Posted on 08/26/2008 5:46:14 AM PDT by DFG
BEIJING -- If anybody feels a pang of jealousy over China's haul of Olympic gold medals, they need only pause to consider what the athletes went through to get them.
The only mother on China's team, Xian Dongmei, told reporters after she won her gold medal in judo that she had not seen her 18-month-old daughter in one year, monitoring the girl's growth only by webcam. Another gold medalist, weightlifter Cao Lei, was kept in such seclusion training for the Olympics that she wasn't told her mother was dying. She found out only after she had missed the funeral.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Meanwhile, many of our athletes have regular jobs.
What a farce China (and the IOC) have made of the Olympics.
Wait until they take back the medals from the athletes and melt them down so they can buy gasoline.
True, many of our athletes have real, everyday jobs. I remember seeing the Home Depot doing a commerical that mentioned names of athletes who work for the company. The only sports pros to the best of my memory are the NBA/WNBA and some tennis players.
....And this is the same China that Sen.Obama speaks in glowing terms.
They also made the IOC look like idiots by telling them that 12 year-olds were 16 and making them like it.
In truth, they merely reaffirmed what most people already knew about the IOC.
bump
This is the country Hussien Obama has such admiration for.
It was reported that 40 BILLION dollars was spent on these Olympic Games.....40 BILLION in a country with no human rights at all...How much could that money have done for the “people”???
A number of the track and field athletes make enough money to make a living on the pro tour in Europe. Seriously - there's a pro track and field tour in Europe. IIRC a number of the cyclists also are professionals as well. Then there's the soccer players - at the Olympic level I'm sure they're all pros. They don't make their money in America (except maybe some of the soccer players) and you don't see them compete on American TV very much, but they're pro athletes.
Plus, in the Winter Olympics you've got the skiiers, the hockey players and numerous others that are pros.
It’s way past time we pulled out of this monstrous event. It wreaks havoc on every city where it’s held, producing profits for an elite few and doing harm to everybody else. Somebody should tally up how many eminent domain seizures have been done for Olympics held in the US.
American children shouldn’t be growing up hearing that “the Olympics” is some ultimate glory that they should aspire to. The brainwashing starts very young — I used to coach gymnastics and recall a 4 year old at her very first gymnastics class asking me “Were you in the Olympics?” She’d already absorbed the Olympics = Really Good message.
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