From: speednut@csource.oz.au (mark jose)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.basketball.pro
Subject: American athletes and the Olympics
Date: Sun, 16 Aug 92 21:54:39 +1000
Reply-To: speednut@csource.oz.au
Organization: Unique Computing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia

Original Message From: ashwin@osc.osc.com (Ashwin Honkan)
Original Subject: Re: American athletes and the Olympics
 
 AH> In article <1992Aug7.153205.3231@HQ.Ileaf.COM>  raczka@HQ.Ileaf.COM
 AH> (Christopher Raczka) writes:
 > I am suprised that some folks appear rather naive has to how
 > the rest of the Worlds athletes view American athletes
 
 AH> I am afraid the naivete is on your part. The world loves great
 AH> athletes no matter their country of origin. The Edwin Moseses and
 AH> Sergei Bubkas of this world are revered everywhere.
 
Too true. He does seem to have a rather jaundiced view of the world.
 
     [text deleted for brevity]
 
 > This year we have seen American Boxers, Eric Griffin most notably,
 > declared a loser EVEN though all the judges had him ahead on their
 > scoring cards!
 
 AH> Sorry to disappoint you, but that travesty of justice was a result of
 AH> an idiotic computerized scoring system and not an anti-American bias.
 AH> In  case you followed non-American athletes, a South Korean also 'lost'
 AH> his fight in a later round the same way as Eric 'lost'
 
It is amazing how he can read American bias into anything. As you say, it
was a result of the judging, no more. Contrary to his view, the world isn't
all made up of Iraqis just waiting for a chance to get even.
 
     [text deleted for brevity]
 
 AH> Do you want to talk about the unsubstantiated drug use allegations
 AH> made by Americans against the Chinese women's swim team because they
 AH> upset the media darlings Janet Evans and Summer Sanders and others ? Or
 AH> about Gwen Torrence's allegations about Gail Devers' and Irina
 AH> Privalova's drug use ?
 
It was also a topic brought up by one of the Australian swim coaches.
Undeniably Australians have the best technical stroke (yes the Australian
Crawl :->) and the coach made the statement that "you (referring to the
Chinese) can't swim that fast with a stroke that bad unless you're using
(on) something" (not an exact quote - sorry).
 
I hope this gives Christopher Raczka a perspective other than his solely
American view of the world. Maybe the Australians and Americans should get
together and form a mutual "everybody's out to get us" society! :-)
 
Everyone, someday, is going to complain when they lose. The thing is not to
make every loss out to be a conspiracy against your country.
 
 
 > This olympics has nothing to do with how people feel about Charles
 > Barkley, it has everything to do with taking a stand for America
 > and if it takes Barkley to do it and people have a problem with that
 > it is their own problem
 
 AH> Way To Go, Christopher ! Make it 10 Golds for Patriotism, for all the
 AH> divisions from light-flyweight to Super-heavyweight !
 
I would like to know (as an ignorant Australian) why does America have
to make a "stand". Is it under seige? Has a war broken out? Or does he
see stars in one eye and stripes in the other!
 
Cheers.
 
(Email only if you want to abuse me! - And I'll post a summary :-> )

.........................................................
mark jose
speednut@csource.oz.au  Unique Computing Pty Ltd, Melbourne, Australia
The opinions expressed above are that of the author only.