Field Theory: Disco Tom
49 Responses
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Performance enhancers. That's funny. Like saying EPO in athletics is like MSG in a Chinese kitchen and I guess it is. I wonder if these games are cleaner than usual. It would be good if they were.
Tom Ashley, you're a legend.
Xin xilan, jia you!
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My eyes glazed over when Nick Willis talked himself up to be the same as Peter Snell and John Walker. Sorry, 1st is ahead of 3rd. Gold is better than bronze.
Surely shot-put is also a 'bona fide blue riband Olympic event.'
Not to detract that even getting to the Olympics is a worthy feat.
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Hadyn blogged thus :
Valerie Vili beat the world record holder and the rest of the field with four of her five throws
Actually, the silver medallist, Natallia Mikhnevich (Belarus), beat two of Valerie's five throws. But she was the only contestant to beat any of Valerie's five throws !
Truly awesome.
I agree, Gold is always better than a Bronze.
I don't understand where this "Willis showing the Africans" meme comes from. There were only 3 Africans in the final, and one of them got the Silver. It does not make any sense at all. The gold medallist was from Bahrain. The fact that John Walker won his gold medal in 1976 when the Africans were boycotting the games can't have anything to do with it, can it ?
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Feck. Epic link FAIL.
Ahem. Blue Riband?
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There were only 3 Africans in the final, and one of them got the Silver. It does not make any sense at all. The gold medallist was from Bahrain.
Rashid Ramzi was born in Morrocco and emigrated to Bahrain for an undisclosed sum.
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Usain Bolt had better not be on any performance enhancers because he is just too cool.
Totally read my mind.
The Willis vs Vili thing is just dumb. Both are commendable achievements but Vili's simply is the best possible outcome, surely the end of any discussion occurs when a demonstrable and undeniable fact is introduced? And while it is interesting that a white bloke can compete with the Africans in mid-distance events, 'cause they've dominated for so long, it isn't some proxy for whitey's regaining something (I don't quite know what) compared with black people; that's just bollocks!
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@Andrew:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Riband_(disambiguation)
:-)
@Haydn:
Thanks for the awesome panorama shot. May I politely request that you do that thing that the other PA writers do to make their links open in a new window? -
19.30 seconds over 200m is insane by the way.
I've never been a big fan of calling the winner of the 100m "the fastest man in the world". As this shows (and as has been the case in the past) the winner of the 200m is often faster.
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Thanks Venetia. I was wondering what Andrew was on about.
Graeme wrote :
As this shows (and as has been the case in the past) the winner of the 200m is often faster.
I assume that you're doing the maths of multiplying the 100m time by 2 and seeing that it is more than the 200m time, and equating that with the 200m runner being faster.
The 200m runner is doing 100m (standing start) and then 100m (flying start), so it is not at all surprising that it has a faster average speed.
(I must admit if I was looking for the fastest man in the world I'd be looking at the orbit speeds of manned space missions).
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Underlying all this is the gradual expansion of the list of "superior" athletes who are deemed to have (implied or not) unfair advantages over "our boys", who are still true to Jack Lovelock.
The Kenyans >> the East Africans >> the sub-Saharan Africans >> all Africans, including Algerians, Moroccans etc >> all those of immigrant background running for other countries ... and so on. It would be interesting to hear the scientific argument that makes all people of "African continent" background superior, whether they are anything from Arab villagers to mixed-race Londoners. And I'd like to hear the reaction of black American athletes to the notion that Algerians are black!
Unfortunately, this line of argument also negates Valerie Vili's gold medal, as she comes from "unfair" ethnic background, and so the real winner is the plucky whitey who came second. (See also Northern Hemisphere rugby commentary, ad nauseam).
Noticeably missing from the dim-witted racial anlysis of Nick Willis' achievement is any mention of athletes' names. That's because (a) they're all the same, they iz African, and (b) he didn't beat Morcelli or Kip Keino or Filbert Bayi or any other superstars with significantly better times and records. In fact, the current Commonwealth champion heading off a French athlete for the bronze is not really big news at all. Yes, a fantastic personal achievement. But not reshaping the athletics world.
