Gold Medal Winner Sven Kramer...

Off Topic
101

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
Its funny how we are holding an athlete from an obscure sport to the same standards as North American sports heros when it comes to interviewing skills. Top north american athletes are coached in interviewing, hell look at Sidney Crosby. The kid was as articulate in an interview as an enlish prof before he was drafted. I dont know much about other countries but I doubt they put as much time/money into something so trivial as an interview.

I imagine they even have a hard time getting funding together for training for their actual event. Its not like this is a soccer player (whom our overseas cousins seem to be so fond of), hes a speed skater. The big north american leagues are businesses, the athletes are just as much the product as the on field play is. Fuck, look what the NBA did to AI and the likes with their dress codes. This guy is a pure athlete, not someone who is concerned about his public imagine. Olympics are full of athletes, not everyone is a professional in their sport.

Some barely make ends meet. Regardless of the reason for her asking the questions she asked, it was an emotional, raw response, not like the trained and practiced responses we are used to hearing from North American athletes such as “Well we trained really hard all year, I’d like to thank my coaches, family, god…etc etc”.
[/quote]

That isn’t my take on it. It’s that it seems to be applauded for other nationalities to be assholes to Americans and the Americans are just supposed to laugh it off.

Take the president of Brazil saying he doesn’t want the “gringos” winning all the medals. Now… what would have happened if any American politician had said we were going down to Brazil to win the medals from all the beaners? The UN would probably be involved and talk about the backlash.

http://www.aroundtherings.com/articles/view.aspx?id=33589

Lula: Brazil Canâ??t Lose to Foreigners in 2016

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Brazilians canâ??t lose to foreigners in 2016.

Lula was quoted by Reuters on Wednesday saying Rio didnâ??t win the "Olympics so gringos can come here to win our medals.â?? He made the comments after opening a gym for Olympic preparations.

Brazilian President Lula says the country canâ??t lose to â??gringosâ?? at the 2016 Olympics. (ATR/Panasonic:Lumix)â??Let’s get ready as ever to win these medals," he said.
Brazil has never won more than 15 medals at an Olympics.

To achieve his vision, Lula demanded every sport that is part of the Brazilian Olympic Committee submit a strategic plan to win medals at the Rio Olympics.

102

I guess I was talking about the comments in this thread, not the media’s reaction. I’m not condoning his actions, for all I know, hes a dick in real life too. I don’t disgree with your statment either, it seems to be the trend, for what reason is anyones guess i suppose. Different point of views can be fun!

103

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
I guess I was talking about the comments in this thread, not the media’s reaction. I’m not condoning his actions, for all I know, hes a dick in real life too. I don’t disgree with your statment either, it seems to be the trend, for what reason is anyones guess i suppose. Different point of views can be fun![/quote]

Hmm…I thought this was gonna escalate, but instead, Bob cat is calm and understanding. This is weird. Must be a full moon or something.

104

[quote]WolBarret wrote:

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
I guess I was talking about the comments in this thread, not the media’s reaction. I’m not condoning his actions, for all I know, hes a dick in real life too. I don’t disgree with your statment either, it seems to be the trend, for what reason is anyones guess i suppose. Different point of views can be fun![/quote]

Hmm…I thought this was gonna escalate, but instead, Bob cat is calm and understanding. This is weird. Must be a full moon or something.[/quote]

Pbbbbblblbt.

I still say the reporter was the bigger dick in the situation and while I don’t expect athletes outside the major leagues to be professional interviewees, I do expect reporters to be professional interviewers and this woman was not. That’s not to say he couldn’t have been less of a dick. I also fail to see how a Dutch athlete being short with an NBC reporter is an attack on America. Seriously?

:stuck_out_tongue:

But aside from that the guy DID know what lane he was supposed to be in but his coach contradicted what he thought was correct and he made the split second decision to trust his coach since he was a bit more reliable than the guy skating to beat an Olympic record. It was not stupid on his part. But gold medal or not the world knows he is the fastest long track speed skater. For anyone to suggest it was stupid on his part sounds to me like sour grapes. And unless you’ve done any speedskating yourself I’m going go ahead and say you’re not exactly qualified to make that judgement anyhow.

GrnEyes, Yeah I was at that race and it was excellent. I had a great time. I didn’t really expect to like the Olympics this much but I’m thoroughly enjoying them. Plus I know a lot of other people who are volunteering, guest hosts or going to a lot of the events and they’re all coming back stoked as well. Despite what some of our media has been saying, the events have been well done from what I witnessed first hand and all I’m hearing from others.

105

[quote]debraD wrote:

[quote]WolBarret wrote:

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
I guess I was talking about the comments in this thread, not the media’s reaction. I’m not condoning his actions, for all I know, hes a dick in real life too. I don’t disgree with your statment either, it seems to be the trend, for what reason is anyones guess i suppose. Different point of views can be fun![/quote]

Hmm…I thought this was gonna escalate, but instead, Bob cat is calm and understanding. This is weird. Must be a full moon or something.[/quote]

Pbbbbblblbt.

