Posted on 08/19/2008 7:49:52 AM PDT by 7thson
BEIJING (AP)—Yelena Isinbayeva got the Olympic gold and a world record; American Jenn Stuczynski got the silver and a lesson in humility.
And we now have a new rivalry that should make woman’s pole vaulting fun to watch for many more years to come.
Big poles and big mouths don’t go together. Stuczynski knows that now. Pole vaulting isn’t basketball or boxing. It’s far too graceful of a sport for the kind of trash-talk she doled out before the Beijing Games.
“I hope we do some damage,” she had said, “and, you know, kick some Russian butt.”
Big mistake.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
I'm not niave - at least I don't think I am. I know that there are millions of people out there who hate this country. But it still shocks me to see it so blatently displayed. I cannot think of not one country in this world that teaches its citizens to hate their own country. How did we get here? More importantly, how do we stop it?
I do not think highly of Kobe Bryant but I give him kudos for his love of country. Collingsworth sounded shocked that someone - especially a black - could actually be proud of and love the United States.
Well, it’s really no different from the French 4x100m freestyle relay swim team saying they had come to “crush the Americans” and then getting beaten by Jason Lezak’s miracle last leg. IMO all these athletes need to just be quiet and let the scoreboard do their talking for them.
}:-)4
Your link does not work - it leads to an article titled, “Why losing Liu hurts bad for China.”
“Well, it’s really no different from the French 4x100m freestyle relay swim team saying they had come to “crush the Americans””
Exactly...and I’ve seen other interviews where foreign players said similar statements about their American counterparts. Hey, it’s sports...it’s bound to happen on all sides.
But those don’t fit the Bash America MSM theme...we only get the “ugly American” stories.
Not touching that one with a 10' pole!
Minor league propagandist and fool.
The AP is getting its butt kicked, newspapers will soon be a thing of the past.
Scroll down.
Women’s pole vaulting hasn’t been fun to watch since Stacy Dragila stopped competing.
You’re right, it doesn’t work. The new article states it was posted 12 minutes ago. I don’t know how to get to the old article. I will keep trying and post the correct link when I find it. My apologies for now.
You don’t get it. Read the entire article. It’s not the trash talking I’m commenting on. It’s the absolute worship by the author of the article for the Russian and his total disdain for the American.
So is it the writer’s contention that without Stuczynski’s challenge, Isinbayeva would not have done so well? Way to elevate the game! Declaring the intent to win at the expense of others is not trash talk. “Yo, borscht breath!” and the like would be trash talk.
Newspapers won’t be a thing of the past, what they will be is far more local focused, instead of just reprinting AP wire stories, they will be smaller and focused on the local events.. which is a good thing, IMHO.
Harder for national propogandists to influence when you have nothing but small publications publishing local articles vs distributed crap from reuters and ap.
Well, at least we didn’t.....
I think you're reading a bit too much into this article. The author isn't really "worshipping" the Russian, or expressing "disdain" for the American. He is pointing out that the American did spout off before the competition, and got some deserved comeuppance. ANYONE who has ever competed in anything knows that it is extremely foolish to make such statements before competing - it just gives your opposition that much more motivation to beat you.
Bottom line is that Yelena Isinbayeva is the greatest female pole vaulter in history - she has demonstrated it many, many times already, and she's still relatively young. And she showed the world last night just how good she is. She made it look incredibly easy, not only to win the gold medal, but to set a new world record.
You have to be an idiot to say anything before the competition against someone who is as good as she is, someone who has already set, and then increased, the world record, 23 times. If you say anything, it should be something more along the lines of, "Yelena Isinbayeva is a great pole vaulter, and it will be an honor to compete against her in Beijing. I'll do my best and we'll see what happens."
Not much less sexy than a woman trying to act like a man.
They must be having quite the chuckle in the editor's office over that one. Some days you just gotta wonder...
StuczynSKI
‘Pole’ Vaulter???
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