Thanks This was some of my favorite commentary on the games so far.
The story of the swimmer and video of his gallant effort to complete the 100m freestyle was hear wrenching and you are completely correct in everything you say about access without support.
The Olympics were given to China to reward them for their inhumane regime and their brutal destruction of the Tibetan culture. The IOC sent a signal to the world that brutal one-party regimes are a legitimate form of governance, and slave labor and mass roundups and using the army against un-armed civilians are acceptable now.
China (and the USA) do not deserve to host the Olympic games. I am boycotting the Olympics, I don't want to hear anything about it, as that only encourages the IOC's support for brutal inhumane regimes.
I self-identify as disabled and at least one person thinks that means it's okay to call me retarded. This is classic able-bodied oppression.
i have a pretty torn up left leg. it means i can't run, can't do distances well, and can't do prolonged standing.
somedays the option is to use a cane or crutches, or not walk anywhere at all.
often when i show up to a gig, or business meeting with a cane or crutches, if it's not with people that know me, they will see the cane/crutches and feel entitled to an explanation.
i've developed a stock reply which i will pass on to you for your own personal use.
them: why are you using a cane?
me: because it's so much more dignified than crawling.
I LOVE it, MHB.
One guy I know, who was born with spina bifida back in the days when Western medicine took it as a personal affront if someone couldn't be forced to walk, however badly, and who was poor so his parents relied on state-funded medical care, wound up having 27 surgeries as a child. At the end of which, he still could not walk, but he had lots and lots of other issues to deal with now. (You can imagine.) Anyhow, whenever he encounters a set of stairs or an obstacle that he thinks has no fucking business still being around in this day and age, he lowers himself from his chair and begins crawling up the steps, dragging his chair behind him.
People go berserk. And often, something gets changed.
I think the beach volley ball women must have those skimpy outfits glued on with eyelash glue or something. I have yet to see one of them tug at the bottoms or the bottoms ride up and expose what little is covered.
I think commenting on the rigid feminization of certain sports is entirely appropriate, just as commenting on race and class as it limits those who can be at the Olympics is what a political blog should be doing. I used humor to change the pace, but I think it must have gone over at least one person's head: Pointing out sexism and classism is NOT part of the problem, despite the American myth that silence is the only (middle-class) way to be "nice". White, male, and upper class are default normal in this country.
Other than the main judged sports of gymnastics in the summer games and figure skating in winter games, which sports are you talking about that experience rigid feminization? The summer Olympics includes 28 sports with 38 disciplines and over 400 individual events. From my observation, it seems like there are a whole lot more female athletes in the mold of say....Natasha Kai than some 14 year old Chinese gymnast.
In any event, as the Dad of 3 girls I see a whole lot more role models for my girls on the playing fields of the Olympics than just about anything else they can possibly watch on TV. After watching random coverage over the past week, my 10 year old has been out in the pool trying to learn the butterfly. She'd rather be emulating Natalie Couglin than Shawn Johnson.
By the way, your Time Machine Mark Spitz story is priceless. My kids absolutely adore that restaurant. Although we've only been to the one in north Dallas. The food is mediocre but the kids love it.
FYI.....
Natasha Kai
http://d.yimg.com/eur.yimg.com/n.../
3770816903.jpg
and the rest of the US women's soccer team play live against Canada in the quarterfinal round tomorrow at 6 a.m. ET. If you have cable you should get the live broadcast. I have DirecTV and all the soccer and basketball games are being broadcast live on dedicated olympic soccer and basketball channels. DirecTV has dedicated channels 750-755 to all the non-network Olympics coverage. There's more content there than anyone can possibly take in. I've been TIVO'ing like mad but haven't been able to see nearly all of it.
Man, The Magic Time Machine....haven't been there in years....years. The food is kinda crappy, but it is fun in its own weird way.
Had an old boyfriend who was a waiter there in the 70's about the time Maggie took her daughter to eat. He coulda been the Mark Spitz character. He had a mustache like that although his hair was longer. More of a Kurt Russell kind of guy. When I started hanging out with him, his character had just changed and he'd become a monk. I never asked him who he'd been before.
Memories of the old days. Hmmm.
Maggie, love your commentary. The best there is about what's going on in the Olympics.
Paying lip-service to access while providing no money for athletes to train is disingenuous at best. I admit it's a stretch to ask wealthy superpowers to set aside some of our largesse to create sports program for boys and girls in the countries we tend to exploit, especially since those kids will likely grow up to be crackerjack competitors -- but can you imagine the Olympics which would result from a truly leveled playing field? (Pun intended.)
I was in the Peace Corps in Guatemala from 87-89 doing beekeeping work. At that time there was a new Peace Corps program where physical education teachers would come down to Guatemala to work at a bunch of new regional sports centers that were built with US funding in most of of the provincial capitals around the country. They had pools, basketball courts, etc. The point was not to create Olympic athletes but to simply introduce kids to physical education, which doesn't exist in most rural Guatemalan schools. The program was good while it lasted. But those sorts of things usually don't last because the funding for those things gets sucked into the giant byzantine morass of corruption.
I have no idea what other kinds of sports programs exist throughout the developing world. But to the extent that they do exist, they point should be to introduce as many kids a possible to a variety of sports rather than attempt to train Olympic athletes. Creating an olympic sports program would be a really elitist endeavour in the typical developing country. Especially if you are trying to do it for obscure sports rather than something universal like soccer.
