Is it unpatriotic to root against our Olympic Team?

Their success will just be exploited by the Chimp.

"watching" protesters -- in Athens, too???

I hope does fine, but I can't say I care one way or another.

Face it, a lot of us probably have more in common with some athlete from an urban area in another country, than a USA athlete from a rural area. Country borders and boundaries are artificial.

checked weren't there more Americans of Greek descent than Greeks on the Greek Olympic baseball team? Something about anyone could be on a Greek team if they were 1/64th Greek descent???

Have you checked who's who on the Greek basketball team?

And then in the winter Olympics all the foreign players here in the US in the NHL play for their home countries, so one week you're rooting for a guy because he plays for your team, and the next you're rooting against him.

He literally has absolutely nothing to do with it.

I was a baby at the time. But it seems pretty tough to argue you should vote for someone because of the success of our athletes.

Only the winners.

As far as exploiting, I'm not quite sure how that can really be proven unless the politician tries to imply that the atheletes support him directly by their presence in the photo op.

and root for them. I also root for the underdog at times, be they American or otherwise.

and root for the "Olympic spirit".

They're fellow Americans, and I want them to do well. Screw what Bush does.

I think I'll just hope the best athletes actually win. I think the Olympic ideal of checking your politics back home instead of dragging them along to the games holds for me, too.

I'll always root for the Jamaican bobsled team at the winter games, though, just on general principles.

however, good sportsmanship and good faith have squat to do w/ The Chimp making hay out of the U.S.A. doing well in Athens . . . unfortunately . . .

@hole does. I'm only responsible for myself.

I'll push politics aside for the Olympics and still manage to help vote Bush back to that pig farm in Crawford.

that there's more going on in my replies here. Why? Well, my home state of Massachusetts has been suffering u/ the stupidity of Mitt Romney (who made hay out of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah) winning the Massachusetts governorship. Dumbya made political hay out of it too as he marched with the athletes on the field . . . THEY are not above the fray, unfortunately.

Hopefully, more voters such as yourself can distinquish between politicians searching for votes at the Olympics and the assumed good sportsmanship that the Olympics attempts to portray.

These athletes have dedicated a life time of hard work and sacrifice to be in these Games. It is not their fault that Bushco is using them. Besides, I am not going to let them ruin it for me. I LOVE the olympics.

Cheer loud, jump up and down, throw popcorn, have fun. USA USA USA...........

I think I'll root for Puerto Rico though in basketball and hope someone else gets a chance this year in the event.

They're still part of America too, but not a state.

They are still Americans, and please don't give me the"arrogance" crap. There are few finer people than Tim Duncan. Iverson may not be some people's idea of a model citizen, but as far as I know, he has commited no crimes or taken any drugs since becoming an NBA player. They are all rich but so what? This is a capalist society and if people pay to see them play, they should reap the rewards. Please explain why so many are against USA basketball. I don't really understand it.

I used to love the Olympic Games. Then my wife and I went to Atlanta in '96 to see four events. The stories we heard there soured me forever on the whole Olympic movement.

The IOC officials, and most especially Samaranch, expected to be treated like visiting royals rather than the athletic commissioners they are. When Atlanta organizers refused to acquiesce to a list of stupefyingly arrogant demands, Samaranch had a fit. He publicly denigrated Atlanta as an Olympic site and refused to say the games were the "best ever" which is something he always says, whether true or not, out of respect for the host city.

As it turns out Samaranch was a high-level official in Generalissimo Francisco Franco's fascist government in Spain before he became head of the IOC. And in Atlanta, he acted every bit the spoiled fascist he most certainly is.

Nope. Sorry. Don't care. Screw 'em all, et cetera.

The women's soccer teams, USA and Greece, played before the official start of the Olympics. Greece had never had an Olympic women's soccer team before, and I hoped they would fare better than they did.

When it comes to a real calling--like athletics, education, science, etc.--politics pale in comparison.

