Jacques Rogge and Usain Bolt - vote

[malaise]

http://www.nbcolympics.com/whileyouweresleeping/news/newsid=242321.html?_source=rss&cid=


Is IOC president Jacques Rogge overreacting to Usain Bolt's antics?

* 1. Absolutely. Bolt is over the top; the Olympics aren't the NFL. There should be a higher standard of sportsmanship. 46%
* 2. Rogge makes a good point about respecting the competition, but Bolt is entertaining. 27%
* 3. IOC=Irritable Old Curmudgeons. Bolt's a Jamaican, dudes. Lighten up. He's good for the games. 22%
* 4. Who's this guy Bolt? Where are Shawn and Nastia, anyway? 4%
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This NBC poll shows their true colors - show the Carl Lewis tapes NBC.

[RNdaSilva]

1. I just want to know if Bolt can catch a football.

Chargers?

But, my choice would be #1. It is the Olympics.

[Bob Dobbs]

2. If Bolt was a white amerikkkan, there would be no controversy.

"Uppity nigras" really piss racists off.

[malaise]

7. Rogge receives some responses

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4578959.ece
<snip>

"The way it was perceived was 'catch me if you can'," Rogge continued. "You don't do that. But he'll learn. He's still a young man." Rogge is an old man but will never learn. People love a winner with character and Bolt has it. He danced, he made his signature lightning gesture and he waved his gold shoes around. These have been his Games. Rogge's attitude sums up a myopic approach to sport. He wants it played by some draconian code of ethics instead of enjoying the beautiful drama and mind-boggling entertainment of the moment.

He is also wrong. Bolt is both a generous and magnanimous individual. He is utterly deferent to his coach, Glen Mills, respects his elders and said last night that he had just changed the sport a bit, whereas Michael Johnson had revolutionised it. After another brilliant run here, he stopped in the mixed zone to speak specifically to the British media about Germaine Mason, the high jumper who was born in Kingston, Jamaica, but was draped in a Union Jack after winning a surprise silver medal.

You could draw up a list of things wrong with the Olympics as long as the 10,000 metres. It is a corporate carve-up where Visa is king. There have been several books devoted to corruption within the ranks. And then Bolt comes along with his harpsichord grin, laidback manner and god-given talent. In many way, he is the man who saved the Games, but Rogge is more concerned that he stops when crossing the line at breakneck speed and then waits for his rivals to finish before shaking hands and saying, "Well done,old chap."
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http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing/track_field/news;_ylt=AtSiNgI2U.BvPVRUcDn_ZO45nYcB?slug=dw-rogge082108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
<snip>
Jacques Rogge is so bought, so compromised, the president of the IOC doesn’t have the courage to criticize China for telling a decade of lies to land itself these Olympic Games.

All the promises made to get these Games — on Tibet, Darfur, pollution, worker safety, freedom of expression, dissident rights — turned out to be phony, perhaps as phony as the Chinese gymnasts’ birthdates Rogge was way too scared to investigate.

Oh, this is richer than those bribes and kickbacks the IOC got caught taking.

All the powerful nations — including the United States — have carte blanche at the Games. They can pout and preen, cheat, throw bean balls, file wild complaints, break promises that got them a host bid, whatever they want. They can take turns slapping Rogge and his cronies around like rag dolls as long as the dinner with a good wine list gets paid.

A single individual sprinter? Even if you don’t like his manner, that’s whom Rogge deems it necessary to attack, to issue a worldwide condemnation?

add snip

[ColbertWatcher]

12. Thank you. n/t

[HuffleClaw]

3. pretty shameful imo, not what i'd call 'sportsmanlike' in the least

thus far I've seen countless examples of fine conduct at these Olympics, competitors congratulating each other with hugs, inviting each other to pose on the podium and the like. Phelps is a fine example of this in particular. Bolt is not.

[Malikshah]

4. Who writes these questions? There is no way to respond...

Read the question and then read the answers...

This is pathetic.

[muriel_volestrangler]

5. Yep - 1st answer makes no sense at all

and it's winning - perhaps because some people answer 'absolutely', and some answer "Bolt is over the top; the Olympics aren't the NFL. There should be a higher standard of sportsmanship."

But NBC are incompetent fools anyway.

[malaise]

6. It's called biased polling

The fawning corporate media have perfected this approach.

[countryjake]

8. Not voting in that dumb ass poll!

I came in here looking for you as soon as I heard them reporting on Bolt's "behavior" just now. First I looked at their site, after they introduced this bullshit, top of the last hour, as "news" from the games and found this, a slightly different story:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/trackandfield/news/newsid=241882.html#bolts+antics+draw+quick+from+ioc

Implying that Bolt's merited exuberance is unsportsmanlike, after uttering not a word about all the hoopla during gymnastics competition, with the tears, anger, pouting, threatened protests and investigations, and general poor losing that was televised and discussed nonstop by NBC, shows us pretty much where the IOC's bias lies. I couldn't believe it when I listened to Bela Karolyis and Bob Costas and the other USA commentators flatly condemn the judging, the Chinese team, and even making fun of individual athletes after their performances. Talk about lack of respect for rivals!

