Ugh… I just finished watching the Men’s and Women’s relays. Pretty basic really…. run real fast, pass a baton to the next runner and repeat until the finish. Let me pause for a few minutes to let the flood of defensive statements crash through my monitor… tick tick.. “Oh yeah, then you try it”, tick tick “They’re at the Olympics and you are sitting at home so there”, tick tick “Don’t ridicule unless you can do better” tick tick – okay, times up. Pretty lame comebacks, but I’ll quickly address one… Give me four years to practice every day of my life and I will guarantee you that I could pass a small cylinder to another run without watching it bang onto the ground. What makes this so ridiculous is that it was a heat race … which means even if you don’t have a chance to beat the Jamaicans, you should be able to at least get in the top four even if you run a “safe” race and go slower at the transfers. But no, both the men and the women played hot potato on the last leg and succeeded in flushing any medal chance down the drain. I guess the cherry on the shame cake was the women’s after race interview where they runner claimed she didn’t know what went wrong and that they were the best team out there … GOOOOONNNGGGG a) you know exactly what went wrong, you dropped the baton because you were not focused and b) every team out there without a DNF after their team name was better than you.
Note, I was actually surprised at the commentator statements to the same effect at the end of the event – in fact, they basically spelled it out as lack of leadership and inability to deliver across the board. Before I f0rget, I would like to give some credit to Dix in his respectful acceptance in the bronze medal last night after two faster runners (one an American) failed to stay in their lanes – I think he actually stated he still lost and thanked the officials for the medal – contrast with American supposed silver medalist that was tossing the word “protest” around… tapes rarely lie
by the way, did anyone see the US women’s pole vaulter getting a tongue lashing by her coach because she only won a silver medal? Can someone direct me to the Olympic Creed again – she made it to the final rounds (runners check that) and then came up one position behind a lady that was clearly tops in the field (…. update, someone mentioned this lady was actually trash talking the gold medalist before the event -if this is true, I will recant my statements since I can’t stand that)
Life Intrigued 