Olympics Gripe

[FishermanTim]

I was more surprised to see how many US athletes DIDN'T sing the national anthem along with the music!

I figure that if an athlete, ANY athlete, dedicates 4 years of their life in the pursuit of Olympic gold and they succeed, they are entitled to a little bragging leeway.

Now if we were talking about highly overpaid sports brats, it would be a different story....

[Mike P]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

I was more surprised to see how many US athletes DIDN'T sing the national anthem along with the music!

I figure that if an athlete, ANY athlete, dedicates 4 years of their life in the pursuit of Olympic gold and they succeed, they are entitled to a little bragging leeway.

Now if we were talking about highly overpaid sports brats, it would be a different story....

Maybe most of them can't sing it? I sure as hell can't.

There are like 5 people out of 300 million Americans, who aren't trained singers, who can sing the damn thing and stay on key.

Don't you cringe when you're at Fenway and everyone in the section have their voices crack on "Red Glaaaaaarrrre?

It's an old English drinking song (To Anachrion in Heaven) and some idiot decided about 150 years ago that it fit the words of Key's poem.

We should have replaced it with America the Beautiful (written by our own Katherine Lee Bates) years ago.

[FishermanTim]

I agree that some, if not most, have voices that would shame a banshee, but wouldn't you think that they could have mimed the words?

Two things that I caught over the past two weeks that struck me as unusual (one good, one bad):

**Good**
Quite a few events were won by athletes from small countries that weren't expected to be a factor against the larger countries.

It just re-emphasized the fact that "the best" doesn't always come from the biggest!

**Bad**
Quite a few athletes showing anger that they didn't win the gold in their events. They replaced poor sportsmanship in place to good.
Remember when a person would be proud to win ANY medal?
Remember when it was a competition of the "best of the best" from around the world? Remember when the announcers wouldn't tell you who SHOULD win before the event, based of their past umpteen meetings over the past four years?
Now there are more and more displays of disdain and disgust by athletes because THEY failed to get the gold in an event that they were supposed to win.

I will always root for the underdog, even if it means rooting against the US. I also love closely matched events, so that the win is not a shoo-in.

[likwid]

Originally Posted by FishermanTim

I was more surprised to see how many US athletes DIDN'T sing the national anthem along with the music!

I figure that if an athlete, ANY athlete, dedicates 4 years of their life in the pursuit of Olympic gold and they succeed, they are entitled to a little bragging leeway.

Now if we were talking about highly overpaid sports brats, it would be a different story....

Maybe we should demand they in all interviews talk about how great the US is a-la Soviet Bloc?

And more than you know are highly overpaid sports brats.