Clueless writing about our sport

[Charley Shaffer]

No disrespect intended for any athlete, but on July 22 in the NYT, Lindsay Crouse wrote, "Lauren Fleshman was the top female collegiate distance runner in American history."
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/24/sp...n-goes-on.html

Isn't the reporter ignoring Suzy Favor, who had more individual NCAA Outdoor titles, more individual NCAA Indoor titles, and more T&FN US Top 10 rankings while in college? Or perhaps Crouse doesn't know that the 1500m is a "distance" race.

[lonewolf]

I suspect that much/most of the occasional lapses of grammar/punctuation/spelling on here is by people who know better but just want to get it posted or deliberately resort to vernacular.

[KDFINE]

Somewhat related was a comment that I heard on the BEIN Sports London broadcast during the first day. Of course every distance and height was reported by the announcers metrically. Then one of them gave the remark that something or another was either made or missed by "inches," which gave me a silent chuckle.

[odelltrclan]

people will judge you on how intelligent you appear to be. Spell correctly, use good grammar and vocabulary - people will assume two things about you: you are intelligent and well educated.

And you are right on. Not wanting to be a judge, but that is exactly my reaction when I see poorly worded and /or misspelled documents, emails, etc. One has to wonder how bad an influence texting has on the rising generations.

[tandfman]

Unfortunately, the number of people who care about such things seems to be diminishing.

[Atticus]

Even as a TOE, I can't get too worked up over spelling mistakes except in formal typed essays (use your spellcheck, nitwit!). On the other hand, as I tell my students often: people will judge you on how intelligent you appear to be. Spell correctly, use good grammar and vocabulary - people will assume two things about you: you are intelligent and well educated.

[Davidokun]

Read all about it:

No Respect for a Man Who Can Spell a Word Only One Way

[lonewolf]

I believe is was Mark Twain who questioned the literacy of anyone who knew only one way to spell a word.

[Atticus]

Men's Decathalon

While we're on that, can we all please correct the MILLIONS of people who say 'ath-a-lete'. It's 'ath-lete' !!!!

[dukehjsteve]

Re the above post by bambam, many might recall my posting here about 6 years ago, when I started officiating at Indiana University, and was horrified to see a banner on the wall at Gladstein Field House ( IU's indoor track facility ) honoring Milt Campbell, in the "Decathalon." Someone must have read my posting, as within a month, a corrected banner was on the wall.

[bambam1729]

Fun 2 days at O'Hare Airport trying to get out of Chicago. Weather delays grounded all flights after 8 PM on Thursday evening. left Friday night, but had to get a flight to a city 2 states over and then rent-a-car to get home. No hotels available. Oh well, enough on that.

While wandering around O'Hare for about 40 hours, I saw numerous United Airline signs promoting our Olympic athletes. Most had an Olympic athlete with a pilot, a flight attendant, gate agent, ground worker, etc. All gave the name of the United employee, with their job title, and the name of the Olympian, with their sport.

Olympians included were Missy Franklin (swimming), Kerri Walsh (beach volleyball), Carli Lloyd (soccer), Simone Biles (gymnastics)

Yes, T&F was represented as well. There, for all to see, in multiple places, it proudly proclaimed:

Ashton Eaton
Men's Decathalon

Wanted to puke.

[Atticus]

Here's another one where it's the headline writer who's clueless:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news...ectid=11677907

In case they realize they've screwed up and change it, please believe me--I'm looking at a headline that says:

>>Athletics: No room in Kenyan Olympic team for Bekele<<

The story correctly notes that it's the Ethiopian team that has excluded Bekele.

Indeed they did!

Athletics: No room in Ethiopian Olympic team for Bekele

[tandfman]

Here's another one where it's the headline writer who's clueless:

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news...ectid=11677907

In case they realize they've screwed up and change it, please believe me--I'm looking at a headline that says:

>>Athletics: No room in Kenyan Olympic team for Bekele<<

The story correctly notes that it's the Ethiopian team that has excluded Bekele.

[tandfman]

It looks to me as if the actual interview took place before the hurdles final at the Trials.

[cubehead]

The most clueless here really seems to be Merritt...

NBC: Now going to Rio are you going to keep the same plan to stand eight hours if you have to?

Merritt: I am. I’m always the second week so I can recover from that easily [laughter]. I’m going to go to the opening and closing ceremonies because I feel like it’s part of the Olympic experience. How many times do you get to go to the Olympic Games and compete? I mean it’s very rare and there’s a very small window in which you get to do that.