London 2012 results and comments only (no politics)

[Tazio]

Sorry, I should have said "... beating the home-grown product in the Olympics." That was what I meant, as that seemed to be what some Americans were complaining about.
My point about the US trials was intended to be a totally separate one, suggesting a possible part-explanation for the disappointing performances of some US athletes.

Duncan first let me say that our system is flawed, and I used to be one of the biggest proponents of getting rid of "College Football, and Basketball" because they are the primary feeder systems into the NBA, and NFL. In Baseball we have minor leagues that are direct feeders (although more and more Baseball Players are not signing out of High school and suddenly College baseball sends some players directly to the big’s) and just develop minor leagues for these sports away from academia. We have a cultural difference about our approach to sports both professional, and amature. We have replaced most club teams that flourish in Europe with collegiate teams. There are still plenty of club teams for people that don't attend college and are still talented in a sport. These college and club teams play each other in sports where scheduling is liberal, but on balance I now think that striving for athletic excellence and intellectual excellence should not be an either or proposition. I can tell you without fear of recrimination that there are men and women at extremely highly rated institutions of higher learning that are great athletes in sports that don't have any professional future, and their likelihood of making the Olympics are not very good. However they are what support the quality of the overall system. These students (mostly woman but also many men) know this but it doesn't stop them from graduating at the top of their classes at very tough academic/sports schools like Stanford, UCLA, USC, Cal Berkley Vanderbilt, Notre Dame, and Georgia Tech and on and on. Here is an example of what I think is turning into a pretty good college experience. My Nephew was in line to be a 4th generation USC graduate. The problem is that his father married into a family that is very athletic. My nephew starred in San Diego in High School Tennis, and got excellent grades. He was ranked in the top 10 high school tennis players in San Diego of his graduating class. The only problem is in order to play Tennis at a school like USC you need to be ranked in something like the top 100 amatures in the world. So he went to a smaller college with a Tennis Team he could be useful on, he has an extremely hot French girlfriend, his area of study (not a declared major) is "Social Justice" and just returned from a summer semester at Oxford, where one of his professors, I'm sure he is very prominent in the English speaking world but I've forgotten his name, taught a course that encompassed euthanasia.

[Tazio]

The USA in Berlin '36 OL was the only country to spit in The Feurur's face in that meet. And say superior race........ bam!!...........their is Jessie Owens a Black Man from out west takes like 7 medals snap!!!! US beatdown in sports......**** happenes!

[ioan]

The USA in Berlin '36 OL was the only country to spit in The Feurur's face in that meet.

Never heard about him/her/it!

[race aficionado]

My closing comments: (as if anybody cares)

Even though NBC's coverage sucked, they presented this one hour piece at the beginning of their Saturday evening pre-packaged coverage that documented in a very well done video, the horrible struggle that the Brits suffered when being bombarded incessantly and cowardly by the Nazis with no help coming from countries like the U S of A that hadn't and didn't want to join the war at that moment.

The way they held their chin up and managed to survive until USA joined the war and helped them avoid the final onslaught was inspiring.

Seeing them now all proud of their athletes and proud of what great Olympics they gave us all is another reason to celebrate the British culture and its proud people.

So there!

[Tazio]

bombarded incessantly and cowardly by the Nazis with no help coming from countries like the U S of A

I guess that depends on what you consider "help". My father was a Navigator in "The United States Merchant Marine" Of the Thousands of these "brave men" that perished in the freezing North Atlantic, It's participation to loan GB the material they needed began almost two years before The US's declaration of war.