I still say the reporter was the bigger dick in the situation and while I don’t expect athletes outside the major leagues to be professional interviewees, I do expect reporters to be professional interviewers and this woman was not. That’s not to say he couldn’t have been less of a dick. I also fail to see how a Dutch athlete being short with an NBC reporter is an attack on America. Seriously?

:stuck_out_tongue:

But aside from that the guy DID know what lane he was supposed to be in but his coach contradicted what he thought was correct and he made the split second decision to trust his coach since he was a bit more reliable than the guy skating to beat an Olympic record. It was not stupid on his part. But gold medal or not the world knows he is the fastest long track speed skater. For anyone to suggest it was stupid on his part sounds to me like sour grapes. And unless you’ve done any speedskating yourself I’m going go ahead and say you’re not exactly qualified to make that judgement anyhow.

GrnEyes, Yeah I was at that race and it was excellent. I had a great time. I didn’t really expect to like the Olympics this much but I’m thoroughly enjoying them. Plus I know a lot of other people who are volunteering, guest hosts or going to a lot of the events and they’re all coming back stoked as well. Despite what some of our media has been saying, the events have been well done from what I witnessed first hand and all I’m hearing from others.[/quote]

We must be reading the posts differently. You aren’t an American so I am speaking from my experience. Maybe you didn’t see the posts about arrogant Americans or slams on US networks and sponsors. Regardless, you and I are going to disagree. Especially about the reporter who clearly stated why she was asking for the name. And she proceeded with courtesy to an asshole.

And don’t give me the “qualified to make judgements”. The guy even admits it. It isn’t sour grapes, callous, probably, sour grapes, no. I wasn’t saying he wasn’t the fastest. He was just stupid. He has two thing he has to do with his life, two things: skate real fast and know what lane to be in.

106

[quote]debraD wrote:
I still say the reporter was the bigger dick in the situation and while I don’t expect athletes outside the major leagues to be professional interviewees, I do expect reporters to be professional interviewers and this woman was not. That’s not to say he couldn’t have been less of a dick.
[/quote]

Everyone on the other side of the fence keeps saying this, but I don’t get it. She said for him to please say it, “for tape identification purposes”. Could she have said it? Yes - but not doing so doesn’t make her unprofessional, it makes her appear to have a preference for how things are done.

107

hmm. I thought it was a funny clip. but I guess someone on this forum are a bit defensive and see criticism against americans everywhere.
easy on the estrogen and lighten up.

108

[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:

[quote]pradaboy wrote:
Wow you guys really have a grudge against this guy huh. I don’t get it, Americans can act all arrogant whenever they want because they ARE the world. When some Dutch athlete is not amused by this chick reporter not having her facts straight suddenly it’s the end of the world. Why is that? Because it was a US reporter? GTFO.

Anyone thinking it’s funny this guy missed out on the gold in his last race is a real asshole. These athletes work years towards this point and then it gets fucked up. That is nothing short of a true drama.

Also, people saying “it’s just switching lanes, it’s not rocket science”, this guy is so used to doing this he’s on an automatic pilot. For him it’s like locking your door when you go out, turning off the gas when you’re done cooking. What if you go out, you lock the door and all and a few mins later someone asks you “hey dude, did you lock your door?”. You don’t remember, because it’s such an automatic thing to do, you doubt yourself, you go check. That’s exactly what he did here.[/quote]

boo fucking hooo

this thread was started to pat the asshole on the back. Too bad the comments didn’t go the way you wanted them to go. You bashed Americans when they weren’t even the assholes in that interview. Thank goodness Karma happens.

Even SVEN the wunderkind said he should have known what lane.

stupid is as stupid does
[/quote]

Too bad it didn’t go the way I wanted it to go? I had nothing to do with this video. I clicked the thread because I wondered why this was posted here.

How hard would it have been for her to tape the intro saying “Interview #5, Sven Kramer, Speed skating” and the whole thing would have been as smooth as a baby’s bottom? Huh? Why are you all so defensive?

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Agreed

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[quote]pradaboy wrote:

[quote]OctoberGirl wrote:

[quote]pradaboy wrote:
Wow you guys really have a grudge against this guy huh. I don’t get it, Americans can act all arrogant whenever they want because they ARE the world. When some Dutch athlete is not amused by this chick reporter not having her facts straight suddenly it’s the end of the world. Why is that? Because it was a US reporter? GTFO.

Anyone thinking it’s funny this guy missed out on the gold in his last race is a real asshole. These athletes work years towards this point and then it gets fucked up. That is nothing short of a true drama.