Since I should plug my home town at least once, the following swimmers are from the Longhorn program: Ricky Berens, Hee-Jin Chang (swimming for China), Ian Crocker, Susana Escobar (swimming for Mexico), Brendan Hansen, Kathleen Hersey, Aaron Peirsol, Scott Spann, Garrett Weber-Gale, and Dave Walters.
If I'm not mistaken, I think Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe) also trained at Longhorn Aquatics (after her stint at Auburn).
Kent,
I heartily agree with you. I recently read an article about how China has virtually no sports venues for anyone except the elite athletes being trained to compete on the world stage. Regular kids have to travel long distances even to find a basketball court, and then have to pay a fee they can usually not afford just to use the court. Apparently that is also the case with other sports.
I'm not familiar with the name of Susana Escobar, the Mexican swimmer who trained at Longhorn Aquatics. How did she do in the Olympics?
I was surprised at how happy I was that Mexican divers won the bronze in syncronized diving. I'm always happy to see our northern and southern neighbors win Olympic competitions, and doubly so for Mexico.
The Olympics were given to China to reward them for their inhumane regime and their brutal destruction of the Tibetan culture.
No, the Olympics were given to China because they are the biggest market in the world. Their inhumane regime and brutal destruction of the Tibetan culture are, unfortunately, incidental in the calculus.
I suspect, as one commenter said, it's about the look rather than the function -- otherwise, men would be wanting to compete in leotards as well.
If you're referring to the male gymnasts, they are wearing leotards.
Maggie, Maggie!
I had no idea you too were writing about the Olympics. I've spent the last 2 months looking for an apartment, packing, moving, unpacking - just in time to immerse myself all waking hours in the Olympics - so I missed all news of your involvement in this group blog. I just adore your totally to-the-point comments and am relieved to find your smart, funny observations. Thanks so much for linking to my own Olympic postings (I've just put one up that is a complete rant about the NBC coverage.) Thanks for your courage - always - in saying what ought to be said.
We readers are lucky to have you.
Sue
Comrade Rutherford: which nation exactly shoudl the olympics eb given to...what nation didn't try to assimilate the people that it absorbed...the chinese while far from perfect seem to have a better track recored on this then a lot of western nations...hell they allowed tebitans ot maintain there language, even have it taught in state schools...how did that work out in the UK? How well dose Isrial deal with the people they displaced...where exactly is this nation with a presteine track recoered that we should give the olympics too....hell why shoudl the us get any olympics...how well do we treat native americans, or the hispanic population that has lived in the southwest long before it was part of america....perhapse we shoudl boycott the US olympics untill it give texas back to mexico, o any Uk olympics untill northern ireland is truly free (lets go by the Dalie lamas modle and include soctland and wales in a Ierland free zone).
O hand teh artical on fenncing was mostly on target...but the ywhere spacificly talkign about saber/foil....epee is a little more refined...none of those silly "Right of way" rules, he who hits first gets the point...if we hit at the same time (1/100th of a second or so) we both get teh point.
Queequeg, Susana Escobar of Mexico placed first in her heat (with a time of 8:33.51) in the women's 800 meter freestyle. The final for this will be swum on Saturday morning.
GREAT information you're contributing, folks!
White swimmers vs. black runners. I hadn't thought of that distinction, and it will be interesting to see how the airtime is allotted.
Speaking of that, isn't it curious how much coverage womens' volleyball is getting? Granted they have airtime to fill before live events start, and granted the US team is the best in the world. But that means there isn't much drama, is there? They win every match. Are there no other sports they could give time to? Or is it, as seventh sister noted, those incredibly tight, skimpy suits on hard, lithe bodies, and this is how NBC figures to keep our attention. Now if I were a straight dude I probably wouldn't care. I'd just sit and watch, drooling. But I'm not, so it gets booorring.
Steve T. I'm a stright dude, its boring..if i wanted to i could see that and more online...hell its the middle of summer, see all that on any beach in the country, live and in person. every tiem i flip through the olympics its weither mens basketball, womens beach volyball, or a swimming event....WTF?
the rent an atheleate is rather disgustign this year as well...Vollyball team "from" georiga lives trains and comes from brizal? every basketball team has at least one american, folks gettign citizanship and passports for their "home" country jsut two years ago so that they can compeate....the games have lost a lot of luster.
On the pluse side Ocho Cinco called out Phelps...chalanged him to a race...
every tiem i flip through the olympics its weither mens basketball, womens beach volyball, or a swimming event....WTF?
Swimming ends on Sunday morning, with its TV time to be taken over by track and field, which started today.
If you don't have a fast internet connection, but have cable, USA, MSNBC, and CNBC have decent coverage. Mind you, a lot of it is in the wee small hours...they've been showing tennis, table tennis, badminton, softball, baseball, soccer, handball, hockey, water polo...I missed their coverage of archery.
Oxygen is now showing in-depth gymnastics and equestrian.
DJ: 1 am to 5 am...and they don't tell you when in that block x random event is being shown.....all these chanles to televise on..this morning they where all showing mens basketball.
this morning they where all showing mens basketball.
Except when they were showing the US vs Canada in women's soccer -- that is, when the game wasn't delayed by lightning in Shanghai.
Me:
Speaking of that, isn't it curious how much coverage womens' volleyball is getting? ... Now if I were a straight dude I probably wouldn't care. I'd just sit and watch, drooling. But I'm not, so it gets booorring.
OK, so we move on today to mens' beach volleyball. Now I'm interested.
Commenting by HaloScan
