AFTER THE EVENT IS OVER.

She got what she deserved, IMO. Actually, it would have been better if she would have not medaled at all.

[Dutch]

Maybe I'm a heartless asshole but I don't feel bad for her at all. I hate showboaters - in any sport or competition.

When your goal is to win, don't try to show off and rub the other competitors' faces in your victory. If you want to celebrate, do it AFTER THE EVENT IS OVER.

She got what she deserved, IMO. Actually, it would have been better if she would have not medaled at all.
I guess I feel bad for her in hindsight. Seeing her stand there in disbelief, almost crying, with that look like, "What have I done?"

But yes, that is something she should have thought about before she tried to celebrate early. Not making up excuses, the Swiss girl deserves the medal, but what this girl did was just plain Leon Lett.

[RPI-Fan]

I guess I feel bad for her in hindsight. Seeing her stand there in disbelief, almost crying, with that look like, "What have I done?"

But yes, that is something she should have thought about before she tried to celebrate early. Not making up excuses, the Swiss girl deserves the medal, but what this girl did was just plain Leon Lett.

I take this to mean you didn't see her "post-game" interview where, initially laughing, she says "I was a little unbalanced on that final jump so I guess I tried to steady myself and it didn't quite work out".

Maybe that was taken out of context and it was a joke, but from what I saw on the NBC site she is trying to pass that off as legit.

[Jesse_Ewiak]

Simple answer to the question. The vast majority of Olympians are between 18 and 30. People between these ages do stupid things at often the worse times to do stupid things. End of story.

[JonInMiddleGA]

... but give me back the days when the Winter Olympics consisted of hockey games for the guys, figure skating for the girls, skiing for the Scandanavians, curling for the Canadians and bobsled & luge for the certifiably insane.

Given the cost of the television rights fees, if that's all you've got (i.e. without the elements that at least attempt to draw the casual viewer), you probably don't get much if any coverage at all. As it is, NBC is looking at significant losses on the Games, and those become major losses if they have ratings that slip below the guarantees made to advertisers in terms of audience, as they have to then give away inventory that would have otherwise been sold later in the year to makegood the guarantees. The prestige that goes with being the "Olympic Network" carries a certain value, but at some point that has to reach its limit (I suspect we're getting close to that point now).

(see rights fee escalation in a chart at the bottom of:
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/O/htmlO/olympicsand/olympicsand.htm

[oliegirl]

I take this to mean you didn't see her "post-game" interview where, initially laughing, she says "I was a little unbalanced on that final jump so I guess I tried to steady myself and it didn't quite work out".

Maybe that was taken out of context and it was a joke, but from what I saw on the NBC site she is trying to pass that off as legit.


Yeah - that irritated me too...I almost felt bad for her when she was standing there in shock, but after she said that, nope. I did hear that she later owned up to it and said she was "caught up in the moment" and had made a bad call in doing the jump the way she did. That makes it a little better, but she should have just said that from the start and I think then more people would have felt sorry for her and thought "well, at least she learned her lesson" rather than "stupid idiot".

[Rockstar]

This is just another example of the hype that is the United States. Wasnt this team billed as "the best team the US has ever fielded"? And it consists of overhyped morons. Too bad for these "athletes" the Olypics are not in the States.
I only feel bad that the girls wipe out wasnt more off course and caused her to lose out on ANY medal.

[Dutch]

I take this to mean you didn't see her "post-game" interview where, initially laughing, she says "I was a little unbalanced on that final jump so I guess I tried to steady myself and it didn't quite work out".

Maybe that was taken out of context and it was a joke, but from what I saw on the NBC site she is trying to pass that off as legit.
No, I did not see that but I heard about it. I think she's trying to play it off. I really think she's embarrassed. She's young and doesn't quite know how to say or want to say, "I fucked up."

However, she couldn't fake that reaction in the video clip above immediately following the loss while the Swiss, non-Method girl is celebrating her victory while Jacobellis is just standing there, dumbfounded. That's the more genuine reaction I think I'm reacting too.

I guess I don't mean to defend her, but I know it's going to be killing her for the rest of her life, whether she admits it or not.

[ISiddiqui]

This is just another example of the hype that is the United States. Wasnt this team billed as "the best team the US has ever fielded"? And it consists of overhyped morons. Too bad for these "athletes" the Olypics are not in the States.Yep... If this is "America's Best Team Ever" then I'm embarrased as all Hell. Thankfully, I know that isn't the case!