That's why I was so dismayed when I got flamed here for cheering the start of the Olympics.

It was a little tense during the opening ceremonies because many of us wondered about the kind of reception the Americans would get, but the Greeks were warm and welcoming. It was very touching. They know (better than some) that the human spirit can transcend just about anything.

Bush* has nothing to do with this. He cannnot claim it, hard as he may try.

:eyes: :eyes:

Sometimes.......

Benefit....

I think it is and it feeds into (IMO) the whole right wing BS that the liberals are rooting for America to lose in the war on terror, on the economy etc just to get Bush out of office!
Kathy

from another newbie :bounce:

. . . if Bush were to take credit for any success of the US Olympic team, anybody dumb enough to go along with it is probably so dumb he'd vote for Bush anyway.

You're either with us or against us.

This is the first time I'm rooting for *any* team but "team USA" to win. We deserve a slap in the face and a strong comeuppance at the Olympics for the way our administration has treated the rest of the world.

Not that I have anything against the athletes themselves, of course.
I'd also love to see the NBC bobblehead "super-patriot" idiots still covering the Olympics after too many years have to eat a mountain of crow for a change.

but are looking for Bush to get a slap in the face and a strog comeuppance through them..like they had anything to do with him! I don't know it feeds into that whole thing of liberals rooting for bad things to happen to America because they have gotten their hatred of Bush so ramped up that they have become confused and started hating America
Kathy

I am supporting *all* the athletes (Americans included), but I'm sick and tired of NBC's rah-rah coverage of American events and ignoring of events predominated by athletes from other countries. And the last thing I want to see is BushCo being given an opportunity to cash in politically on American dominance of the Olympics, as usual. I think it's time for a change, and I'm more interested in the other participants than usual this time around. I'd like to see less dominance by the usual large countries and a greater distribution of medals among some of the smaller countries participating.

Of course it's not the athletes' fault that Bush has alienated the planet. If I'd worded my point differently perhaps you wouldn't have reacted that way.

coverage of and influence on the Olympics:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/swimming/news/story?id=1859781

The proven veteran, Gary Hall, Jr. was taken off the 4X100 freestyle relay as a result of media pressure on America's team coach - after all, NBC is running ads from American Express, etc. during its Olympic coverage sponsoring Michael Phelps as already a gold medal winner and potential challenger to Mark Spitz' 7 gold medal record. I'm not saying Michael Phelps didn't deserve to be on the team in the finals, but so did Gary Hall, Jr.

And I've also been very embarassed at the conduct of some of our athletes in the past - the way Charles Barkley repeatedly insulted other countries when he played for Team USA - the way that little witch on the USA women's swim team spouted all that egomaniacal ultra-patriotic crap against the Australians in Sydney 4 years ago. There have been a few American athletes that have gotten too caught up in all the pro-American hoopla in the twisted American media coverage of the Olympics, and I'm sick of it all.

I also, from watching some of the events so far, am sensing a stronger determination than ever on behalf of teams from other countries around the world to beat us. Maybe they feel they need to make a statement to Bush and Americans in general - hey, we're out here, and get rid of that swollen head of yours - we're just as good as you and you can't afford to ignore us and insult us and write us off any more. Sure, it may be a bit of a stretch, but maybe that's how they're thinking this year.

So I'm not upset when Portugal totally demolishes Team USA in basketball. Maybe some of our athletes and coaches have taken past "glory" too much for granted and maybe it's our time to lose for a change, and time for us to take stock of it all and pay a little more respect to the rest of the world.

But in the end, I'm just rooting for the "Olympic spirit" - and hoping politics will be put aside and may the best athletes around the world win at their chosen sports.

All day long the NBC commentators at the Olympics were dead wrong about every event they covered. Why? Because NBC just can't shake the compulsion to politicize the Olympics and turn it into an "America is Number One" embarassment.

