I work with somebody who is a professional triathlete, olympian, and such. I think the difference with people who are athletes in those type of sports, even like my coworker who for much of the 2000s was one of the top female competitors, is they still need a day job. It’s not like Peyton Manning works down the hall, and had to take comp time to go play in Oakland on Thursday. I have no opinion on whether nothanks is the real thing or not (though I’ve read some of the ask-a thread). I do think it’s believable that a non-top-tier sport athlete has time to lurk on a message board for a while, and then decide to join and start posting. I think that in many ways people at that level of sports are probably closer to us “normals” in their daily lives than they are to football, baseball, basketball, etc. stars.
Assuming she’s still in the same place, she lives about a mile from me. A mile in the other direction is a former men’s World Champion in the marathon and two-time Olympian. I’ve played golf with him. Of course, you can’t swing a dead cat around here without hitting an Olympian. At any given time, the Whole Foods has a half-dozen of them shopping.
Boulder, CO.
I would totally watch that event. IOC? Are you listening?
I know several Olympians. I roomed with one in college, and at various times had 4 of the 5 members of the Olympic Ski Jumping delegation in my dorm room. I know several ski racers (downhill and XC), a bunch of biathletes, one medalist in whitewater kayaking, and a few runners. It helps if your college has a long history of winter Olympic sports.
I’m guessing our Olympian is the one from Puerto Rico whose name is common to both these pages. He didn’t misrepresent the results.
More power to him. That takes dedication.
There’s so many of them they have this huge get together every four years.
He’s not the only one who posts on these boards, BTW.
No need for name-calling.
So. We’ve successfully established, then, that Olympians exist. There goes Kozmik’s (probable) theory that they’re all just alien automatons put on camera to keep us entertained.
In fact, there are enough of them that they started having one every two years, one in the winter and the next in the summer.
Eric Heiden’s dad? Kewl!
Friend’s daughter was an alternate bobsledder in Olympics past. And she’s a competitive weight lifter. Stone. Fox. Got turned down for American Gladiators because they already had a hot blonde. Has that bursting-with-internal-energy-glow thing going on. Teaches a light fitness class at church. I should go.
I prefer to characterize favorable attention seekers such as umkay as confabulists rather than trolls. Trolls seek to provoke, usually with disproportionately little effort. Confabulists like to spin yarns, often in great detail.
Also: Confabulist isn’t really a word, though confabulator is. So I’m not using it improperly!
Did no one inform them that having 2 hot blondes is, in fact, a good thing?
Yeah, I’m not getting any vibes of fakery. It’s no big deal really. One time I saw a Doctor Who episode that had the Olympics stuff going on for the back story. I don’t remember the name of the episode but the little girl with the alien inside her was named Cloi Webber.
My dad was an Olympian, I have coached and Olympian (silver basketball), I work with at least 8 that I know of, went to school with 3, have met many through public speaking and I’m just a suburban boy from Melbourne. Sport is pretty big downunder…
I’m Sparticus.
(and so’s my wife)
Can you let my wife know? She’s under the impression that even one wouldn’t be a good idea.
I have a pretty good bullshit detector and its not going off. And I pegged umkay right from the beginning. I don’t claim to be infallible so I’m not putting money on it.
Wow, got it in one.
My brother-in-law was staying at a B&B in Madison, WI, and late one Saturday night he slipped and, well, kind of dropped my niece (a toddler at the time). They rushed to the ER and Dr, Heiden set her leg. This was back when Eric and Beth were competing (and were often seen skating at the neighborhood ice rink), and they chatted about the Olympics the whole while.
Everyone but the niece views the night as a net positive.