IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

bgray2008 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 14:55:56 GMT

I think a bigger travesty is that such a large paper and online publication allows an article to run on such a broad base without using spellcheck or being run past an editor' eyes.....U.S. mean and women? Collid with the British runners? C'mon Newsweek!

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

dreaddog — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:31:22 GMT

They say all thing must come to an end, and all great societies will eventually crumble on them selves......its now americas turn. we have crumbles socially already with the baby boomers kids now breeding. we have no moral fiber left, i will soon be able to marry my dog and it will be fine as long as i dont offend the dogs family. We have crumbled economically...... no examples needed just go to your local gas station. And finally we have crumbled athletically. We have been througherly beeten in these olympics by the chinese and a little island in the carribean name Jamaica. It seems without dope we cant compete. It happned to europe when the cold war ended and now its our turn. Jamaica kicked our buts in every meaningfull track event. This i fear is the begining of things to come. We will never top china again. O NBC coverage ...pathetic. they forgot it is a world event NOT an americanone.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

domfromlondon — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 15:48:55 GMT

I doubt you would understand if a Chinese man asked you for a beer, listen out for 'Ni Xichuan He Pi Jiu Ma?' and you could be getting somewhere.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

anbhatti — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:01:31 GMT

well i guess if you only win bronze and the other country only wins gold but your bronze medals are more than their golds, you will stand on top...does not make sense to me at all.

It is easier to participate in games like beach volley ball , soft ball, basketball, baseball etc and win golds and be pompus. Fact of the matter is you have to beat other couuntries in sports which are common worldwide. Keep counting medals in sports which are no sport worlwide.

A lot of this is also politics, America has been a super power for past 25 years and it has bullied its way around U.N and also other international organizations not to mention alot funding comes from U.S. So America can put in a lot of those games which they only play and be able to accumulate a lot medals. This should also be mentioned when blaming others for doping when they beat you.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

susie8956 — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:14:23 GMT

As John Daily said “ USA please win the most gold, so we can buy back our economy from China” so looks like we our economy is continue to tank. All other country’s Olympic website has China listed first due to the most gold, only US has USA’s listed 1st due to most medal count. If the positions are reverse, USA will be listed for the 1st place if they have more gold and yet less medals.

Underage – if this is the early 90’s, where no age limits. For sure, there will be complaints towards the Chinese, ie., there are way to short and thin, thus we should have a weight and height limit.

NBC – live ET, meaning folks in the westcoast are staying up till 2AM to watch only the AMERICANS, they should change the name from Olympic to USA Olympic.

Mark Starr - your writing sucks and you’re narrow minded

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

jjwan — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:16:09 GMT

I was disgusted by bolt's behavior at the end of the races - and i know of others who think the same way. sure he is an amazing runner and there can be not doubt to that, but what kind of sportsmanship does he show the world? His casual approach awes me. He could run faster if he didn't act like everything was a joke. Every other olympic athlete pushes themselves to the furthest of their own abilities. Bolt breaks records but doesn't seem to be trying much more than winning. He takes his win, and rubs it in the faces of other runners who may not be as good as him but have tried. I think its disgusting and basically is described as jackass behavior. I actually prefer to just wait till after the race has been run to find out the results rather than to watch him.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

mlsbbe — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 16:31:27 GMT

Oh..the Oh So Great America is now losing the medal rankings..dont' forget that people from other countries are also reading this article. This guys whos writing the article is simply amazing - a total example of the ignorance and arrogrance of the Americans.

First and foremost, the Gold Medal Count has ALWAYS been used as the standard used for the rest of the world. I don't know why , but only the US media does it differently( ever since the lost the gold medal count - i don't know why maybe its just that they believe they are the best at everything and have to manipulate and cheat themselves to to top of the medal table). Back in athens 2004, the US media did the count by the total gold medals won. If you don't believe do a search and you will promptly see that websites like USToday ranked it by total gold medals won.

Secondly, there is NO PROOF that the gymnasts are overage. Asians on general look much younger than their causcasian counterparts. I suggest maybe go have a look around in Chinese schools and you will see how young they look compared to causcasians. The idea that the western media found the site listing them as underage is questionable... Where is the link to show the site that they are underage? I can't believe somebody from the west can actually understand chinese much less read it, so how they find the site? There is no absolute way on knowing if they're underage.