One small example: during the women's gymnastics trials when the USA team was up against Romania, after the USA racked up more points early on, then Romania started catching up, one commentator blathered: "As good as the American team is, perhaps they're not that much better than the Romanians." Of course, Romania trounced them in points at the end. And later on China looked like they could make mincemeat out of the awkward, stiff, ungraceful American team. Worse, the American team had one young black woman of Jamaican heritage, yet NBC, while covering the supposed stars of the team, all white, and who all committed numerous flubs, they only showed their black teammate in one event. Why?

A more glaring example: What's with all this crazy hoopla about Michael Phelps? NBC has turned him into this year's media darling - much as they did with Mia Hamm from the American women's soccer team in Australia four years ago. Yet Hamm became a non-factor towards the end. And so will Phelps. NBC somehow put Phelps up for endorsements with American Express, AT&T and VISA, all of whom paid big bucks to run their ads during NBC's Olympic coverage and turning Phelps instantly into a spoiled teenage millionaire.

And who is Phelps? A 19 year old kid with talent who NBC ballyhooed all weekend as the one to win more medals than Mark Spitz, although he was only officially entered in 7 events, and to get him into an 8th, NBC and other "media" laid the pressure on the American swimming coach to bump veteran Gary Hall, Jr. at the last minute, even though Phelps wasn't supposed to swim in the 4X100 meter freestyle relay event, and Hall had better split times this morning than Phelps has ever had. So what happened? While South Africa set a new world record in that event, and Americans Neil Walker and Jason Lezak made up precious time with their third and fourth legs of the race, pulling into second place, Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands came out of nowhere and beat out Lezak at the finish, pushing the American team into third place.

Phelps now has to swim four more individual races and two more relays. Any one of the South Africans can beat him, Hoogenband proved earlier in the day as well as during the finals that he can beat him, as did Australian Ian Thorpe earlier today, and as did teammates Walker and Lezak during the freestyle relay.

Why can't NBC (or the rest of the American media covering the Olympics for that matter) just report to us what happens at the Olympics instead of working overtime to spoon-feed us mythological over-glorifications of selected American athletes???

And why can't we watch Olympic events in this country featuring other countries competing in events not pre-selected by NBC for American victories without having to watching Telemundo in Spanish (which basically just covers the soccer matches)?

Just venting. :eyes:

Seabiscuit, I do agree on the jingoistic slant that American television coverage of the Olympic games can take at times. Throughout the history of TV coverage of the games, all major American networks have engaged in this type of coverage. NBC's made it somewhat of greater art form in the last two Olympiads.

However, I do disagree with some of your observations and I do have a disagreement with some on this thread who feel the need to "root against" US Olympians because of decision that have nothing to do with the events on the playing fields.

"And later on China looked like they could make mincemeat out of the awkward, stiff, ungraceful American team. Worse, the American team had one young black woman of Jamaican heritage, yet NBC, while covering the supposed stars of the team, all white, and who all committed numerous flubs, they only showed their black teammate in one event. Why?

That "awkward, stiff, ungraceful" team won a world championship last year. The U.S. womens gymnastic team isn't a cupcake, but Romania and China are right there with them. This wasn't going to cakewalk for the ladies, and the commentators haven't painted that as such.

Also, before you dismiss this team so lightly remember, They are the #2 qualifier heading into the team finals Tuesday.



As far as Annia Hatch, her story has been told, and NBC did a profile on her before the games. Her story is great. Grew up in Cuba, was a gymnast for Cuba, won a world championship for Cuba. Along the way, met her future husband, defected after being left off the Cuban Olympic team for Atlanta '96. Her comeback story is getting play, but her teammates are also very accomplished and two were a part of last year World Championship.

On the color issue, that's the way it is in the entertainment business. Being black and working in the field, its just an accepted part of life in most cases. If you are white and pretty, you are going to get my press run than being white and ugly or colored and anything. The fight continues on the inside, but ultimately it will be decided by the viewers and consumers. When Average American decides that beauty comes in all forms, the media will follow.