Also, people saying “it’s just switching lanes, it’s not rocket science”, this guy is so used to doing this he’s on an automatic pilot. For him it’s like locking your door when you go out, turning off the gas when you’re done cooking. What if you go out, you lock the door and all and a few mins later someone asks you “hey dude, did you lock your door?”. You don’t remember, because it’s such an automatic thing to do, you doubt yourself, you go check. That’s exactly what he did here.[/quote]

boo fucking hooo

this thread was started to pat the asshole on the back. Too bad the comments didn’t go the way you wanted them to go. You bashed Americans when they weren’t even the assholes in that interview. Thank goodness Karma happens.

Even SVEN the wunderkind said he should have known what lane.

stupid is as stupid does
[/quote]

Too bad it didn’t go the way I wanted it to go? I had nothing to do with this video. I clicked the thread because I wondered why this was posted here.

How hard would it have been for her to tape the intro saying “Interview #5, Sven Kramer, Speed skating” and the whole thing would have been as smooth as a baby’s bottom? Huh? Why are you all so defensive?[/quote]
I think everybody is so defensive because, as stated, had an American athlete said what he did on an international stage, he would have gotten caught in a shit storm.
Maybe it doesn’t seem fair to some people that this guy gets a free pass because he’s from a country with a much lower profile.

111

[quote]WolBarret wrote:

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
I guess I was talking about the comments in this thread, not the media’s reaction. I’m not condoning his actions, for all I know, hes a dick in real life too. I don’t disgree with your statment either, it seems to be the trend, for what reason is anyones guess i suppose. Different point of views can be fun![/quote]

Hmm…I thought this was gonna escalate, but instead, Bob cat is calm and understanding. This is weird. Must be a full moon or something.[/quote]

I apologize if I let anyone down…im 2010er you know, rookie mistake. Ill come out swingin like a true e-ass next time!

112

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
Its funny how we are holding an athlete from an obscure sport to the same standards as North American sports heros when it comes to interviewing skills. Top north american athletes are coached in interviewing, hell look at Sidney Crosby. The kid was as articulate in an interview as an enlish prof before he was drafted. I dont know much about other countries but I doubt they put as much time/money into something so trivial as an interview.

I imagine they even have a hard time getting funding together for training for their actual event. Its not like this is a soccer player (whom our overseas cousins seem to be so fond of), hes a speed skater. The big north american leagues are businesses, the athletes are just as much the product as the on field play is. Fuck, look what the NBA did to AI and the likes with their dress codes. This guy is a pure athlete, not someone who is concerned about his public imagine. Olympics are full of athletes, not everyone is a professional in their sport.

Some barely make ends meet. Regardless of the reason for her asking the questions she asked, it was an emotional, raw response, not like the trained and practiced responses we are used to hearing from North American athletes such as “Well we trained really hard all year, I’d like to thank my coaches, family, god…etc etc”.
[/quote]

Speedskating is as popular as baseball in Holland. He is as well known in Holland as Joe DiMaggio is here so it is perfectly legitimate to hold him to our standards. All major sports players, in whatever country, should be held to the same high standards as being articulate and professional as possible.

113

[quote]Grneyes wrote:

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
Its funny how we are holding an athlete from an obscure sport to the same standards as North American sports heros when it comes to interviewing skills. Top north american athletes are coached in interviewing, hell look at Sidney Crosby. The kid was as articulate in an interview as an enlish prof before he was drafted. I dont know much about other countries but I doubt they put as much time/money into something so trivial as an interview.

I imagine they even have a hard time getting funding together for training for their actual event. Its not like this is a soccer player (whom our overseas cousins seem to be so fond of), hes a speed skater. The big north american leagues are businesses, the athletes are just as much the product as the on field play is. Fuck, look what the NBA did to AI and the likes with their dress codes. This guy is a pure athlete, not someone who is concerned about his public imagine. Olympics are full of athletes, not everyone is a professional in their sport.

Some barely make ends meet. Regardless of the reason for her asking the questions she asked, it was an emotional, raw response, not like the trained and practiced responses we are used to hearing from North American athletes such as “Well we trained really hard all year, I’d like to thank my coaches, family, god…etc etc”.
[/quote]

Speedskating is as popular as baseball in Holland. He is as well known in Holland as Joe DiMaggio is here so it is perfectly legitimate to hold him to our standards. All major sports players, in whatever country, should be held to the same high standards as being articulate and professional as possible.

[/quote]

…or else what exactly? You’ll invade us for being rude?

114

[quote]ephrem wrote:

[quote]Grneyes wrote:

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
Its funny how we are holding an athlete from an obscure sport to the same standards as North American sports heros when it comes to interviewing skills. Top north american athletes are coached in interviewing, hell look at Sidney Crosby. The kid was as articulate in an interview as an enlish prof before he was drafted. I dont know much about other countries but I doubt they put as much time/money into something so trivial as an interview.

