Ah yes, nothing says we’re overcoming our differences better then by dividing ourselves into seperate teams and engaging in direct competition.
Marc
I vote this for Stupidest Comment of the Week.
Seconded!
Can we put it to a vote?
Still pissed about Salamis, eh?
Okay, now this was hilarious.
Je Je Je… I can’t believe I laughed at the nerdy joke. I need to get rid of my glasses, comb my hair and get laid real fast.
The “Hand of God” goal was in the 1986 World Cup quarterfinals. Maradona clearly scored the goal off his hand but they counted it. Later, though, he scored the greatest World Cup goal in history, in my opinion. Argentina won 2-1.
The videos of the two goals can be found on this page. Click the “Watch video” link and then pick Maradona Goal #1 (The “Hand of God” goal) or Maradona Goal #2 for the greatest goal ever.
According to numerous news sources, the Greek runner failed to show up for a scheduled drug test. He was re-scheduled and failed to make it to this second test as well, citing a motorcycle accident as being the reason he missed his test. Then he was disqualified from competition for missing two drug tests.
The Greek press may indeed have blamed Americans for this, but I fail to see how it was anybody’s fault except the Greek runners’.
Keep in mind, NBC Sports had Costas mention that it was motorcycle accident of a suspicious nature that kept the Greek out of the competition. I like Costas, but have to revert to my ranting against NBC Sports. Wonder if they’ll report a missing Dick Cheney tomorrow. I mean, some American was responsible for the motorcycle crash, right? :rolleyes:
Ahhh well…
Look at the bright side… at least there was ONE night the stands were full. Apparently, earlier in the week, Jaques Rogge ordered the Greek Organising Committee to give away all remaining unsold tickets for FREE because it was so incalculably embarassing to see all those thousands upon thousands of empty seats last week.
I read in “The Australian” last Sunday that after the first week of competition, it had been calculated that of all the vents which had been held to that point, only 27% of seating had been occupied.
Perhaps the Greeks were “booing themselves” as much as anything else.
Still, a long way to go until they match USA golf ‘fans’.
Jingoistic morons who don’t get the point of sport are with us in all countries.
Sort of. There are TWO BIG factors that are affecting the mood in Athens right now.
#1
Advance tickets sales for that event were insanely high because Kostas Kenteris (the suspended Greek runner) is a national hero, assuming of course he is indeed innocent. It is looking more and more dubious that he is. His training partner (also suspended) Katerina Thanou is also insanely popular.
Kenteris’s event was the hot ticket for Greek spectators. He was like their Michael Jordan or Wayne Gretzky – their superstar. He was supposed to be their flag bearer for the opening ceremonies.
He missed drug tests before (alhtough one missed in Mexico was not being counted in this case otherwise he would’ve been suspended earlier) – that goes on your record as a failed drug test. But hey, they’d flown out of town early, it must’ve been a mistaked, right?
The subsequent missed drug test… well that was just UGLY. They were notified of an impending doping test, yet managed to talk their way out of the Olympic village that day, which is considered highly unusual and is taken extremely seriously.
They claimed they were visiting their coach borrowed a motorcycle and crashed. There were no witnesses and traffic police are suspicious enough to launch a inquiry to find out if it actually happened. Although a statement said Kenteris suffered scrapes bruises and cranial injuries, and Thanou suffered internal bruising – it sounded serious.
It was later revised to “scartches” for him and “discomfort in her groin area”. Desipite the “scratches” and vague “discomfort” they were kept in hostpital for 5 days, they were in no condition for visitors, couldn’t talk to anyone. (Which just looked like they were dodging officials like crazy.)
When they finally showed up for a press conference:
That’s right, there’s not a mark on either of them to be seen (hey, maybe it’s under their clothes). :dubious:
The atheletes are still maintaining they are innocent and that they didn’t even know there was a drug test that day (which contradicts the whole “they were notified and then left” bit)…
So it’s ugly. When national heroes disappoint and you start thinking that their superstar status may all have been a big LIE… it’s really ugly.
So I would fully expect Greek fans to make noise about how ugly it all is. I don’t think they were necessarily booing the other athletes as much as voicing “THIS SUCKS!”
I don’t think it was directly aimed at American athletes and certainly it’s absurd for anyone to say it’s the U.S.'s fault. (If that was from a Greek source, they are tightening their tinfoil hats way too tight.)
It was my understanding that the roar of the crowd was mostly chants of “Greece! Greece! Greece!” more than booing other athletes. Which would make sense that they would still want to be supportive of their own country when they are sitting and watching the black-eye event where there own (fallen?) hero was conspicuously absent.
However…
#2
Contributing to the foul mood was the protests starting up in downtown Athens regarding Colin Powell’s impending visit. A very, VERY high percentage of Greek citizens are very, VERY much against the war in Iraq and the general sentiment toward Powell’s visit can be summed up with this statement by a protest organizer:
And the protest was growing and growing ending up with over 2000 participants – but that was well after the noise at the 200m. Still the bad attitude had been building during that time. So unfortunately some of the American athletes were bound to get an earful.
It included anti-WTO protesters and a whole whack of riot cops and lots of “No Imperialism” plackards, and a scuffles with police. Even the Acropolis ended up with a banner unfurled along the hill.
So the mood in town that day was not so good in general. There were a lot of pissed off people in town that day.
Colin Powell has cancelled his trip to Athens, his spokeman said the anti-American protests “played no role” in his decision.
However, that decision has a lot of people going :dubious: .
It was probably a good decision though because it would have been really disruptive to the spirit of the games. While it may have been intended as a “good” PR move, friendly photo-op, instead it became a very “provocative” issue. The chaos that would have enused would have been terrible. It’s such a politically incindiary issue that a visit from any of the top US officials would have gone over poorly.
It probably wasn’t a good idea to begin with.
Hopefully thing swill calm down now that the trip is cancelled so everyone can get back to celebrating the good stuff.