"What's with all this crazy hoopla about Michael Phelps? NBC has turned him into this year's media darling - much as they did with Mia Hamm from the American women's soccer team in Australia four years ago.

Whats with all the MichaelMania? Lets see. This is his second Olympic and he's 19 years old. He's been the most dominant swimmer in the world in the last year. Don't jump on him because the media needs to find their 21st centure Johnny Weismuller to pitch some products and sell 16 days of coverage. The "star" hook has always been done by the networks for the games, and the American viewing public falls in line. The numbers prove it.

When NBC did the Seoul Olympics in 1988, they didn't try to sell athletes, they just gave the people the sports. Not many "up close" features, just the sports. The rating went down 17%

NBC put the Dream Team and Carl Lewis and Mike Powell in front of the people in 1992 and sold, sold, sold it...and the ratings went up...and they sold the womens gymnastic teams, and basketball Dream Team II etc. etc. in '96 and the ratings went up...and the ran the playbook again in 2000 and once again...the ratings went up.

The point? Roone Arledge said it best. "If you want people to watch, you have to get them to care."

The viewers want stories, and Phelps is a HUGE story. He won't get the 8 Gold Medals, but so what? If this guy comes away with 8 medals total, that's a serious story.

Now your contention about Mia Hamm flies in the face of the facts. She's earned her ink for 10 years of excellent play. And her being a non-factor in Sydney? Ask Holland and Germany if she was non factor with key assists that turned both of those games around. You don't have to score goals to make winning plays.
Notice in this years tournament so far. Mia's been setting up plays offensively and her defense and tackling in the second half against Brazil was huge to stemming what had been a one-sided game in the favor of Brazil at that point.

To say the Mia is the product of "media creation" as you also contend with Phelps discounts the work they've put in.

So what happened? While South Africa set a new world record in that event, and Americans Neil Walker and Jason Lezak made up precious time with their third and fourth legs of the race, pulling into second place, Pieter van den Hoogenband of the Netherlands came out of nowhere and beat out Lezak at the finish, pushing the American team into third place.

Hold up. If you really want to blame somebody, Blame Ian Crocker He was the opening leg and he did the worst leg of life. It was reported that he was ill. If he wasn't 100% why wasn't Gary Hall Jr. brought into the do the first leg?

This whole contention about "the network pressured the coach" is bogus, amateur night in Dixie WWE crap. Any USA team coach who is listening to NBC for strategy would be sent on the next plane out of Athens. If Gary Hall Jr. was the coaches choice, no TV networks going to tell him different. Contrary to popular belief, we don't have kind of power, yet.

"Phelps now has to swim four more individual races and two more relays. Any one of the South Africans can beat him, Hoogenband proved earlier in the day as well as during the finals that he can beat him, as did Australian Ian Thorpe earlier today, and as did teammates Walker and Lezak during the freestyle relay.

And that what makes this sport, not media. Ultimately, you have to do it in the pool, and I think Phelps will meet the challenge and so will Thorpe and Hoogenband. The three best in the world meeting up with all the chips on the table. That is what the Olympics are all about.

"And why can't we watch Olympic events in this country featuring other countries competing in events not pre-selected by NBC for American victories without having to watching Telemundo in Spanish (which basically just covers the soccer matches)?

For the same reason most Americans can't name a foreign capital, If its someone from over there, you don't care. Unless he or she is hot.

Seabiscuit, I understand and agree with contentions, but the problem is for every one person like you there are 10 viewers who say, "I wanna see some Murkins kickin' furriner ass!"

but I won't bother with the details.

You basically made my point for me when you said:

"'And why can't we watch Olympic events in this country featuring other countries competing in events not pre-selected by NBC for American victories without having to watching Telemundo in Spanish (which basically just covers the soccer matches)?'

For the same reason most Americans can't name a foreign capital, If its someone from over there, you don't care. Unless he or she is hot."

