Olympic Bullshit

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baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Slothrop said:
Agree with that, although I think that's less to do with some sinister nationalist programme and more to do with business - the more you hype the olympics as being some vastly profound and life-changing event, the more people will buy your paper to read about the latest developments in the water polo. It's like sticking fruity girls on the front cover on A-level results day.

Having said that, I was annoyed shitless by the efforts to turn it into some national team thing rather than being about the individuals - I mean, I like to know how the brits are doing and probably care more if someone british is doing well in the mixed doubles roller-hockey than if it's someone from somewhere else, but the focus on WHERE WE ARE IN THE MEDALS TABLE and ANOTHER GOLD FOR TEAM GB to the exclusion of anything else was really bloody irritating. Again, it probably reflects what the public want to hear more than anything else, though.

And while I'm on a moaning tip, how many different people in the last couple of weeks have been described as "Britain's greatest ever olympian"?
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Yep, definitely agree, the nationalism is just a business strategy, as it is for Cameron and co. What annoys me is that everyone then buys it.

I was in France for a week and it was probably just as bad there, if I could've understood all of what the commentators were saying. Only sports with French competitors were shown, by and large. Kind of supports the view that few people will have lasting interests in any of the minority sports, once shorn of the 'go Team GB/allez (?) Club France!!' angle. I certainly won't be tuning in for the 2013 handball world championships.

I was alarmed to hear Coe describe Mohamed Farah as Britain's best ever runner - seems even his ego knows some bounds.
 
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craner

craner

Beast of Burden
The athletics was good. Alright, so maybe nobody jumps as far as Carl Lewis and Mike Powell did in 1991, but then the American women's 4 x 100m team broke a record that stood since 1985.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Yes, that's the joke. In fact, if you watch the BBC4 documentary about the Seoul race, there's evidence on the screen. In one section, you have somebody explaining the physical effect human growth hormone abuse had on the sport and its athletes, including overgrown and elongating jaw-lines. A lot of HGH-using athletes had to have metal braces wired onto their teeth to keep them in place. Cut to: Carl Lewis on Wogan, complaining about rampant drug-use in his sport, with a big visible metal brace wrapped across his dentures, shining forth. I mean there's other stuff, too, but that struck me recently. It was pretty much across the board in the mid-to-late 80s, but nobody was quite as hypocritical and chancy (and lucky) as Lewis, who kept all his prize money and whose times and lengths are still on the record.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I grew up watching Carl Lewis, though, so I don't hate him or anything. He's no better or worse than, say, Linford.
 
IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
Also this

In 2003, Dr. Wade Exum, the United States Olympic Committee's director of drug control administration from 1991 to 2000, gave copies of documents to Sports Illustrated which revealed that some 100 American athletes who failed drug tests and should have been prevented from competing in the Olympics were nevertheless cleared to compete. Among those athletes was Lewis.
It was revealed that Lewis tested positive three times before the 1988 Olympics for pseudoephedrine, ephedrine, and phenylpropanolamine, banned stimulants and bronchodilators also found in cold medication, and had been banned from the Seoul Olympics and from competition for six months. The USOC accepted his claim of inadvertent use and overturned the decision. Fellow Santa Monica Track Club teammates Joe DeLoach and Floyd Heard were also found to have the same banned stimulants in their systems, and were cleared to compete for the same reason.
The positive results occurred at the Olympic Trials in July 1988 where athletes were required to declare on the drug-testing forms "over-the-counter medication, prescription drugs and any other substances you have taken by mouth, injection or by suppository."
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That must have been what my friend was talking about with a covered up test. So, there is no debate, he did fail a test for a banned stimulant which was covered up by the US cos they accepted his argument that it had been taken accidentally? Three times.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
There's all sorts of crazy, sick stuff with doping -- and mundane things, like simple painkillers and stimulants. Kelli White was taking THG and having steroid injections in her stomach, quite nast and extreme doping regimes, but she actually tested positive after the 2003 world championships for Modafinil -- which is basically like taking Pro Plus or something.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I've been meaning to write something about BALCO for years (just for fun) and I might do it this week.
 
B

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Goodness, seems I owe Usain an apology. Still don't like him much though.

Must be very frustrating trying to be clean in athletics, never being 100% sure whether there's a level playing field or not.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
IdleRich said:
Also this


That must have been what my friend was talking about with a covered up test. So, there is no debate, he did fail a test for a banned stimulant which was covered up by the US cos they accepted his argument that it had been taken accidentally? Three times.
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The same programme Craner mentions above said that the same test results now would no longer be deemed illegal. But yeah, he was caught and the Yanks waived it. A lot of western nations reacted to the industrial cheating of the eastern bloc by turning a blind eye to their own cheats in the 80s.

This shady cunt ran UK athletics for a while.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
baboon2004 said:
The problem is the disconnect between the self-congratulatory bullshit (patriotic, nationalist, whatever you want to call it) about what Britain is, and the reality. Patriotism would be fine if it were merely supporting a sports team, but during the Olympics it blatantly morphed into something much more hysterical (same as happened during the wretched Jubilee weekend), where you hesitated to say anything negative for fear of being labelled a 'killjoy' or worse. And the one-eyed nature of the media coverage was frightening. Randomly from the Guardian today:

'Just over a fortnight later, London's Games ended bathed in sunshine as the country giddily rose to acclaim a host of new sporting heroes amid hopes that it would lead to a new sense of ourselves and — in the words of a Locog slogan that once seemed cloying but now feels appropriate — "inspire a generation".'

That's mad for a supposedly non-tabloid newspaper. 'A new sense of ourselves'? Ffs.

.
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I'll take that overly florid guff a thousand times over the perverse and sour-faced delight I can imagine many here taking had the whole thing been a catastrophe.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
Certainly the crowds for the sport were magnificent, especially for the marathon on Saturday and the ferocious love for Bolt and Mo Farah. I thought that applauding the athlete disqualified for false starting was a bit much though. I couldn't really cope with the crying and the kitsch and the fucking IOC edicts either -- but, then, I never can. I always enjoy the WC more.

It would have been perfect if Merlene Ottey had made it there just one more time.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
And I adore Denise Lewis as much as the next man, but she had a super-dodgy time being coached by Ekkart Arbeit, East Germany's Dr. Drugs. Interestingly, this involved a lot of acrimony with Van Commenee himself, who had a fit when she gave birth, quit, and spent a number of years snearing and carping as her rankings slid. I didn't see any hint of this in the commentary, however. Everybody was wonderful and well-behaved, apart from the snogging teenage cyclists.
 
C

crackerjack

Well-known member
craner said:
I grew up watching Carl Lewis, though, so I don't hate him or anything. He's no better or worse than, say, Linford.
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He is a cunt, though. I mean, just a slimy supercilious prick of a man. Not that I know, that's just how he comes across. When people moan about UB's showboating I just think be careful what you wish for.
 
luka

luka

Well-known member
i went to the olympics. i saw a hockey game between aus and britain. the volunteers were all special kids and weridos.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
He is a cunt, though. I mean, just a slimy supercilious prick of a man. Not that I know, that's just how he comes across. When people moan about UB's showboating I just think be careful what you wish for.
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The most startling part of that BBC4 programme was the brief glimpse of Carl's long-lost pop career, which I have even been unable to trace on Youtube. BJ's response to that was hilarious.
 
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