Thirdly I suggest mabe you learn to speak chinese and understand chinese culture before you go complaining how cold and indifferent chinese people are. i doubt maby chinese can speak english fluetly.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

quantum man — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:12:38 GMT

What type of Olympic games you watched when you were a kid? your elementary school games doesn't count as Olympic. The country with the most GOLD medals has always been the winner of the Olympic, It is up to know, when USA is not on top of that rank when they want to create a whole new system because is what is better for them. Is impressive the arrogance

I do have to agree with you about point 1, the effort of the athlete to win a medal is incredible, let them celebrate any way they want with out disrespecting the rivals. Or what, now they want to be like the Chinese government repressing their citizens? We a;already have enough oppressing in this world, we don't need any other retrograded person in this world.

China cheating because their gold medal winner is under 15 years old, The rules are clear, an athlete has to be 16 years old, BUT, why the IOC has to kill an teenager dreams? WHY? Mr.. American writer, Your country scream to the 4 points of earth "FREEDOM". Could you please tell us why a teenager can fulfill this freedom of DREAM? rules are the RULES,, BUT DREAMS.. DREAMS are everything that this world still have left.

Point # 6, NBC coverage is focus only on American athletes, they don't care about the Olympics, they only care about the ratings over other networks. Is incredible that they focus the 10 mts diving even in the American girl and make a big deal of the last time this girl was going to jump. They even focus on the Australian girl, who was always on rank 16,17 but forgot about the Mexican girls, who went from rank 12 - 13 to get close to the medals, NBC never broadcasted any of their diving's.

Good day Ladies and Gentlemen

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

Caccofonyx — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:19:36 GMT

"There are no casual intersections between reporters and real people from Beijing..."

- Maybe if you and the others learned Mandarin, then you would be able to interact with the "real" people from Beijing.

"But when most of us venture out, it’s to the not-so-real city..."

- Exactly, whose fault is that ?

And like the guy before me said, learn how to spell before you whine about how "real" people from Beijing don't speak English.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

cynths — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 17:47:03 GMT

I cannont understand why people would say that Usain Bolt disrespected other runners. Did he disrespect the runners by winning the race! "he takes his win and rubs it in the faces of other runners" Are you crazy?! He jumps around in jubulation after winning the most coveted title at the Olympics. Should he have bowed his head in shame! I have never seen anyone win a race and go around shaking the losers hands or congratulating them. It is the losers who often go after the winner and offer congratulations.

Leave the kid alone! Do you all want blood or what! Anyone who criticizes this kid is obviously dangerously envious and need to put yourselves out of your misery.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

dbbolm — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 18:56:44 GMT

I am an American, and feel that i represent a fair number of my fellow countrymen when I say that we too are disgusted with our media's obsession with the medal count and coverage. If our ladies gymnastics team had won the gold medal, there would be no age controversy; but they blew it. We should congratulate the Chinese women and move on. And I agree that the coverage by NBC is only about one thing, ratings. For the first week it was basically Phelps TV. I honor his accomplishments, but for god's sake there are so many other stories than Mr. Phelps. It breaks my heart to see a young American athlete in tears because they had to "settle" for a silver. Just the fact that they are able to compete is acommplishment enough, but the pressure from our media and sponsers has tainted their experience.

World please realize that our government's and media's antics do not represent all Americans and our view of the rest of the world. I am sure that my comments will aggravate some of my fellow countrymen, but that is one thing that makes our country great; we can agree to disagree.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

tobaro — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 21:54:22 GMT

Has this Rogge guy ever considered that in different countries, people celebrate in different ways? The Chinese bow modestly and the Jamaicans dance exuberantly. It doesn't mean they are arrogant.

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

drealchez — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 01:10:38 GMT

The US media needs to give not only Bolt a break but the "small" Island of Jamaic a a break!! For such a small country there achievement is great...give respect whre it is due and stop player hating...Try and understand the Jamaican culture then you will see that MR BOLT has done nothing wrong...