I imagine they even have a hard time getting funding together for training for their actual event. Its not like this is a soccer player (whom our overseas cousins seem to be so fond of), hes a speed skater. The big north american leagues are businesses, the athletes are just as much the product as the on field play is. Fuck, look what the NBA did to AI and the likes with their dress codes. This guy is a pure athlete, not someone who is concerned about his public imagine. Olympics are full of athletes, not everyone is a professional in their sport.

Some barely make ends meet. Regardless of the reason for her asking the questions she asked, it was an emotional, raw response, not like the trained and practiced responses we are used to hearing from North American athletes such as “Well we trained really hard all year, I’d like to thank my coaches, family, god…etc etc”.
[/quote]

Speedskating is as popular as baseball in Holland. He is as well known in Holland as Joe DiMaggio is here so it is perfectly legitimate to hold him to our standards. All major sports players, in whatever country, should be held to the same high standards as being articulate and professional as possible.

[/quote]

…or else what exactly? You’ll invade us for being rude?
[/quote]
Are you serious? What the hell would make you think she had any sort of “do this or else” implications in what she wrote?

115

[quote]ephrem wrote:

[quote]Grneyes wrote:

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
Its funny how we are holding an athlete from an obscure sport to the same standards as North American sports heros when it comes to interviewing skills. Top north american athletes are coached in interviewing, hell look at Sidney Crosby. The kid was as articulate in an interview as an enlish prof before he was drafted. I dont know much about other countries but I doubt they put as much time/money into something so trivial as an interview.

I imagine they even have a hard time getting funding together for training for their actual event. Its not like this is a soccer player (whom our overseas cousins seem to be so fond of), hes a speed skater. The big north american leagues are businesses, the athletes are just as much the product as the on field play is. Fuck, look what the NBA did to AI and the likes with their dress codes. This guy is a pure athlete, not someone who is concerned about his public imagine. Olympics are full of athletes, not everyone is a professional in their sport.

Some barely make ends meet. Regardless of the reason for her asking the questions she asked, it was an emotional, raw response, not like the trained and practiced responses we are used to hearing from North American athletes such as “Well we trained really hard all year, I’d like to thank my coaches, family, god…etc etc”.
[/quote]

Speedskating is as popular as baseball in Holland. He is as well known in Holland as Joe DiMaggio is here so it is perfectly legitimate to hold him to our standards. All major sports players, in whatever country, should be held to the same high standards as being articulate and professional as possible.

[/quote]

…or else what exactly? You’ll invade us for being rude?
[/quote]

You don’t agree that people who are famous should act a certain way? I’m sure he’s a role model in your country. Wouldn’t you want him to act with some civility? I do agree the reporter was dumb, but famous people are asked dumb questions all the time and should know how to answer them.

116

[quote]Grneyes wrote:

All major sports players, in whatever country, should be held to the same high standards as being articulate and professional as possible.

[/quote]

Professional? I agree. Articulate? Not gonna happen.

117

Sven Kramer still owns.

118

[quote]Grneyes wrote:

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
Its funny how we are holding an athlete from an obscure sport to the same standards as North American sports heros when it comes to interviewing skills. Top north american athletes are coached in interviewing, hell look at Sidney Crosby. The kid was as articulate in an interview as an enlish prof before he was drafted. I dont know much about other countries but I doubt they put as much time/money into something so trivial as an interview.

I imagine they even have a hard time getting funding together for training for their actual event. Its not like this is a soccer player (whom our overseas cousins seem to be so fond of), hes a speed skater. The big north american leagues are businesses, the athletes are just as much the product as the on field play is. Fuck, look what the NBA did to AI and the likes with their dress codes. This guy is a pure athlete, not someone who is concerned about his public imagine. Olympics are full of athletes, not everyone is a professional in their sport.

Some barely make ends meet. Regardless of the reason for her asking the questions she asked, it was an emotional, raw response, not like the trained and practiced responses we are used to hearing from North American athletes such as “Well we trained really hard all year, I’d like to thank my coaches, family, god…etc etc”.
[/quote]

Speedskating is as popular as baseball in Holland. He is as well known in Holland as Joe DiMaggio is here so it is perfectly legitimate to hold him to our standards. All major sports players, in whatever country, should be held to the same high standards as being articulate and professional as possible.

[/quote]

I’m sorry, your from Holland? I think someone previously posted in thir thread from Holland and said he wasn’t well known at all.

119

[quote]BobCat77 wrote:
I’m sorry, your from Holland? I think someone previously posted in thir thread from Holland and said he wasn’t well known at all. [/quote]

So we need a 3rd poster from Holland for a tie-breaker.

120

Anybody see that the Canadian Women’s hockey team did to celebrate…