FR LIVE EVENT-Olympic Scandal Press Conference..

MSNBC.com ^ | February 13, 2002 | Kelly O' Donnell

[DJ88]

"I thought the judge herself admitted there was pressure?"

She did. She admitted it to the French Skating Federation or whatever they are called. They announced, now they've taken it back.

If you ask me, it's nothing but a bunch of crooks using athletes to generate money.

And that in itself is enough to make me boycott the Olympics for the rest of my life. From now on, no more. It's ridiculous.

[marajade]

You, me, and my husband.

[discostu]

According to the guy on MSNBC what the AP story said was that the judge told the president of the association something which caused him to say in an interview with the AP that she was manipulated. According to his PR guy he was mistranslated but I haven't seen any "correct" translation. All of this evidence is very indirect. I've seen the "smoking gun" quote (can't give it to you off hand, sorry) and I'm not sure. Depending on the context it could mean a lot of things. He talks about bad people surrounding an honest but emotionally fragile person and exherting influence on her. But the quote didn't come out until after she left Salt Lake for home. It could as easily be talking about why she left as anything else (the thing that makes me lean in that direction is the emotionally fragile part. I don't see what that has to do with judging, I can see it as a good reason to leave town when everybody is saying you're a bad person. But that's my thought, not his, I don't put thoughts in other people's brains). Since the quote doesn't give any indication as to what question he was answering (and I haven't heard anybody giving it context, they just present it raw, "he said..." not even "he said about X...") I am unconvinced.

Note I've never ruled out collusion. But unlike others I'm also not ruling out legitimate.

[marajade]

Well I would never trust the French to tell the truth.

[DJ88]

"You, me, and my husband."

Yeah....why give NBC the ratings anyway? I have COUPONS GALORE for Blockbuster...*grins*

[discostu]

You like football and NASCAR?! How could we fight (I'm not into baseball, too slow). You should check out the women's hockey, team USA kicks major butt. Don't poopoo the whole Olympics over one piece of stupidity. Remember the Olympics allows each sport's federation to run it's own thing. This is the fault of the ISU, collusion or not it's a stupid thing. Like one of the guests on MSNBC said today, this thing happens all the time in figure skating, it just usually doesn't happen in the Olympics. There's still lots of great sports going on in Utah, catch some curling if you can, it's actually a pretty cool sport, still has gentleman rules (like admitting defeat, or accepting a probable score without forcing a measurement), definitely increases one's confidence in the human spirit and value of sports.

Good luck. Peace.

[discostu]

But the problem is when were they lieing? Being part of an international conspiracy to fix an Olympics is pretty cool, I might lie about that. Certainly one of the overhauls they should do is get the French out. As James T. Kirk said "can't trust them, never could, never will". They can still play I guess, but no judging.

[marajade]

Make sure you rent only widescreen DVDs...

[marajade]

Why would she say something and then take it back? Sounds like lying to me.

[marajade]

"Don't poopoo the whole Olympics over one piece of stupidity."

Boxing... Basketball... Please its more than just one piece.

[discostu]

But remember, we don't actually have anything said BY her directly to the press. All we have is the APs translation of what her federation's president says she told him she said and felt during the the judging and the post judging meeting they had (which is standard, though this one was longer than usual). See how very indirect it is. Just whacky.

[discostu]

But there's somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 sets of medals handed out at every Olympics. Dozens of sport are played. As for the ones with problems look at them: boxing - generally considered to be the most corrupt sport in the world and has been that way for over 100 years, basketball - that was a hight of the cold war type thing and is one of the only times we didn't win the gold I don't know why anyone watches it, figure skating - again has a long history of problems in and out of the Olympics.

Meanwhile we've got hockey, the biathalon, curling, the luge, bobsled, speed skating, cross country skiing, ski jumping (I love watching those guys fly through the air, even a bad run is impressive). There's tons of great stuff going on, but the pretty sport the media guys sell to women is typically F'd up. I say who cares. It's just figure skating. Women can like sports without sequins, they can even EXCEL at sequinles sports (the US women's hockey team rocks, they've never lost to a non-Canadian team and pretty regularly (last 8 in a row) smear Canada.

You can ignore the summer games if you want. I never liked them. The winter games though features some of the finest sports played on this planet (IMHO obviously), AND they're sport Americans usually aren't good at so they don't get broadcast here but once every four years. You're really missing out on something if you ignore the winters, winter sports have a really high level of grace and artistry that you just don't see elsewhere.

[marajade]

Listen when the OIC tries to tell us which flag to carry in the opening ceremonies its not worth watching.

[discostu]

I don't watch the opening or closing ceremonies, I'm really not into the nationalism of the Olympics, I think it's just BS proxywar, I cheer for athletes usually they're Americans but that's not why I cheer for them (our guys are usually more fun). Curling is on CNBC right now, I'm growing more and more fond of this sport.

[marajade]

The only sport I even care about watching on a regular basis is pro football...

[DJ88]

Peace at last....:-) I enjoyed the "halfpipe" events and the other stuff. I just am more a football and NASCAR fan...just check out my profile page. :-) Even my NAME gives it away, LOL!!!!

I just got some bad news about my mom..she has to have surgery next week....both of her carotid (sp?) arteries are 90% blocked, and the doctor said, "We've got to do this now."

All of the sudden, I don't care if the judges give the stupid medals to the Chinese. I just want my mom to be okay...

Thanks for accepting my apology..you didn't have to, but you did. Thanks.

[xp38]

Prayers for your mom...May she have a successful operation.

[discostu]

I hope your mom is OK. Give her FR's love.

[DJ88]

Thanks, I will. :-) She's gonna be ok..I've got to believe that..it could be a lot worse. At least they found it. Thanks again....Deej :-)

[DJ88]

Thank you, xp. :-) Freepers are the BEST...this is true, I know. :-)