Posted on 02/15/2014 5:23:28 PM PST by cunning_fish
SOCHI, Russia. Shani Davis was bristling with frustration and trying to keep it in check, talking about how this Winter Olympics will haunt him for the rest of his life. Brian Hansen's coach was starting to weep as she spoke of the catastrophic turmoil that turned a bunch of predicted gold medals into a collective and embarrassing failure.
Joey Mantia tried to find a polite way of saying that his colleagues have yet to grasp that there is no "I" in the word "team," and coach Ryan Shimabukuro was dismissing the avalanche of criticism as nothing but the talk of a "pothead."
Welcome to the United States speedskating squad, perhaps the most dysfunctional team of the Sochi Games, in which chaos reigns and the high hopes that preceded the Olympics has turned into blame, anger and frustration.
Davis ― the two-time Olympic silver medalist, current world-record holder and owner of the season's best time in the 1500 meters ― could only place in 11th here on Saturday, three days after he failed to defend his gold medals in the 1000 meters from the two previous Games.
(Excerpt) Read more at sports.yahoo.com ...
Shouldn’t be that much of a shot to their egos as there are probably only the equivalent of CNN’s prime time audience (both of them) watching.
Wow. What kind of bizarro system has the folks on a TEAM train SEPARATELY?
Imagine Russell Wilson practicing without Golden Tate.
Imagine Robert Plant practicing without Jimmy Page.
Imagine Stan Laurel practicing without Oliver Hardy.
Star athletes are always treated like somebody special. What we’re seeing here is people who were legitimate favorites (previous gold medal winners, world record holders, season leaders) to win losing. Star athletes aren’t generally good at dealing with failure, they always say winning isn’t nearly as good as losing is bad, and now here they are with a bunch of unexpected loses.
Outside of a few relay events they’re a team in name alone, most races they’re racing against each other.
I have a feeling we’re going to be seeing more—a lot more—symptoms of America in decline.
Free Republic 1st Quarter Fundraising Target: $85,000 | Receipts & Pledges to-date: $49,612 | |||
|
||||
Woo hoo!! And we're now over 58%!! Go, FReepers!! Thank you all very much!! We can do this. |
Just picking up where Apollo Ohno left off when he was dq’ed for cheating in the last winter Olympics.
watched the womens speed skating tonight. the American (a woman w/ long blond hair) went from 2nd to last. at one point, she claimed to have been ‘bumped’ and fell from 3rd to last in a blink. you could see her lack of drive the entire race.
watching her, i never had the impression she was fighting to win
i wonder how many others have not given it their all... and i wonder if it relates to the massive tax debt that awaits them if they win
>>watched the womens speed skating tonight. the American (a woman w/ long blond hair) went from 2nd to last. at one point, she claimed to have been bumped and fell from 3rd to last in a blink. you could see her lack of drive the entire race.<<<
Well, she might be a good lesbian or feminist. You know, it is impossible to combine every merit within one person.
All participants will get a nice medal as they leave commemorating the Games, so everyone does get a medal - just like hometown recreation park sports.
Yes. The potus’ first “gay” Olympics has made a joke of the US.
There is no ‘I’ in TEAM, but there is an ‘M’ and an ‘E’ - “ME”
I think you are on to something.
The entire country seems to have lost much of its drive and edge.
The brain washing of political correctness is taking its toll in almost every aspect of life in America.
Forced equality translates into forced mediocrity.
After reading the article I have to think that a country like the Netherlands is very small so it isn’t a problem for everyone to train together and get to know one another. I saw there was a big disagreement by one of the coaches about training at altitude in Italy and they could be right.
“I am tired of being told that science is the only answer, that intuition and experience are not good enough. You can’t teach a scientist to be a coach.”
I could see this as holding true and placing too much emphasis on gadgets and the latest tech wizardry.
I would imagine they could take a few hints from the Canadians but...
It seems that all the focus on gay stuff and years of liberal propaganda has taken it’s toll also as is alluded to.
Could be, excellent correlation on your part!
The decision to train at altitude and compete at sea level was flawed and dispenses with previous sports performance research. Hypoxia inducible factor (from altitude training) increases iron absorption from the gut to theoretically provide for higher levels of red blood cells but offers no potential advantage when competing at sea level. The same hypoxia inducible factor does, however, impair Krebs cycle oxidative efficiency by upregulating the pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase inhibition on pyruvate dehydrogenase.
That's what I've been saying all along!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.