Clueless writing about our sport

[bad hammy]

This is from a story about Kyle Merber's speaking to a HS Cross Country team in Westchester (NY) County:


The 2016 Olympics were held in Atlanta? How did I miss that?

https://www.lohud.com/story/sports/2...ry/2077067001/

Cluelessness was not obvious to me in this NYT profile of Merber in pandemic times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/10/s...-olympics.html

[tandfman]

This is from an article in the Baltimore Sun: Headline - Maryland universities face daily uncertainty, disappointment in preparation for fall sports

Clueless quote:

The ACC postponed the start of Olympic sports (men’s and women’s cross country, field hockey, men’s and women’s soccer and volleyball) until Sept. 1.

Did you know that cross country is an Olympic sport? That's news to me.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/...2h4-story.html

[DoubleRBar]

It (cross country) use to be an Olympic sport before it was discontinued.

[tandfman]

I doubt that that what the Balto Sun writer had in mind.

[gm]

Save your indignation for the ACC. They wrote the original.

https://theacc.com/news/2020/7/9/gen...ptember-1.aspx

[tandfman]

You're right. And they also have a clueless reference to "games in the sports of men's and women's cross country . . ."

I've never seen a cross country game, have you?

[gh]

SID-speak very commonly refers to track athletes as "players"

[tandfman]

Yes, and some SIDs regularly refer to track meets as "tournaments".

[Alan Shank]

This is from a World Athletics page:
https://www.worldathletics.org/news/...navirus-photos

Ricketts taking postponements and cancellations in stride


Jamaican Shanieka Ricketts, the 2019 world triple jump champion, chose to accentuate the positive during her lockdown.

Gee, has Rojas been retroactively suspended?

Cheers,
Alan Shank
Woodland, CA, USA

[tandfman]

Here's another non-champion somehow promoted. From a Cuba-based website's article about discus thrower Denia Caballero:

>>The 2015 Beijing world champion was able to once again win the gold medal in Doha,<<

In fact, she was the silver medalist in Doha. It happens that another Cuban (Yaimé Pérez) won the gold.

https://www.plenglish.com/index.php?...-2020-olympics

[Atticus]

Trackinsun is an invaluable results site. Looking over the Nairobi stats I note the actual name of the meet was:

Nairobi (Kenya), 3.10.2020 -Bill Keino Classic

[tandfman]

This one boggles. There's a story linked in the front-page headline section about Kenya's team for the upcoming World Half-Marathon Championships. It includes this sentence:

"The team leaves the country on July 15 for the Scandinavian country."

Of course, it's now October, and the Championships will be in Poland, which is not in Scandanavia.

https://nation.africa/kenya/sports/a...n-team-2459150

[gh]

The Wiichita State SID department just issued a release titled this way

Shocker Track and Field Announces Fall Scrimmage

[wamego relays champ]

The Wiichita State SID department just issued a release titled this way

Shocker Track and Field Announces Fall Scrimmage

Although the word “scrimmage” is probably most often associated with American Football, I think it also is used with other sports (and even non-sport skirmishes), so I might give this one a pass.

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/scrimmage

SIDs often create quotes from coaches, and I note that the release attributes the description of the meet to the Director of Track & Field & Cross Country, Steve Rainbolt.

I'm really excited to watch our athletes compete again even if it is a lowkey inner squad scrimmage. I know the athletes are looking forward to getting out and testing themselves in a competitive setting.

[The rather unusual variation on intersquad (or intrasquad) caught my attention as well].

[Atticus]

[The rather unusual variation on intersquad (or intrasquad)

Scrimmage is a very weak usage here. It is indeed called an intrasquad meet and usually pits one school color team against another school color team (relays).