You identified the problem. We as "patriots" are so friggin' ethnocentric and condescending and ignorant of other cultures on this planet, it's no wonder so much of the rest of the world resents/hates not just Bush, but the average American. And we have no one but ourselves to blame. And the media continues, day in, and day out to fuel that problem - Olympics coverage is but one glaring example of it. If it doesn't "sell" to the largest number of dumbed down craven idiots in America, the media ignores it. American corporate profits first, people, the rest of humanity be damned. The media's attitude really, really, really SUCKS.

All the hype and hoopla surrounding Michael Phelps is nothing but media crud promoted by NBC to sell advertising (featuring Phelps). Wake up, NBC, he's not the guy to beat or even come close to Mark Spitz's record seven gold medals. Phelps is good, but not THAT good.
His premier event is the individual medley, where swimmers use all four strokes (and in that event he was superb, setting a new world record and capturing the gold). In individual events, there are better swimmers out there in each of the four strokes, including other American swimmers on his own team, who have received little to no attention from NBC.

See:

http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer04/swimming/news/story?id=1860438

Ian Thorpe from Australia took the gold and Hoogenband from the Netherlands took silver, leaving Phelps with another Bronz in the men's 200 meter freestyle swimming event today.

NBC's still the crappy media giant it was when some goofy looking, long haired, foul-mouthed comic disc jockey named Howard Stern humiliated them and their pet Imus years ago. Stern is long gone, and NBC still plays "Imus In The Morning" - good grief - that Imus creep looks and sounds like a werewolf on thorazine.

Some ghetto kid from Compton who made it to the Olympics "deserves a slap in the face and a strong comeuppance at the Olympics for the way our administration has treated the rest of the world."


I hope upon sober reflection you will decide to revise your remarks....

I've already revised my remarks.

I was delighted to see the first African-American on the women's relay swim team.

Sorry - I was a bit out of line.

Bush isn't going to benefit from basking in the glory of our Olympic winners or commiserating with Hurricane Charley victims...


That's just part of the joys and heartaches of being president...

with an event in which the finest athletes from all over the world come *together* to compete?

You give him credence by making even the most tangential connection.

but how can someone live their life reviewing every action and then deciding it is not worth doing if it helps Bush.

I support our troops and do not wish for anymore of them to die. If their death is nessecary so Bush looks bad, then fuck it, I prefer them to not die even if Bush wins as a result.

The same with the Olympic, how many points in the polls do you think their victories will mean for Bush? Not enough for me to root against them.

this chance (the Professional athletes such as the Williams sisters don't count) and it IS WRONG to take out any anger at Bush on them.

The Williams sisters worked hard, too, they are just lucky enough to make a good living from it.

why would you?

Those kids worked hard to get there they arent responsible for the terrible politics of this administration.

If your kid was in a playoff against a foriegn team you would hope he lost cause bush is an asshat?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1192104/posts


Olympic Medal Count (Coalition of Willing 48, Commies/Despots 16, Appeasers 9, Unknown 6)
Yahoo Olympics ^ | me

Posted on 08/15/2004 3:19:29 PM MDT by rocklobster11

Judging from the Olympics, it looks like Bush put together a pretty strong coalition.

I couldn't decide wether Russia should be in the Commies or Appeasers bracket, so I left them in Commie group with China and Cuba.

The Appeasers are France, Germany, and Belgium.

Unknown are Thailand, South Africa, Indonesia, Serbia, and Argentina

__________________________

See what I mean?

smirk will get alot of red, white, and blue photo ops in sep & oct. and he is much more at home with haves & have-more like this than with regualr people.

i don't think that rooting against them will help anything, but no, it's not unpatriotic. i have always been bothered by people who think that success of athletes makes this a better country. strange rw logic.

on the other hand, I would like to see Greece win some medals too, simply because they are the host country. I always like to see the hosts win a few.

Sometimes that has me rooting against Americans- sometimes not. It depends on the individuals and the event.

