Look at it this way; in a couple of weeks it’ll all be over for another four years.
I have nothing against elite athletes. If a person wants to spend her every waking minutes swimming in unison with a bunch of other mad smiling people, far be it from me to trivialise it and say unkind things like “get a life” or “shave off that mo!”
No, seriously, the multi-media have gone wild, not so much about the triumphs of the athletes (ours and theirs) as they have about dropping HUGE buckets of sh1t on superb athletes who were supposed to win, but didn’t.
How embarrassing was it that our non-favoured girls won gold and pipped the Dutch and Seppos. I mean, it’s such an affront that the Yanks will more than likely pull their marines out of the Northern Territory in protest.
And the American uber-fish Phelps. What a nerve ! Not even a podium finish. Cripes we’d better race out and buy Sportsbet shares on the strength of that.
Wasn’t it uncomfortable that Australians beat someone at table tennis and sailing women found they had accidentally eclipsed the Ruskis and the Spaniards – not surprising the latter, I guess since the Germans repossessed their wind.
Maybe the saddest thing of all was the British cyclists who not only didn’t win, but complained that the Aussies rode a spoiling race! Well, yes, the Aussies didn’t win either and the fact that the Brits didn’t bother splitting from the peloton and chasing the lead group – who oddly failed to slow down to let them catch up and win, is surely bad sportsmanship and a real fucker for the sponsors of the British team. Calls for Brad and Cav to “Go Home” were silenced when the normally astute and renowned sports nation of Great Britain remembered that their bikers were in fact already home, if not exactly hosed.
Aussie tennis stars didn’t. Who beat them to a pulp ? A Japanese chap and, er, I dunno, I don’t think it was mentioned who pulped Sam – just that she – incredibly – lost.
Did I mention the unbeatable Hockeyroos ? Or the Boomers ? Lost. Lost. The greatest Australian shame; losing at any sport to any other national team. Unforgiveable.
Horsey types ? Lame. Lame. But oddly looking good for silver at getting dressed or something stylish in the saddle.
And the boys’ 4 X 100 Dream Team. Beaten by the French – of all people ! And the Seppos and The Tierra del Fuegans. Oh, the shame, the unrelenting shame.
But the winning piece of bad sportsmanship surely goes to the media gurus who think it’s hilarious to bag out the oarsman from some desert-bound African claypan for being really crap at sculling – comparing him to their other loser-darlings “Eric the Eel” and “Eddie the Eagle” who are, one gathers notorious for their singular lack of skill in their chosen sport to represent their respective “non-sporting, just struggling to survive while western countries plunder our natural resources” countries.
And to cap off the emerging whingeing Olympics, let’s not forget the Chinese domination of the gold (and the bronze and the silver) medal tallies. We all know that you can’t beat people three times your own size on a diet of boiled rice and fried crickets. It’s steroids, surely, isn’t it ? OK, for table tennis, it’s speed AND steroids.
So, keep your eyes peeled and your ears tuned to the commentary and report in your own favourite Gold medal excuse for getting beaten when the so called experts said it could never happen.
Let’s hope the Australian arrow shooters can stay on their feet, otherwise we’ll have to lament Australia’s fallen archers.
I know, it’s not over yet until we see another monster cheese-fest closing ceremony.
When I say “we”, I mean you, I’m out in the shed practising whingeing and saying disparaging things – I’m shooting for a fourth place in the turd-throwing at the 2016 Olympics. My best effort so far goes along the lines of “No, losing is character-building and I’m sure that <insert Australian athlete or team here> will come back from this stronger than ever” (unlike the foreign devil winners, whose stories will encase tomorrow’s fish and chips before they fade from the annals of history because , well, they never carried the green and gold, did they ?)
Or thankfully a microphone, TV camera, smart phone or laptop.
silver price said:
Yeah; you read that right. Badminton will go down as the resonating incident from the 2012 Games (so far at least). This Olympics is the first to feature pool play in badminton, presumably to give some of the lower ranked teams a chance at more games than they previously had when the knockout stage was the only stage there was. A surprise win by a team from the Netherlands set up what four other teams apparently viewed as less-than-favorable matchups in the quarter-finals.
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nev cole said:
This does sum it all up. For me, the olympics have been going downhill since 76…the first time I got to see them in colour. But now, with so many sports already so world-wide and so many athletes only there to push their brand it is hard to get excited about any of it. The Onion had a funny headline: “American’s agree to leave Olympics on in the background.” That’s all this has become background filler for the easily distracted masses. It is sad though, when I think back to how BIG the 76 Olympics felt to 13 year old me.
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nev cole said:
Although, I thought the opening ceremony extravaganza was great fun…then the athletes started marching in and I almost immediately lost interest.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Touche twice, Nev. I almost did the background thing this morning over breakfast preparations. Our family loves field hockey and the girls are great players – and at 6:15 our time the Hockeyroos were playing old foes Germany. But I got distracted by other preparations for the day.
Olympic background indeed !
