The BBC is treating Paula Radcliffe’s failed Olympic marathon bid as some kind of national disaster. They interviewed Paula today and were clearly trying to pin the blame for her not finishing the race on the pummelling she took from the heat and the severity of the course, yet at one point in the interview Paula said:
“…knowing that I was going backwards and was out of the medals, that was a kick in the stomach…”
Well there we have it, from the horse mouth! She lost interest in completing the race once her medal chances had gone. Fucking lazy bludger!
I wonder what the future of athletics would be like if everyone shared her attitude?
I agree with you legion, and then her little trip about the 10,000 metres as if as long as she’s assured of a medal she will run but if she has no chance she’s outta the race and with the 10,000 metres there’s less excuse for dropping out imho she’s just trying to make sure she comes home with a medal or can say “I Didn’t/couldn’t run.”
Because if not, imagine it, your favourite to win, and the hopes of your whole nation are on you to come home with an Olympic Gold medal, and then you get out there and you begin to race, and about 20 miles from the end you know your spent and have no hope in hell of winning a medal, you probably dont een know if your capable of finishing! How would you feel? I think her knowing that she wasnt going to win a medal at that stage was probably a part of why she decided to quit, but it was hardly the the only reason.
Maybe you missed it, but anyone who saw todays interview, or the press conference that was shown later clearly would have understood that the girl was devastated because she saw her dreams go up in smoke. I dont think it was purely about medals.
And unless youve ever run a marathon under the circumstances that Radcliffe has, I dont think you can ever call her lazy.
As for her not competeing in next event, why should she? Shes just had a severe blow and is more then likely unstable emotionally and probably isnt in the best condition to race. Why put yourself through the trauma of losing like that again?
Shes young, she can come back for Beijing, she doesnt have to do it this time.
Let me just add that if she’s having a shit-ass day out there on the marathon course, and she knows that a few days later she’s going to compete in another event, she’s probably thinking strategically.
Running a crappy marathon can whack you out for more than a few days. She’s probably trying to save her energy for the next event.
I think that often people who are at the elite level of marathoning DNF when they know they don’t stand a chance to win. Why put your body through the torture when you know there’s no payoff? I’m not saying I fully agree with it, but I’ve seen it happen in non-Olympic races where there is prize money on the line. In other words, don’t kill yourself at this marathon, save it up and kick ass the next time.
I’ve run two Marathons in my life but competing against the distance and myself, not the other competitors (in other words, I’m slow).
I saw highlights (odd word in the circumstances) of the race and felt she should have withdrawn before she did. It was insanely hot and she was in a situation where she could no longer compete. To continue would be to risk permanent damage for no purpose.
One of the problems with sport is that there are too many examples where commentators and sometimes even competitors use hyperbole and describe an event to be “like running a Marathon.” The worst example I can remember was a competitor in an aerobics competition stating that even though her routine only lastest two minutes it deserved this comparison. Fact is that very few things really compare with running a Marathon.
When things go wrong during a Marathon they go really, really wrong, and can easily become life-threatening, especially in the conditions experienced in Athens.
Marathoners generally don’t see withdrawing as a weakness, because you don’t do it lightly. I’ve passed people who have dropped out and I’ve had to force myself not become emotional because I know how bad they must be feeling. You really feel that there but for the grace of God, …
If you want to direct your anger, please do it at the organisers. Time after time the Olympic Marathons are put on in the heat of the day. How about thinking of the athletes for once and not the TV coverage - put the damn thing on in the morning. Really early in the morning.
So she knew, after (IIRC) 36km, that the medal she’d been working for for her whole career was jsut slippijng away, and that there was nothing she could do about it, and she just lost it…that makes here lazy HOW?
I presume that if she’d continued, legion would have started a thread saying “Well done Paula, only 36th place but at least you didn’t quit.” :dubious:
… even though her routine only lasted two minutes …
… I’ve had to force myself not to become emotional …
I swear I read it twice before submitting.
Not to waste a post purely on typos, if I am not mistaken before she stopped running she seemed to be favouring one leg. If I observed correctly, this may indicate that she was developing an injury - another good reason to withdraw.
If the British media hadn’t have hyped her out of all proportion, she wouldn’t be facing this now. She ran a terrible marathon, she says so herself, end of story. It’s not the fault of her training, it’s not a fault with the heat, sonsidering a japanese runner won it and two other Britons finished the marathon. She wasn’t up for it on the day. It’s not a travesty, its just another race.
The Australian media has been running the other way with that story ever since. Robbins’ team-mates have apologised to her at a press conference, having previously been told to shut the fuck up by team management. Rowing experts have been saying that armchair judges who think she just quit are talking out of their arses.
Whilst opinion here is divided, it’s worth noting that there has been a fair bit of comment to the effect that Australia’s improved performance in the women’s swimming might partly be due to training regimes being changed to put less of an emphasis on humiliation and more on support and teamwork.
Fucking media. How about instead of hyping her out of all proportion then filling pages and pages with excuses for her failure to live up to their expectation and whether she should run the 10000m or not, we let her get on with whatever she feels she has to do and meanwhile concentrate on those actually winning? Kelly Holmes ran a fantastic 800m for gold and yet still seems overshadowed by Radcliffe.
According to my Olympic-nut girlfriend (whom I swear hasn’t slept since the games started) the reason her teammates are so angry with her, despite shows of teeth gritting smiles, is that she stopped rowing in the middle of a race like that before and should have never gone to the games. Now that she’s dropped the ball in the middle of a race twice she’s effectivly ruined her rowing career.