Bush will find a way to exploit the Olympics win or lose, boo's or cheers, so what's the difference?

Just because you are in America doesn't mean you have to root for the Americans, this isn't a bloody war, it's sport!

I root for other countries in a lot of things, such as swimming, gymnastics, basketball, etc...

I love ALL the athletes and I HOPE the Americans do well, but I'll support who I like thank you very much.

I don't see what they have to do with the Chimp. I root for individual athletes who I think are cool or interesting, no matter where they're from.

But "pointless" comes to mind. Why hold the Chimp's actions against the athletes?

I used to love the Olympics years ago. I'm pretty jaded on them now. The coverage is so glitzy and overdone and they have to do those damn fluffy "human interest" bits instead of focusing on the competitions themselves. The focus is almost exclusively on the Americans, whereas it used to be, long ago, that the Americans were featured naturally but stars from other nations were always watched and admired.

I also get totally irritated at the hype and buildup - yesterday I was greeted on the computer with the headline "Phelps loses chance at 8 olympic golds". Well, come on! Talk about building up expectations! What are the chances of anyone doing that? Now they make him sound like a loser! Instead of focusing on the fabulous job he's done so far!

The worst is when they ask a silver medalist, "why do you think you lost?"

I use to be in track many many years ago. I have always enjoyed watching the Olympics. Now with so many of them jacked up on "juice" my first thought on a win is...I wonder what they were using.

Sad, everyday we lose more and more of what we use to hold so close in this country!

but they don't make foreign policy.

:evilfrown:

it isn't their fault we have this lying piece of crap as president.

its the outright advantage we have in terms of high tech trainging and expensive gear and what not, like super expensive swimsuits that get tested in full sized water tunnels, or the most state of the art running shoes, it seems just too unfair.

I have no idea what he's competing in-

But it must've taken one helluva effort to get him there. You have to admire that!!

or were supposed to be, anyway, two in athletics (track and field) and a third in weightlifting.

http://sports.yahoo.com/oly/athletes?country=kir

Kiribati is actually Hawai'i's nearest neighbor, "only" 1200 miles south of us (as compared to 2400 to California or Tahiti). The guy in the next cubicle here is, in fact, an iKiribati, one of about 60 on O'ahu.

but this is the one time, every few years, where I actually say "Go U.S.A." It must awaken some primal need for association. Very bizarre, because I could otherwise be no less patriotic than I am.

ANYONE BUT USA!

Personally I think people should be able to root for whichever competitors they like, regardless of nationality. It's interesting how many countries have athletes competing who may have been born somewhere else, but are now citizens (or are competing for their parents' or grandparents' countries like a lot of people on the Greek baseball team!). I think this demonstrates how globalized we've become over the past century.

There's also the situation where athletes from a different country are training elsewhere -- during the winter Olympics, there was a group of Canadians cheering for a Ukrainian woman who was being coached in Alberta.

I've lived in two cities that hosted major athletic championships, and in both cases groups of local people, including schoolchildren, were encouraged to form cheering sections for other countries, so the visiting athletes wouldn't feel isolated when facing Canadian teams. (Not many spectators from Tonga can make it to North America to watch their favorites compete!)

If you can't sit back, relax, and enjoy the Olympics because you're worried our success will be used by Bush, then you need to drink a beer or two, and chill.

On a not-entirely unrelated note, I've been posting a lot lately on a conservative site, and certain threads here, and certain posters here make it very hard for me to refute claims that liberals cheer when America suffers. I don't mean to jump on you, specifically; this thread is tame compared to some of what i've seen, and I honestly don't know if the worst offenders are stupid, or just conservative trolls.

But for those honest liberals whose first thought at news of more soldiers' deaths is more about the political advantage it gives against Bush, rather than at least a twinge of sorrow for the soldier and his/her family, I'd personally really appreciate it if you put more care into your posts and didn't strive to give the opposition ammo to use against the rest of us.

...