I guess it must be easier for Rogge to try and burst the bubble of victory of one incredible runner, from a tiny poor country, than it might be to criticize an entire wealthy nation, in his attempt at defining "champions"!

:puke:

[malaise]

9. The rest of the planet has pretty much responded

What was up with Rogge's comments?
http://blogs.usatoday.com/gameon/2008/08/did-rogges-comm.html

Deluded Jacques Rogge fails to see the champion in Usain Bolt
http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/olympics/article4578959.ece?openComment=true

Bolt's antics strike a chord
http://winnipegsun.com/Sports/Beijing2008/2008/08/21/6525066.html

Aug. 21: A message to the IOC
http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=3545875&name=olympics

Blasting Bolt, IOC president misuses bully pulpit
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/olympics_blog/2008/08/blasting-bolt-i.html

Who is Jacques Rogge to criticise Usain Bolt?
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/peter_foster/blog/2008/08/21/who_is_jacques_rogge_to_criticise_usain_bolt

Old man Rogge should hold his tongue over Bolt
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2008/aug/21/olympics2008.olympicsathletics4

Criticism of Bolt is hard to fathom
http://blogs.reuters.com/china/2008/08/21/criticism-of-bolt-is-hard-to-fathom/

The ‘Bolt ‘ Inspires Copycats
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinajournal/2008/08/21/the-bolt-inspires-copycats-and-ire-from-the-ioc/?mod=googlenews_wsj

[moez]

10. Bolt's a no-class asshat....

You need to look no further than Michael Phelps and the American gymnasts to see how true champions behave.

Jamaica can keep him.

[malaise]

11. Whatever

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x3827053

Gulnara Galkina-Samitova of Russia smashed her own world record on her way to a convincing victory in the inaugural Olympic running of the women's 3000m steeplechase here yesterday.

She then revealed that the victory was down in part to a lucky bunch of flowers she'd received from men's 100m champion Usain Bolt, who also bettered his own world record when he streaked to the blue-riband title on Saturday.

"I didn't watch Bolt's performance but today I faced the situation," she said. "My coach and I, we went to the coffee shop and we met the boy who won the 100m, who gave me a bunch of flowers.

"He told me these flowers are transferable. If I took them, I must win gold and then pass them on to someone else."
------

Here in Jamaica we define class for ourselves.

add

[TahitiNut]

18. I'm with Usain ... he shows the sheer joy of running.

:applause: He's obviously got a good heart and joie d'vivre.

[TheWatcher]

13. Oh please.

If you're looking for a no-class asshat, read your post and look in the mirror.

[countryjake]

16. Obviously, you missed the Phelps' Neanderthal roar...

immediately after the winning of the 4 x 100m freestyle relay...his second gold of the games. Both Phelps and Bolt behaved like young striving athletes, carried away with the joy of victory, and nothing that Bolt did compares with the animal-like noise emanating from the lungs of Phelps.

And the American women's gymnastic team exemplify the very definition of "sore losers"; they are still trying to have the clearly superior athletes stripped of their medals. Real "champion" behavior there.

Jamaica can and will continue to win Gold!

[moez]

21. Oh sorry...

I must have missed the part where Shawn Johnson stood on the balance beam and started thumping her chest and spread her arms out to humiliate her opponents - before the event was even over.

Yeah.... good point.

[Bob Dobbs]

20. Your response belies a jingoistic racism.

Phelps celebrated his victories no less bombastically.

amerikkka can keep YOU.

[dendrobium]

14. Rogge is so brave!

He can stand up to a rich influential country like Jamaica.:eyes: He has nothing to say about anybody else - he chooses a 21 year old from a small island to show what a strong righteous leader he is. But Rogge is strangely quiet about the chinese or anyone else:eyes:

Yes Massa Rogge, we will stop being so exuberant and stay in our place.

[Sanctified]

15. Last night before the race my wife was wondering what was wrong with Bolt.

She seriously thought he might have been a little crazy, then I told her he was from Jamaica and it made perfect sense to her. I have never been to Jamaica but she has and said people there can be characters.

[entanglement]

17. Rogge, the hypocrite, said nothing about taunting by the French swim team

Had he been consistent in blaming them as well, I'd be ok. But this smacks of racial hostility.

And the NBC poll is obscene.

[shellgame26]

19. Very very rarely

does talent like that of Bolt's comes along in any sport. When it does, look at it and marvel and be proud of humanity and most of all DON'T BE A HATER!!!

[Ekirh]

22. I personally didn't like the pre-celebreation

in the 100m . . but whatever. It's not a huge deal. The man's young, he'd been working hard for it, and once he realized he was going to achieve it was ready to let it all out.

The man is incredible. In both the 100m and the 200m I couldn't believe what I had just watched.

How young is he? Cause I'm assuming he'll be back four years from now for more. Be interesting to see who (If anyone) can stop him?

[aikoaiko]

23. I don't have a problem with Rogge or Bolt? People win, people react, people make comments,

Life goes on the same.

:shrug: