Olympics Gripe

[likwid]

Originally Posted by Mike P

He may well break 19 seconds for the 200 meters. His WR currently is 19.19. I mean, the guy runs a 19.3-something and eases up in the last 20 meters.

There's also talk of him moving up to the 400 meters and probably becoming the first man to ever hold the WR in all 3 sprints.

100/200 to 400 for all intensive purposes is like going from doing 5k's and 10k's to a marathon. He'll have alot of work ahead of him to train into that. Even at his level, but it could happen.

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by likwid

100/200 to 400 for all intensive purposes is like going from doing 5k's and 10k's to a marathon. He'll have alot of work ahead of him to train into that. Even at his level, but it could happen.

I think it's even tougher than that. You're going from about a 4:15-4:20 pace per mile in the 5 and 10K to about a 4:45-4:50 in the marathon. That 30 second/mile slower pace feels like a jog to a world class track distance man. The WR in the 10K is now under 27 minutes. In the 400 you almost have to maintain something like a 10.5 100 meter pace for the race. It is without a doubt the toughest sprint out there. The only guys I know of that doubled in the 200/400 are Tommie Smith and Michael Johnson.

I went to PC when Geoff Smith and John Treacy were there. They both made a very easy transition from 10K to the marathon. So did Alberto Salazar out at Oregon.

Smith won Boston (and had a famous runner-up finish to Rod Dixon at NYC when he collapsed at the finish after leading most of the race) and Treacy won the silver at LA in 1984. He also competed for Ireland in both the 5 and 10K at Moscow in 1980.

[FishermanTim]

I was more surprised to see how many US athletes DIDN'T sing the national anthem along with the music!

I figure that if an athlete, ANY athlete, dedicates 4 years of their life in the pursuit of Olympic gold and they succeed, they are entitled to a little bragging leeway.

Now if we were talking about highly overpaid sports brats, it would be a different story....

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

I was more surprised to see how many US athletes DIDN'T sing the national anthem along with the music!

I figure that if an athlete, ANY athlete, dedicates 4 years of their life in the pursuit of Olympic gold and they succeed, they are entitled to a little bragging leeway.

Now if we were talking about highly overpaid sports brats, it would be a different story....

Maybe most of them can't sing it? I sure as hell can't.

There are like 5 people out of 300 million Americans, who aren't trained singers, who can sing the damn thing and stay on key.

Don't you cringe when you're at Fenway and everyone in the section have their voices crack on "Red Glaaaaaarrrre?

It's an old English drinking song (To Anachrion in Heaven) and some idiot decided about 150 years ago that it fit the words of Key's poem.

We should have replaced it with America the Beautiful (written by our own Katherine Lee Bates) years ago.

[FishermanTim]

I agree that some, if not most, have voices that would shame a banshee, but wouldn't you think that they could have mimed the words?

Two things that I caught over the past two weeks that struck me as unusual (one good, one bad):

**Good**
Quite a few events were won by athletes from small countries that weren't expected to be a factor against the larger countries.

It just re-emphasized the fact that "the best" doesn't always come from the biggest!

**Bad**
Quite a few athletes showing anger that they didn't win the gold in their events. They replaced poor sportsmanship in place to good.
Remember when a person would be proud to win ANY medal?
Remember when it was a competition of the "best of the best" from around the world? Remember when the announcers wouldn't tell you who SHOULD win before the event, based of their past umpteen meetings over the past four years?
Now there are more and more displays of disdain and disgust by athletes because THEY failed to get the gold in an event that they were supposed to win.

I will always root for the underdog, even if it means rooting against the US. I also love closely matched events, so that the win is not a shoo-in.

[likwid]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

I was more surprised to see how many US athletes DIDN'T sing the national anthem along with the music!

I figure that if an athlete, ANY athlete, dedicates 4 years of their life in the pursuit of Olympic gold and they succeed, they are entitled to a little bragging leeway.

Now if we were talking about highly overpaid sports brats, it would be a different story....

Maybe we should demand they in all interviews talk about how great the US is a-la Soviet Bloc?

And more than you know are highly overpaid sports brats.