USA - Laughing stock (?)

[Marlow]

An Aussie reporter leads his article thusly:

THE first time it was funny. The second time you could hear the laughter across the globe as the once great US track and field team was reduced to fools when, in the space of 25 minutes, the men's and women's 4 x 100m relay teams dropped the baton in the heats. Nothing could have summed up the Games for the US team better than the relay farce on Thursday night. The strut, swagger and superiority complex, which everyone is used to seeing on the Olympic stage from the "crew" in the stars and stripes, has disappeared and the fans, not to mention competitors, are loving it.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 22,00.html

The tone seems a little . . . unseemly.

[gm]

I'm surprised he could find time to write this given all the T&F medals his nation won.

[EZSum]

There's a significant minority of Americans who are a little too excessive in their patriotism and when sometimes there is an arrogance that goes along with that it rubs people up the wrong way.

The flipside of hubris is nemesis.

[jhc68]

Two reactions from me: First, it's the Aussie press and it's a lot more in the tone of an AM radio talk show than say, the NY Times. Writing that athletes who dropped batons were "reduced to fools" says a lot more about the foolishness of the author than anyone else. Second, the strut and swagger and whatnot have seemed embarrassing to me as an American for years now. So it was OK with me when, on the track in Beijing, the greatest ever sprinter decided to take the onus of being an obnoxious winner off American shoulders and put it on his own.

[bad hammy]

Personally I am always more surprised when the US 4x1 actually gets the stick around, so the original writer can kiss my US butt . . .

[Kevin Richardson]

A report who hails from a land that prides itself on mutated mammals should be able to find something more worthy than this silliness about which to write.

[AS]

The Australian perception of USA-ian "swagger" stretches beyond the track. A big chunk of the spite in this (poorly written) article probably springs from the swimming arena. Gary Hall Jr is still living down his threat at the Sydney Games to "smash the Aussies like guitars"... a statement that came back to haunt him pretty quickly at those Games (when his 4x1freestyle team didn't get gold).

[jamese1045]

Re: USA - Laughing stock (?)

An Aussie reporter leads his article thusly:

THE first time it was funny. The second time you could hear the laughter across the globe as the once great US track and field team was reduced to fools when, in the space of 25 minutes, the men's and women's 4 x 100m relay teams dropped the baton in the heats. Nothing could have summed up the Games for the US team better than the relay farce on Thursday night. The strut, swagger and superiority complex, which everyone is used to seeing on the Olympic stage from the "crew" in the stars and stripes, has disappeared and the fans, not to mention competitors, are loving it.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/ ... 22,00.html

The tone seems a little . . . unseemly.

I may have said this before, so excuse me for saying that the automatic chant that dominates mi little mind at the start of any U.S.A relay--for many olympics, I'm saying--pass the damn baton, pass the .....sigh :? never works.

[Flumpy]

There's a significant minority of Americans who are a little too excessive in their patriotism and when sometimes there is an arrogance that goes along with that it rubs people up the wrong way

Unfortunately the vocal minority are extremely loud and make all of you look bad.

There's something about the aggresively jingoistic chant of "USA! USA! USA!" that the rest of the world want you to lose.

At the rowing in Beijing I heard a small group of posh English people apologetically trying to get a chant of "GB! GB! GB!" going. There heart wasn't in it and it sounded ridiculous which was in some strange way really endearing.

[mojo]

Are those the same Brits who cover themselves with silly hats and ear thingys and paint Union Jacks on their faces?

I have always found Brits to be just as patriotic as Americans-all the while putting their American cousins down.....

I think Canadians have it about right! :wink:


(except at hockey games) ops:

[BruceFlorman]

There's something about the aggresively jingoistic chant of "USA! USA! USA!" that the rest of the world want you to lose.

My first thought when hearing that chant is always: I wonder how many other folks there are chanting "Anybody else! Anybody else! Anybody else!" :lol:

FWIW, I didn't find the article all that "unseemly". Ya gotta expect a little good-natured ribbing when your team screws up. Ya deal with it and move on. :wink:

[scoe]

The Aussies are the most jingoistic nation in all sports, followed by the USA.; the latter cannot bear to be beaten and you only have to read all the posts on this Forum from the USA Trials and through to the end of the Olympics, complete with snide references to CO and the Jamaicans, and then add various unpleasant and unnecessary boasting by Americans at Atlanta, and Sydney, together with the1984 LA Games 3000m race, to appreciate the loathsome ignorance and jingoism that is apparent sometimes in American sport.

The Brits have spent rather a long time losing at major sports so actually winning something and doing well at the OG is a most unusual surprise.

Our Soccer national supporters are, in significant numbers, disgustingly behaved louts and it cannot be denied that our Wimbledon crowd when a Brit is playing are now beyond a joke.
Thats not so much patriotism however, as frigging desperation on those two Sports.

[scottmitchell74]

Which country's fans aren't nationalistic at some level? The different ways of expressing it might be cultural. I'm tired of living up to the expectations of the rest of the World (who keeps trying to flood into our awful country, for some reason!)
:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:

[gm]

I suppose we should just be happy that our sports fans don't travel to other countries to kill opposing fans, or be killed by opposing fans. Not that that ever happens in Europe...

[Marlow]

Re: USA - Laughing stock (?)

THE first time it was funny. The second time you could hear the laughter across the globe as the once great US track and field team was reduced to fools when, in the space of 25 minutes, the men's and women's 4 x 100m relay teams dropped the baton in the heats. Nothing could have summed up the Games for the US team better than the relay farce on Thursday night. The strut, swagger and superiority complex, which everyone is used to seeing on the Olympic stage from the "crew" in the stars and stripes, has disappeared and the fans, not to mention competitors, are loving it.

FWIW, I didn't find the article all that "unseemly". Ya gotta expect a little good-natured ribbing when your team screws up. Ya deal with it and move on. :wink:

Oh, the underlined parts are 'good-natured' . . . ? I'd hate to see bad-natured. :roll: