The Chronic Curmudgeon

Is it a cop-out to say about this post:

"That... Was... AWESOME!"

It's true :D

Yeah, I like the team play of Shani Davis, too. Real team player. Glad to see the press focusing on the fact that this non-snowboarder, non-skier is not just out for himself. I'm happy he got the gold (earned it is a better word) and even happier that he broke a huge barrier (in fact, I pointed him out to my daughter as someone she may read about someday in her history books).

But he's as much NOT about the Olympics as Bode. His team needed him, but all thought about was himself. That's not sportsmanship. That's today's professional athlete.

The Olympics are flawed, perhaps beyond repair. They are no longer pure (NBA players in basketball? MLB players in baseball?). They are no longer about sport (Ballroom dancing? Ice skating? And please don't get me started about the bastardization the Olympic committee comitted admitting things like ballroom dancing into the Games. And I'd venture to say that the lack of a Cold War has nullified the patriotic fervor behind the games (Quick, tell me who carried the flag into the stadium this year! Maybe we need a few good Muslim nations to pull a Jamaican boblsled act and get the nationalist juices and television ratings flowing again).

Shani was absolutely right. He wanted to focus on his event, the event he is a world record holder in and he had a goal to win his event. Speedskating isn't a team sport. This pursuit event is a joke and he NEVER told anyone he was going to skate in it in the first place. If the U.S. wanted to win a gold in the pursuit than they should have put together a good pursuit team.

So fuck Chad Hedricks and his crying ass. He's upset because someone didn't want to sacrifice their goals to help him tie a record he wasn't going to tie since apparently his goals are for the "greater good". He acted like a big baby when Shani won and I hope Shani kicks his ass in the 1,500 too.

Last I checked, skiing wasn't a team sport either.

No what's the problem with Shani. He opted not to skate in some team event (that he never agreed to do) and focus on the event he's been focusing on since he was six years ago.

BTW, I don't see anyone else on the speedskating team sacrificing their personal goals for unity either. Good for him. Only in America can someone be criticized for working hard to achieve a goal and being focused enough to achieve it.

BTW, Mudge, not to get all positive on you, but why you gotta hate?

Why not mention Joey Cheek, a speedskater turned philantropist who donated all the winnings from his gold and silver medal to charity.

Or Lindsey Kildow, who completely wiped out on a skiing practice run and broke her body only to return two days later and ski in every event because she didn't come all the way to Italy to spend time in a hospital.

Or even that evil X-gamer Shaun White, who came, won his gold and didn't act like an asshole about it. He cried, he realized his achievement, he was proud of representing his country.

It's isn't all bad, there are a lot of fine athletes wearing the colors in Turin.

Yeah, and there's even a couple of snowboarders too. ;-)

I personally agree that Lindsey Jacobellis blew the gold. Having said that, I don't think she deserves the vitriole that has been spewed on her by a lot of people, including Bob Costas. Three things: 1) she is a young woman who made a mistake; 2) she still won silver, which used to mean something; 3) she sat through and took a lot of cr*p from a very hard hitting Bob Costas interview, who basically demeaned her accomplishment. I would like to see any of the other American floppers sit through those types of questions and fare any differently. And sure, you can rail on her about seeming a little non-chalant about the mistake, but would everyone be happier if she broke down weeping and threatened suicide? I am sure she doesn't need thousands of people to tell her that she blew it. I thought Jerome Bettis spoke volumes about mistakes in high profile environments:

"I can sympathize. I wasn't in the same position, but I was in a close position," said Bettis. "My career could have ended on a play where I went out on the field arrogant. I did some things I never should do and as a result of that I turned the football over at the worst possible time and put my team in a very difficult position. I learned a valuable lesson in that if you go out there with a sense of arrogance and accomplishment and you haven't accomplished anything, then you set yourself up for failure. Looking at that and her miscue, it brought back some painful memories for me."

Costas, who's very much a little shit, really went over the line on Jacobellis with the interview.

She deserved a bit of criticism, but he did everything short of kick her in the ovaries.