See international coverage of the event, outside our bubble. It's barely rated a mention. It isn't stunning news. Unlike, for example, the total domination of the women's marathon and steeplechase. Front runners, leaving the field in their wake. Both were white.
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@Andrew:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Riband_(disambiguation)</quote>
Yes, thanks for that Venetia - I was presuming he meant some form of "blue ribbon". SO glad I didn't make some unfair comment about sub editors.
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Aw! Not fair on the formatting front. Not fair.
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I must admit if I was looking for the fastest man in the world I'd be looking at the orbit speeds of manned space missions
But then you'd be looking at the man in the fastest vehicle. I think the fastest person from human power is some downhill cyclist (though that sounds dubious).
May I politely request that you do that thing that the other PA writers do to make their links open in a new window?
I have to admit, I thought that bit was done auto-magically. I will do from now on.
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Noticeably missing from the dim-witted racial anlysis of Nick Willis' achievement is any mention of athletes' names.
To be fair, this is from the Willis article:
So as Bahrain's Rashid Ramzi strode to gold, with Kenya's Asbel Kipruto Kiprop hard on his heels, there was the famous black singlet coming through to hold off fast-finishing Frenchman Mehdi Baala for bronze.
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Hadyn: those aren't the people he beat (except the Frenchman).
Nick Willis is the first white man (or politely, "Western athlete") to win a medal in the men's 1500m since ... the 2004 Olympics.
I'd love to see a NZ journo tell his audience that. But it doesn't fit the theme they've decided on.
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Racism and religious triumphalism in hyping the bronze. What the fuck have we sent over there to report on the games? Are the NZ press running some sort of "care in the community" program?
Actually, that's unfair. To the intellectually disabled, to whom I apologise unreservedly.
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(I must admit if I was looking for the fastest man in the world I'd be looking at the orbit speeds of manned space missions).
Strictly speaking, I don't think those people are in the world.
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...the fastest man in the world...
Skydivers?
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Skydivers?
Yeah I don't think they count either.
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Willis ran third which is excellent, but could it have been better?
He was trapped on the inside when the pace went on at 300 m to go. As Ramzi hit the front Willis had to fight his way out and when he had done this was 20 m off the pace. He put on a spurt, caught up to the group of four runners competing for third position, slowed down to that pace and then kicked into third place on the straight. He finished the race the same 20 m behind Ramzi as he was at the 250.
He ran the same pace as the winner for the last 250 m. If he had not let himself be boxed in at the rear of the bunch...
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Racism and religious triumphalism in hyping the bronze.
Sadly, I think you're right. Interestingly, Slate mag did carry a story that attempted to explain why biologically and culturally, Jamaican runners have fared so well. The fact that, IMO, they managed to do so without queuing racist responses is commendable. The item is here.
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Controversy in the 200m final, but nothing to do with Bolt.
They were about halfway down the homestretch when a "DQ" -- disqualified -- suddenly appeared on the scoreboard next to Spearmon's name. When made aware of it, Spearmon touched his own chest as if to say, "Me?" Then his expression sank. He balled up the American flag he was holding, walked toward the exit at the end of the track and pitched it to Crawford, who had been doing a television interview about his fourth-place finish.
Crawford, also digesting the information on the scoreboard, realized he had just won a bronze medal (it wouldn't be upgraded to silver for nearly two more hours).
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Now that's a real hard luck story. Dutch Antilles (pop: 200,000) deprived of their medal by the USA's protest.
Olympic spirit.
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3410,
DQ
Bummer for Martina. It looks like he might never have been pinged if not for Spearmon's disqualification.
I hate to bang on, but yet another TVNZ wtf? moment as the commentator suggested that Spearmon knew he'd been DQ'ed, but was jumping up and down, waving the flag around, and grinning widely, because he was "caught up in the atmosphere" or something.
Anyhow, you can keep your Phelpses; Bolt is the man.
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