Category — Controversies

Ban this guy. There’s no excuse for this kind of stupid and unsportsmanlike behavior.

From Newsweek:

Cuba’s Angel Matos deliberately kicked a referee square in the face after he was disqualified in a bronze-medal match, prompting the World Taekwondo Federation to recommend he be banned for life.

“We didn’t expect anything like what you have witnessed to occur,” said WTF secretary general Yang Jin-suk. “I am at a loss for words.”

Yang also recommended Matos’ coach be banned.

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Earlier, I wondered whether Liu Xiang’s withdrawal from the 110 meter hurdles competition will negatively affect his relationship with Nike. Thanks to this tip from snactres, we find out that Nike will continue to feature Liu in its ad campaign.

From CNBC:

Despite the disappointment of one of their biggest endorsers, Nike will salute hurt Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang tomorrow — instead of hoping that he’ll disappear.

This is the type of thing that makes Nike a leader in sports marketing. When the other sponsors privately cringe at the thought of one of their top guys going down, the folks at the Swoosh actually think, “How do we spend on this and turn it into a great human moment that appeals to people?”

The print ad, which will appear in The China Daily and a few local papers here in Beijing, will have Liu Xiang’s face and will contain the following copy (in Mandarin):

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If you’re like, “What do Olympians do after their events are over?” Matthew Syed, a former Olympian, has the answer for you.

Barcelona was, for many of us Olympic virgins, as much about sex as it was about sport. There were the gorgeous hostesses – there to assist the athletes – in their bright yellow shirts and black skirts; there were the indigenous lovelies who came to watch the competitions. And then there were the female athletes – literally thousands of them – strutting, shimmying, sashaying and jogging around the village, clad in Lycra and exposing yard upon yard of shiny, toned, rippling and unimaginably exotic flesh. Women from all the countries of the world: muscular, virile, athletic and oozing oestrogen. I spent so much time in a state of lust that I could have passed out. Indeed, for all I knew I did pass out – in a place like that how was one to tell the difference between dreamland and reality?

It was not just the guys. The women, too, seemed in thrall to their hormones, throwing around daring glances and dynamite smiles like confetti. No meal or coffee break was complete without a breathless conversation with a lithe long jumper from Cuba or an Amazonian badminton player from Sweden, the mutual longing so evident it was almost comical. It was an effort of will to keep everything in check until competition had finished. But, once we were eliminated from our respective competitions, we lunged at each other like suicidal fencers. There may have been a fair amount of gay sex going on, too – but given the notorious homophobia in sport it was rather more covert.

This sex fest was not limited to Barcelona: the same thing happened in Sydney in 2000, my second Olympics as an athlete, and is happening right here in Beijing, where this time I’m a commentator. I spoke to an Aussie table tennis player this week to check out the village vibe and he launched into the breathless patter common to any Olympic debutant: “It is unbelievable in there; everyone is totally crazy once they are out of their competitions. God knows what it is going to be like this weekend. It is like a world within a world.” A British runner (anonymous again: athletes are not supposed to talk to journalists unaccompanied by a PR type, least of all about sex) said: “The swimmers finished earlier in the week and it was like there was an eruption.”

Ah yes, the swimmers. For some reason the International Olympic Committee insists on bunching the swimming events towards the beginning of the Games with the inevitable consequence that the aquatics folk get going earlier – sexually I mean – than everyone else. So much so that, at the outset of the Sydney Olympics, Jonathan Edwards, a Christian and triple jumper extraordinaire, caused a ripple by telling them publicly to keep a lid on it.

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Argh! Liu Xiang, my favorite Olympian pulled out of the 110 meter hurdles reportedly because of a “tendon injury to the right foot“. As a fan who’s been blogging about Liu and who hoped that he will get his second Olympic gold medal, his decision to quit is very disappointing.

It would have been great to see him run despite whatever injury he sustained. After all, isn’t that what the Olympics is about — overcoming all odds and that kind of stuff? But, then again, maybe its unfair to expect him to risk his health and future well-being if only because his fans want to see him running. I’m sure his other fans also have mixed feelings about this.

What would be interesting to see in the future would be the impact, if any, of Liu’s decision to quit. Will Nike, for instance, still produce its Air Liu? Or will they find someone who will be a better fit for their expensive shoes? [It's expensive not because it is expensive to produce but because of the ridiculous fees they give to the stars who wear them.]

Update: The video of Liu Xiang in the 110 meter hurdles is here.

Update II: Nike continues to feature Liu Xiang in its ad campaign, details here.

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Argh. This is just pathetic and another instance of American athletes being crybabies.

AP via Huffington Post: The U.S. track and field team’s protest of the women’s 100-meter final at the Olympics was rejected Sunday night.

The Americans asked that the race be reviewed because of a possible false start by Torri Edwards, one of the country’s sprinters.

Edwards herself said she thought she false-started. She wound up finishing last as Shelly-Ann Fraser led a Jamaican sweep of medals in the dash.

Let us get this straight. So Torri Edwards may have made a false start — which should give her an advantage because she started before everybody else — yet still lost. And now the Americans wanted to invalidate the results because Edwards may have made a false start?

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