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Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

jericho said:
I do wonder sometimes how many athletes that win gold actually know the National Anthem of the country they represent.
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:)

Then there is the opposite side of that -- If the entire Russian team was banned, some of their athletes could have competed under the Olympic flag with a special appeal. However, the one Russian female gymnast who was allowed to compete said she would never have competed under the Olympic flag. She said she either was going to compete under the Russian flag or not at all. You have to respect that.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

I saw a clip on Facebook where Usain Bolt was being interviewed and stopped the interview because the US anthem was being played. that's pretty cool of him.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Scarlet said:
I saw a clip on Facebook where Usain Bolt was being interviewed and stopped the interview because the US anthem was being played. that's pretty cool of him.
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They reported that the other day when I was watching. He stops for that ceremony no matter who won and no matter what national anthem is playing. Very cool.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Russell Jaslow said:
And here's your answer. These countries are indeed buying medals.

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/2016-rio-summer-olympics/oil-rich-countries-are-importing-elite-athletes-bump-national-medal-n632566

http://deadspin.com/if-youre-a-small-rich-country-you-can-buy-an-olympic-1785302021
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Thanks, and to be honest, it doesn't bother me a lot … yet.

First, I can't be too critical of athletes, from say, Kenya, going to a place in which their training facilities are better, or their sport becomes their full-time job and they have a cushier life than they might have had in Kenya. And there are many shades of gray (at least 50;)) in this practice – for example, there is an African distance runner (name escapes me) who runs/ran as a US athlete. I believe that there are also foreign-born athletes who have gotten college scholarships and have remained in the US afterward and competed for the US.

Second, it's pretty obvious what they're doing, and nobody's fooled, even if they change their name to sound more like the country they run for. Doesn't mean I like it, and I'll cheer very hard for the “real Kenyan” against the “fake Bahraini” every time.

For individual events, the emphasis is on the individual anyway. Yeah, I know that Usain Bolt is from Jamaica, and I root for Americans, but I still think of them by their names, and secondarily where they're from.

Where I will draw the line will be when we start seeing medals won in team sports by the Bahrains of the world. There, the medal is awarded to a country, and the names of the individuals is pretty much unknown, except for some sports like basketball. Seems almost inevitable to me that this will start to happen. If Qatar highjacked an entire major event – the World Cup, surely they can assemble a field hockey team or handball team.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

This actually happened to American snowboarder Vic Wild in Sochi. He won Gold for Russia in Parallel Giant Slalom. It was just a case where Russia offered him some cash, but the key selling point was R&D and Training capabilities. USSA pays less than a penny for alpine snowboard racing in this country. Russia offered stuff on par with the top European programs. It was a no-brainer for him to make the jump.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Russell Jaslow said:
The last Summer Olympics, there was a huge controversy over an American woman basketball player, with absolutely no ties to Russia (except like one grandparent who had some sort of Russian ancestry) who was playing professionally in a Russian club league, got cut from the American national team, and then Russia offered her "citizenship" if she wanted to play for Russia. She took the offer. She got lambasted by other American players who knew her from their college playing days.
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Ironically, she is now an assistant coach for the San Antonio Spurs.....
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Can't say I have a problem going where the sponsorship is and that is what I think of it as. When we were kids the USSR sponsored athletes whose FT job was training and they pretended to have a real job. This isn't anything new, just in the open. Most of these people have a short span (like any pro athlete) before their product becomes obsolete. I don't begrudge them one bit.

And in other news JAGER!!!!!!! comes in 2nd in the Steeple. Monster run by him! Riveting to watch. Took the lead, lost it into the last lap but didn't lose the wheels on the bus and still beat the 3rd place Kenyan decisively. I was beside myself yelling on the last lap. Usually that is when the Kenyans casually blow on by. Well, this time one did but he destroyed the other one! w00000000t!!
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

I don't mind someone "buying" a medal as it's a misnomer anyway. Yeah their adopted country throws $$ one way or another (endorsements, training facilities, etc) at the athlete, but if they're good enough to medal period they were likely good enough for the team of their home country.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

heartbreaking to see runners fall down during their races. Hit those hurdles too much, and it's all over.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Slap Shot said:
I don't mind someone "buying" a medal as it's a misnomer anyway. Yeah their adopted country throws $$ one way or another (endorsements, training facilities, etc) at the athlete, but if they're good enough to medal period they were likely good enough for the team of their home country.
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Not necessarily. SOmetimes there is a glut in the sport they are in. All it takes is a fall, false start or injury and poof- medal. Look at gymnastics- how many of the elite gymnasts were excluded because there could only be 2. Other than Biles the next 2 were Americans and most likely could have medalled without the exclusion.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

How many Americans with dual citizenship earned a medal under a different flag and wasn't good enough for the home team?
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Slap Shot said:
How many Americans with dual citizenship earned a medal under a different flag and wasn't good enough for the home team?
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Two 110M womens hurdlers didn't medal, just finishing 4th, and 7th- they both represented Great Britain but normally run for the US. US runners swept the podium. Which isn't what you were asking...
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Slap Shot said:
How many Americans with dual citizenship earned a medal under a different flag and wasn't good enough for the home team?
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Not really a dual citizenship thing, but more an eligibility thing- Monica Puig won women's tennis for Puerto Rico, the US was represented by the Williams sisters. Puerto Rico is the only competing US territory with a medal at the moment (others being USVI, Guam, and American Samoa).
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

Slap Shot said:
How many Americans with dual citizenship earned a medal under a different flag and wasn't good enough for the home team?
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If I recall correctly, in many sports, you have to have a minimum qualifying time. In some countries, you might have a dozen people or more with a time that is good enough to qualify, yet only three people can go from that country. The difference in some cases is a tenth of a second between being top three and top five.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

4 x 100 is such a friggin' train wreck. So much happening in such a short space and time span. So much can go wrong, and sometimes does.
 
Re: Olympic Spoiler Thread - You've Been Warned.

CLS said:
4 x 100 is such a friggin' train wreck. So much happening in such a short space and time span. So much can go wrong, and sometimes does.
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I just saw an update that the US women's team will get an opportunity to qualify by themselves later today. The ruling was that the Brazilian team caused the problem in the exchange.
 
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