A College Football Fan

How 'bout 'em

A College Football Fan

Medal count or urination match?

  • 07:47 PM ET  08.22
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I don't like seeing the medal count on websites and newspapers.  It undermines the true essence of the olympics.  I know some people might say that competition is the catalyst of the olympics, but glory should be the real driving force behind the games.  Having a medal count is a foolish attempt to have a "Winner of the Entire Olympics."  There's no one winner of all of the events combined.  There's a singular gold, silver, and bronze medalist for each sport or "sport."  United Statesians need to get off of their high horse and just enjoy each sport's value; quit worrying about who had the most golds or overall medals.

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August 23, 2008  05:16 AM ET
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Agreed. For a period I lost interest in the Olympics - still cnsider the pressure they put kids thru in gymnastics disgusting. Like pro sports, I found the arrogant behavior of some athletes repulsive.

Then I was working in Australia during a winter Olympics. They have different coverage there. You don't see just the top 8 figure skaters, you see all 148 (or whatever the total was). Let me tell you, there is a huge difference between 5 and 25...

Anyhow I still remember seeing a skating pair coming off the ice all giddy because they had a personally good performance (a performance the top 5 would consider a bad practice session), then so joyous they were brought to tears... because they finished 27th, their personal best in international competition. I suspect these athletes were happy just to get some equipment, travel, acccomodations, and if they were lucky a little coaching from sponsors (many have to recruit their own sponsors). The story played out over and over again until around the top 50 I turned in.

I took an interest again, realizing that for the vast majority it wasn't about pursuing the dream of endorsements, medals, and fame but simply delivering their best performance on the biggest sports stage their sport offered.

Side note - the British gymnast was awesome on the uneven bars - but perhaps my judgement was clouded equally by her huge number of releases and the fact she looked happy to make the individual finals - let the IOC work out the scoring conflicts, she was living her dream.

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