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vivienne said:
Says it all very well. And now the competitors are bagging themselves out for only coming second and not getting the gold. They’ve nearly all gone nuts. I’m only just following bits of it – it is not good. No excitement.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Viv, I have a friend who has two silver medals he won in the pool at the Rome Olympics. He’s a huge chap and nicely recovered from a more recent heart attack. He has his award papers up on the wall of his office and he said that people DO ask the dumbest question – “Was he disappointed with silver?” He said “Are you joking ? I was the second fastest swimmer in the world that year – TWICE ! And I did it in one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Disappointed ? No, I was absolutely delighted and we partied on forever.” HE remembers sportsmanship !
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
oops, I have a late breaking item – Emily Seebohm is “shattered” because she was only the second fastest backstroker in the universe. One wonders why they allow glass objects in the swimming arena – surely that’s really dangerous. Well, I guess that would be shardenfreude for the gold medallist.
Speculation is rife about whether the formerly unknown James Magnetic can make a comeback after his disappointment in the chlorine.
Two equesters fell off their horsies and have been eliminated, stuffing Australia’s eventing event. And in ultra late news, perhaps more appropriately called “Olds” I gather that Thorpie didn’t even make it into the team, but he did make it into a movie about him not making the team. Clearly no acting qualifiers needed to get on that podium.
And a warning: be careful or you’ll witness dudes with springs instead of lower limbs whizzing around the track. Is this getting more and more bizarre, or is it just my imagination.
Prediction: In the 2020 Olympics – reliably predicted to be in Dacca, Bangladesh, they’ll be bringing back (as host nations are entitled to do) one sport of their choosing. I’ve heard that the tiger racers are just edging out the snake charmers, which is good since tiger racing really has only one winner and occasionally there will be a survivor who takes silver. However the charming anti-venine sponsors are putting the bite on and the race is not over yet.
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Big M said:
Well stated, Emm. The ‘reportage’ makes my ears bleed. Our ‘traditional enemies’ were mentioned in one dispatch. ‘Who’. I thought, ‘Japan, Germany….no, don’t mention the war, it’s New Zealand! So much for the Olympics bringing the nations together, whilst the reporters set them at enmity.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Did we lose the netball too ? Cripes ! Montreal here we go again. Should we sub in Ivan Milat in the shooting or maybe pentathalon team ? Spectators in Sherwood Forest had better be careful then !
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astyages said:
Who needs to watch the ‘lympics with reportage like the above?
🙂
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helvityni said:
asty, asty, who says we are watching them ‘lympics, I is not….
I only heard something about the lovely Liesel Jones being fat, who says that…. the ugly obese journos…
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astyages said:
At least Therese included a picture of the only REAL sportsmen in the bunch: Eddie the Eagle… and it’s good to see he’s evidently got a sponsorship deal lined up already… as Bob Dylan once sang, “There’s no success like failure; and failure’s no success at all!”
😉
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Thanks, Asty, much appreciated.
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Algernon said:
What I’m finding irritating the verbal masturbation by the talking heads on the free TV. These bunch of pretty people without any knowledge whatsoever can “commentate” as though they do. Even tonight how many hours after 4×100 mens finished 4th they’re still banging on.
These games do not feel the same as games past.
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
I think I’m getting pretty fickle, Algy. First I give up on Unleashed / the Drum and then …. it started with the Beijing Olympics ….. I missed the opening and closing ceremonies and in truth, I basically could not give a toss about how many medals we do or don’t win. I do care about being active – one form of which is sport, but it’s not OK to only watch sport. It IS OK to watch some sport – if you have a go and play some.
I agree with you. These games are just not the same. I peaked in interest with Sydney of course. I quite enjoyed Athens, forgot to bother with Beijing and feel that London is hopeless in the sense that Brits, as far as I’m aware play a bit of sporadic cricket, a spot of tennis and football, maybe cycling – but rarely are they on top of more than one sport as a nation at a time. I suspect it’s the same people doing the rounds. Shitty climate and crap food / obesity epidemic and massive over consumption of alcohol – is it any wonder ?
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gerard oosterman said:
I have long fought for changing the rules of winning gold medals. There should be Olympics for those that come slowest. There is definitely something wrong with this obsession to reward only the fastest. What is it about the fastest that needs rewarding over being slowest. Can anyone give a logical reason or cause how this has come about?
I still remember seeing footage of a lone swimmer from a Middle East or African country who was still paddling in the water when the rest of them were celebrating in their change rooms. Now, there was a hero. What verve he had!
Anyway, with Australia lagging behind in the tally of the fastest there is hope we will finally reach the heights of those countries such as Belgium or Finland which very often figure in the lowest medal count per capita and look what they have achieved! There are definite benefits for being the slowest in sport. Look how in the national sport of Russia, outdoor chess, it is often the slowest and most deeply concentrated player who wins out. They often do it while completely stationary. Think about it!
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Therese Trouserzoff said:
Yes, Gez. I think that slow swimmer was indeed “Eric the Eel”. It’s an art form, slow swimming – and like anaesthesia, it’s a fine line between it – and death.
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gerard oosterman said:
lol, good retort Emm.
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