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

rosies — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 02:06:22 GMT

Its just pure jealousy ...I guess because Bolt is not American then his antics are wrong...oh well.. who cares what he wanna do after his victories.. he has workeed really hard for this it didnt not coem eay ... in the days of Maurice Green, Drummond..etc.. no one showboated like them now Usain is just having "CLEAN" fun.. the playiing field is now level so it now shows that Jamaica is the sprinting capital of the world and the haters are just jealous...Jamaica and Bolt to the world

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

TonyPow — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:33:29 GMT

Celebration of Olympics Bronzes

What happened?

How can we lose gold count to China, a third world country?

Let’s have a national holiday of mourning. No one objects I guess!

Let’s have a national contest of the best excuses of winning so less gold metals.

It has to be the BEST, so it could worth a gold in this category.

What to do?

Borrow more money from China to buy better facilities, foreign coaches, Speedo…

My secret is to import 8 Jamaican runners. Money talks!

Bribe the judges (a little harder as everyone hates us but money talks again).

Change all the rules to our favor: 5 metals for basketball, 2 for table tennis, 0 for diving…

All tiebreakers must go our way as our sponsors own the Olympics.

We will amplify their “shortcomings” like copying our advance lip sing technique (how dare you’re), small size advantage, large size advantage, working too hard…

The Chinese must have put slippery jell on our batons and/or the gym apparatus.

Develop the best dope that no one can detect – we have the best scientists.

My secret is to develop a dope that can take out all dope traces from our body so we take it before dope tests.

“One country, all metals” is our new Olympics slogan.

The more wishfully we think, the closer we succeed.

How to heal now, really?

Write to Dear Abby for starter.

Bronze is the same as gold if not better. If you do not believe me, ask any blind person.

It is harder to get a bronze as we have to LET two others to win.

We’ll train our athletes for the bronze from now on.

We will ask NBC to interview bronze winners only as they are the real winners.

Actually we’ll be happier to be #3 and build a better relationship with other nations. Stop laughing. It is a fact!!!

Phelps, we love you more with 8 bronze metals - it is no easy job to let 2 and ONLY 2 pass you 8 times.

If everything does not work, turn ugly.

Ask McDonald’s and KFC to give away their “food” to China FREE, so their next generation will be so fat that they cannot walk to the subway station.

Send soldiers to grab the metals, esp. gold. Hey, we have the best offense.

Will the world be better if we only fought for gold metals only (bronze metals in our case)?

What an Olympic spirit to celebrate the winning of the bronze!

-- The author is Tony Pow. 8/22/08. Created for fun. No politics. No dumb nationalism. No ego. 90% false, 10% true. 100% fun. Hope no offense to you. Please feel free to distribute/change... ---

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

nerakami — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:44:35 GMT

Mr. Rogge who is a part of an organization that represents so many countries in the world, ought to first familiarize himself with the cultures of these countries because if he did, he would never have made such silly comments. Jamaica is that same country that produced the prolific, indelible and rebellious music of Bob Marley, the butterfly dance which the American football players adopted as their signature move after a touchdown, the same country that its inhabitants have never seen snow in their lives but yet produced a bobsled team that captivated the world. You see Mr. Rogge, Jamaica is somewhat of an enigma but one thing is crystal clear, we are a nation of people who have danced and sang our way through the dark days of slavery through all our sadness and joys. If we dont dance, we can't live, it is like breathing to us... so what Usain Bolt demonstrated in Beijing is an intrinsic part of who we are... "yea mon" we love to dance and will do so into internity.... keep dancing Jamaica... our spirit lives through the dance...

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

nerakami — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 20:44:35 GMT

re: IOC Should Butt Out on Bolt and Other Olympic Thoughts

6cents — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:31:39 GMT

Ah! O ye sluggard, consider the ways of the ant that finds food in summer, and stores for winter. Mr. Rogge, you have just missed the biggest opportunity of the IOC's life, to transform a superstar with personality into a mass appeal machine for Track & Field. Go see what Tiger Woods has done to Golf, a most staid sport. Instead, Mr. Rogge criticised his best change agent that displays a most media-savvy personality that could bring back Tracks into the 21st century - to the burgeoning youth population. Mr. Rogge, are you special interest-motivated?