Gumbel's Comments About Olympics

[erpowers]

I do not know if anyone has heard, but sportscaster Bryant Gumbel made some critical comments about the Winter Olympics. He made multiple comments including saying that the best athletes were not in Tourino in that there was a lack of black athletes at the Olympics. First, how do people feel about Gumbel's comments? Secondly, not to be critical of black people married to white people, but does Gumbel have any right to blast the Olympics since he is married to a white woman. I would like to point out that I am not a person who dislikes white people or black people who marry white people. However, I wonder if people like Gumbel who marry white people can then turn around and get angry at perceived slights of black people. I am just not sure that they can talk about how black people are mistreated and criticize white people since they married a white person.

[joeybee12]

1. I didn't see his comments...sort of heard about it...but come on,

this is the Winter Olympics where the vast majority of countries that do well don't have a large African-American populations--Finnlad, Russia, Norway, Austria, etc. Saying that they're not great athletes is really a slap in the face.

Anyway, can someone provide a link? That would give a better idea as to what he said. BTW, he usually doesn't make sense anyway,a s far as I'm concerned.

[erpowers]

2. Huffington Post

Huffington Post has a link to the story on Aol. Aol took out some of the more contraversial quotes and is allowing people to vote on whether they agree or disagree with Gumbel's quotes.

[joeybee12]

3. Thanks...I'll go have a look now!

[DinahMoeHum]

4. Here's another take on the Gumbel flap. . .

Link:
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0221-20.htm

(snip)
Gumbel's comments on winter sports are not different from what John McEnroe and Andre Agassi have argued about tennis. They have both said, with no backlash, that there are potentially incredible tennis players in the inner cities of the US that we will never see because of an absence of public tennis courts and basic infrastructure. It's not different from the lament of Negro League baseball players of the 1930s like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Buck O'Neal who didn't understand how Joe Dimaggio and Dizzy Dean could be called "the best" baseball players when they didn't even have a chance to compete. Yet Gumbel is a target for stating the obvious. Dan Patrick (ESPN Radio) wanted Rush (Limbaugh) to stay. Now he wants Gumbel to go.

The problem is not that Dan Patrick is a raving right-winger who likes to spend his weekends shooting 78 year old lawyers in the face. It's that he and ESPN are the anti-political guardians of sport. They are instinctually hostile to anyone who tries to challenge the athletic-industrial complex. ESPN Radio's "Mike and Mike In the Morning" even have a "Just Shut Up Award" for any athlete who dares step outside the box. One player said to me, "The fastest way to win the 'Just Shut Up Award' is to actually have something to say, particularly about race or Iraq."

If we are going to have honest discussions about sport and society, we should look at the content of what Gumbel is saying. And if we are going to look racism in the face, then we can't let someone get canned for having the temerity to talk truth. Maybe if Gumbel had just shot someone in the face instead, Patrick and company would be more forgiving.
(snip)

:bounce:

[joeybee12]

5. I just read what AOL has to say, and I'd like to have seen everything he

said...as for basically saying these people are not great athletes because they're not black, that's pretty damn ignorant. Black athletes excel in a lot of sports, mostly the ones we Americans are familia with. To say that other counties' athletes aren't any good, that's just racism and nativism on his part.

And about saying the sportscasters don't care, they probably don't, and saying this is just marketing, well, fuck you Bryant. Just because Americans don't care, doesn't mean these sports are not taken seriously by other countries. The world does not revolve around the USA, you twit!

[erpowers]

8. Not "Best"

Gumbel did not say the athletes who were in the Olympics were not good he said they were not the best athletes in the world. I do not completely agree with Gumbel saying that these athletes are not the best in the world. I tend to take the opinion held by the person who wrote the post at Common Dreams. These athletes may not be the best in the world, but neither Gumbel, nor I can blame to Olympics. I contend that successful blacks like Gumbel, Oprah Winfrey and even some successful whites that are recruited should try to raise money to build the building and tennis courts needed to provide inner city youth with the opportunity to play these sports. I contend that people like Gumbel, winfrey, and other celebrities who are given free things by Nike and other companies that want their material advertised should ask Nike to instead of giving freebies to them give those clothes to poor kids or donate money to building inner city facilities that would allow poor kids to participate in sporting events.

[joeybee12]

9. As I said, I need to see the whole ting...AOL just picked 4 quotes,

and they probably were part of something larger than he said.

A lot of these people are the best in their sport, hence they are the best athletes in their sport. Just because someone plays basketball better does not mean he's a better athlete than a downhill skier--it just means he excels in a different sport.

[rinsd]

6. Too bad for Gumbel....

this Olympics he missed the first African American man to win a gold medal.

[northzax]

10. more than first African American

first black person of any country or sex to win a winter games gold medal.

[Princess Turandot]

12. Incorrect...first black man, not first black person..

Vonetta Flowers (who is a black woman) and Jill Bakken won the 2 women bobsled gold in 2002. Flowers was the breakwoman. She competed this year as well with a different partner; they came in sixth.

[northzax]

14. thank you, I was incorrect

I somehow forgot Ms. Flowers (and her adorable children, who I say on Today last week) stupid me.

[rinsd]

15. If you didn't cry during that personal story about her deaf son

responding to sound after a experimental surgery and her tears of joy seeing her kids, you simply have no soul.

[Captain Hilts]

7. Summer Olympics have black and white selfish individualists.

Pick your poison.

