American flag too "jingoistic" for Olympics.

Washington Times/London Sunday Telegraph ^ | 05/16/2004 | Simon Hart

[Taxachusan]

U.S. athletes told to cool it at Olympics

By Simon Hart LONDON SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

NEW YORK — American athletes have been warned not to wave the U.S. flag during their medal celebrations at this summer's Olympic Games in Athens, for fear of provoking crowd hostility and harming the country's already-battered public image. The spectacle of victorious athletes grabbing a national flag and parading it around the stadium is a familiar part of international sporting competition, but U.S. Olympic officials have ordered their 550-strong team to exercise restraint and avoid any jingoistic behavior.

The plan is part of a charm offensive aimed at repairing the country's international reputation after the deepening crisis in Iraq and damaging revelations of the mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. forces at the Abu Ghraib prison.

[Taxachusan]

I hope I did this right.

[condi2008]

You did it just fine, but I wish it were a joke. And since it is unfortunately true, I wish those athletes would ignore the idiotic plan and wave their flags like good Americans.

[Poundstone]

The response of all American citizens to this diktat by the US Olympic Committee should be a polite pause...and then a loud "F--- You!"

[Crazieman]

Yeah, I'd grab it and wave anyway.

[RightOnline]

Ohfercryinoutloud. These people have worked their entire lives to represent the US of A. Let 'em wave the flag all they want. Those who are offended can just kiss off.

[wingman1]

What's next? US athletes desiring to appear nice will now pull punches and handicap themselves so that athletes from other countries will win. We sure don't want to offend anyone!

[demlosers]

Gee, I alway see those other Eff'n countries wave their flags.

[Betteboop]

Oh boy, if we don't wave the flag, we're just a bunch of weenies and don't deserve any medals!!!!!

[scouse]

U.S. Olympic officials have ordered their 550-strong team to exercise restraint and avoid any jingoistic behavior.

Who pays the salaries of these creeps? If they are paid in any shape or form with taxpayers' money it should be stopped immediately. After all what is more jingoistic than the almighty dollar?

[nuconvert]

I'm hoping this is more for security and safety issues than PR.

[Big Daddy Paul]

We already have the greatest athletes in the world.Why even drag them there.I say we bring them home and tell the Olympic committee to go to hell!I'm starting to think we should just pull out of everything and do our own thing and let the rest of the world rot.

[CourtneyLeigh]

Good Grief!

It's not as if every Olympian American Athlete represents the Government and it's President!

Does the President even go to these events?

If he is honest and has some morales... he'll go, and lead all the athletes down the field with the largest F***ing U.S. Flag that we have!

Make sure the Uniformed Secret Service are wearing red-white-blue, so as to not look suspicious!

[CourtneyLeigh]

There you go, they can all just do their stupid "world athlete wars" without Americans!
We bring a strength, other nations are afraid of!

[blanknoone]

Maybe we could get Bin Laden to like us if our athletes wave an al Qaeda flag?

[Adder]

Yup!
Let the rest of the world deal with their own inadequecies.

"F--- You!", when screamed at the top of one's lungs is particularly effacious in the elimination of guilty angst syndrome, attacks of political correctness, and has been effective when applied to large crowds of hostile peoples

[jimtorr]

Only the Telegraph and other European papers would refer to the waving of national flags at an international sports festival as "jingoistic". I don't think the U.S. Olympic comittee used that terminology.

[Taxachusan]

You did it just fine, but I wish it were a joke. And since it is unfortunately true, I wish those athletes would ignore the idiotic plan and wave their flags like good Americans. Thanks, and me too. I hope they find the biggest flag they can and keep it constantly visible.

[F14 Pilot]

BUMP!

[kidd]

...the British Olympic Association insists there are no plans to ban them from celebrating with the Union flag. "It's up to every athlete how he or she wishes to celebrate their Olympic success, and there are no plans to issue any instructions," a spokesman for the association said. "We are confident that every athlete will celebrate in a responsible way."

So there's no such policy in place for the Brits. Why is the US different?

Anyone aware of the politics of this spokesman (Mike Moran) or the acting USOC President (Bill Martin)? This sounds politically motivated.

(BTW "jingoistic" is a term used by the author (twice), not by any of the people quoted in the article.)