# US athletes told not to wave flag at Olympics??

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-athletes-told-not-to-wave-flag-at-olympics/245636>\
**Category:** The BBQ Pit\
**Created:** [May 17, 2004, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-athletes-told-not-to-wave-flag-at-olympics/245636 "2004-05-17T17:34:07Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 6

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**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-athletes-told-not-to-wave-flag-at-olympics/245636/101 "2004-05-21T05:17:10Z")

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> [@The\_Llama](#):
>
> Anyone seen Sam?

Nope, I really don’t think too much more can be said on either side.

Aside from Drifting in to see if my shadow decided to taunt me some more.

Sam

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**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-athletes-told-not-to-wave-flag-at-olympics/245636/102 "2004-05-21T05:21:07Z")

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So much for not having much else to say…

> [@John Carter of Mars](#):
>
> Now this guy is trying to prevent American athletes from doing this because of the “sins of the fathers”. It wasn’t American athletes that made the decisions causing America’s current public relations problems around the world.

Unfortunately John Carter, shit rolls downhill, and the shit has just rolled onto our athletes. The “sins of our fathers”, affect everyone even though they are not “the fathers” or the perpetrators of those sins. Our athletes will now find out about forced humility and how politics affects their game.

Sam

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**Author:** ![Fionn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Fionn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fionn)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2004, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/us-athletes-told-not-to-wave-flag-at-olympics/245636/103 "2004-05-21T05:26:10Z")

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> [@Liberal](#):
>
> They should act out whatever they feel, so long as it is legal. It is, after all, their victory.

Not quite. The athletes are there because the powers that be in America wanted them there. So long as they’re competing under the American flag, representing America, and their medals are being added to America’s total, it is not entirely _their_ victory. If they want an entirely individual victory, let them compete entirely on their own, like athletes do in Olympic off-years.

It’s never a bad idea to show class on the field, and right now there’s absolutely nothing wrong with asking US athletes to, pretty please, not act like complete jackasses with all the world watching. Not caring what the rest of the world thinks of America doesn’t change the fact that we’re all forced to share a planet.

If nothing else, the athletes could tone it down a touch in recogition that while they were able to spend massive amounts of time honing their abilities to play games well, other people have been fighting, dying and suffering, soldiers and innocents alike, in Afghanistan and the stupid-avoidable-yet-we’re-all-fucking-stuck-with-it war in Iraq.

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