There's no substitute for the socialization of being on a team.

[northzax]

11. there is no doubt that the Winter Games are elitist

they are expensive to train for, more so than a lot of summer sports. You simply can't learn to luge, for instance, without a track. If you don't have mountains, or snow and ice, you're unlikely to learn any winter games sports. You can run equally well in Kenya or Canada, but it's tough to learn the curling without a facility to learn it in.

And it is self perpetuating, the countries that host the games then have the facilities to get better at those same sports. Look at the last 8 winter olympics and how those countries are doing here: Italy (golds), USA (golds), Japan (competative), France (golds), Norway (golds), Canada (golds), Yugoslavia (no longer exists, but golds for Croatia), USA (golds, again), Austria (golds, awarded to Denver, but refused by referendum) the next ones are in Canada, again.

The summer games are more egalitarian, barely, including Greece, South Korea and Australia among the usual suspects of the USA, Soviet Union/Russia and Europe.

[dr.zoidberg]

13. ^This is pretty much correct^ n/t

[Redbear]

16. Gumbel's comments had very little to do with race.

Most of what he said was that nobody really cares about bobsled, biathlon, speedskating etc. but because its called "Olympics" people watch, i.e. it is mainly a marketing event.

I disagree, but respect his position.

His only touch on race was that it is ludicrous to call these people the greatest athletes in the world when a big portion of the world isn't involved.

He did not say these people are not great athletes. He did not say anybody is racist. Just that he isn't watching because he thinks its boring and mainly about hype.

[erpowers]

19. Actually

He said they could not be called the best because there were very little black people not because most of the world does not participate in the Winter Olympics. His quote went something like do not say these are the best athletes in the world when there is such a lack of black athletes that it makes the Winter Olympics look like a GOP convention.

[Redbear]

21. I think black people ARE a big part of the world.

So, I think that part of his argument is valid.

[fishwax]

17. an interracial romance means you can't speak about racial injustice?

That's a new one to me. I really don't understand the logic of the argument.

Why should a black person give up his right to "get angry at perceived slights of black people" just because he married a white woman?

[erpowers]

18. Odd

I would like you to go back and read my post again. My comments about Bryant and his marriage were more of a question than a comment. However, I find it odd that a person would marry a white person and then talk about the slights made toward black people by white people. I understand the love is love issue, however, I just find it odd that sometimes blacks that marry white people seem to talk about race issues. As I said before I just am not sure they can talk about the slights of black people when they are married to white people. So let me put this in a question form. Can black people who are married to white people complain about the slights of black people. I am coming from a standpoint of the idea that many black men marry white women because it makes them feel better about themselves. Like it better to marry a white women.

[fishwax]

20. I reread your post. I still don't get it.

"As I said before I just am not sure they can talk about the slights of black people when they are married to white people."

As I said before, I don't understand why being involved in an interracial marriage has any bearing on whether or not you can talk about the slights of black people. So I would say: yes, black people who are married to white people can complain about the slights of black people. I wish I had a better understanding of the "no they can't" position, but the logic isn't clear to me, and that's all I meant by my earlier post.

[erpowers]

22. We're Cool

I understand your point. Gumbel's comments just seemed odd to me. I am not a racist and do not hate people who marry outside of their race. I think interracial relationships are fine.

So, did you enjoy the Olympics. I thought there were some really good events. I really enjoyed watching biathlon. Speedskating was great too, but this was my first time seeing biathlon and I really enjoyed it. So did you watch any of the sports and which did you like best?

[fishwax]

27. i'm an olympic junkie

Even though I don't object to Gumbel's comments, I don't agree with his overall assessment of the games, which I personally find enormously entertaining. I love seeing events we wouldn't normally get to see.

I guess I love pretty much all the events, though I get bored with the figure skating events. I love watching curling, and the people in the biathalon are amazing. The new Snowboard Cross event was fun to watch too, I thought. NBC's coverage was really annoying to me (yak yak yak), but overall I still really enjoyed the games themselves.

[jakefrep]

23. Gumbel missed the mark

If he doesn't like the Winter Olympics, that's his prerogative.

But his notion that the Olympics aren't diverse is a crock. Apparently he discounts the sizeable Asian presence at the Winter Games from China, Japan, and Korea, and the stray collections of athletes from warm-weather countries.

The Winter Olympic sports simply are not cheap or accessible to a large section of the population, and that has nothing to do with race.

[Redbear]

24. He never said they weren't diverse or racist.

He only said they are over-hyped. He said some announcers will say the athletes in Torino are the greatest in the world, and that cannot be true when a significant part of the world (the part that happens to be black) is barely represented.

[fishwax]

26. exactly

he pointed out that the sample of athletes at the olympics was severely skewed racially (we could add geographically and economically as well), and then claimed it is absurd to suggest that such a skewed sample could somehow compose the "greatest athletes in the world." He wasn't saying they can't be great athletes in their own right, and he certainly wasn't saying (as many in GD claimed he was) that you have to be black to be a good athlete.

Personally, I love the winter olympics, so I disagree on certain aspects, but don't find anything he said objectionable.

[realisticphish]

25. What defines "the best athlete"

I doubt that anyone but the world's best snowboarders were there. And the world's best speed skaters. And the world's best figure skaters. And the world's best bobsledders, etc, etc.

This isn't a "Best Athlete" competition. It's a "Best Competitor in an Individual Sport" competition.