If you did a double-take when you saw the gentleman pictured below on the deck getting ready for the mens’ 4x100 meter freestyle relay a couple of nights ago, don’t feel ashamed… it’s cool. An African-American swimming for Team USA in international competition is indeed a rare sight. Here’s Cullen Jones, though, on perceptions and what he aims to do to change things: “I want more minority kids to go to a swimming pool and try to swim because of me… I want to make a difference. I want kids to say, ‘Look, a black swimmer. And he’s got a gold medal!’ And I want them to get in the water because of it.”
And Team USA’s softball catcher Stacey Nuveman on softball’s Olympic swan song: “It’s sort of the elephant in the room for all of us. We’re focused on the U.S. and our not playing, but we’re not the only ones grieving. There are little girls in Australia and Japan and Chinese Taipei who are devastated also.”
We’ve commented before on the incredibly myopic decision of the IOC to strike softball from the roster of events after these Olympics for the sole reason of U.S. dominance and this quote bears that out. Baseball is just better when the Dodgers and Yankees have good teams… College football is just better when USC, Michigan and Notre Dame have great teams and international softball benefits from having the team from the highest-profile nation on the planet as its standard-bearer. You don’t think team handball’s Q-rating could’ve benefited from a little U.S. dominance instead of the Czechs or Lithuanians or whoever does in that sport? Nice work, IOC.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Olympic Update: Stereotypes and the IOC: breaking little girls' hearts around the world
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
4 comments:
Sorry, but NOTHING makes Women's Softball watchable, not even that smoking hottie from ASU, as she us surrounded by Clydesdales. It's the WNBA with knee-pads and helmets. Do the Olympics recognize Title IX?
Unless you are from Lebanon that is...
And C. Jones looked like he was towing an anchor during that relay, nearly cost us the gold, all for an example that black people can float and to increase the deep end participation at the Compton Y?
Also, Medal Count: Togo 1, Canada Nil...
Doh! Canada
Skeets, So your contention is that Jones was put on the team so that the USOC/US Swim Team could display its "diversity" chops?
That would be a rather odd strategy indeed, considering nothing less than Phelps quest for the Ocho was at stake.
But I'm sure Phelps being the team player he is would've kept his mouth shut and kept rockin' knowing that someone who is not among the 4 best 100 free swimmers was on the finals team.
Yeah, that's probably what happened.
sorry but Softball is being rightly removed from the olympics. First of all, it was only added for Atlanta 96 because the olympics were held in the US. But more importantly, the sport is only practiced in a few countries. A quick wikipedia check will show that in the past 3 olympics only 12 countries had competed in it, with venezuela being the only new addition. Now, since so many other countries (~200) dont practice it at all, what is the point of havingto build a stadium exclusively for softball/baseball to be used once. That makes absolutely no sense. I really dont believe that its removal has anyhting to do with the US dominance in the sport.
Felipe, One can make a similar argument about any number of Olympic sports. A show of hands out there of people who actually participate in archery, curling, fencing and badminton without a beer in the other hand.
50-60 years ago no one played basketball, either, but now its among a handful of sports behind soccer as the most popular/participated sports on the planet.
And about that statistic you pulled... participation in the Olympics is based upon qualifying through either regional play-ins (similar to the Little League World Series) or the World Championships, so that stat is a little misleading.
And I gotta think a 13,000 seat "stadium" is pretty small potatoes compared to all the other site construction that takes place.
"As dominant as the Americans have been on the diamond, they have not pitched as well in the boardroom. In July 2005, softball and baseball, perceived as being too Americanized by the International Olympic Committee, were voted out of the Games by a 52-52 count."
Quote pulled from article here
Post a Comment