After watching the first few days of track and field I’ve come to a conclusion: Male sprinters are preening, egotistical jerks, while the women are full of joy and even the losers capture the Olympic spirit.
Among the men, the worst offender is also the fastest, Jamaica’s Usain Bolt, who blew away the field in the 100-meter dash. But his showboating in the final 15 meters was totally tacky and not worthy of a champion. It would have fit in quite well in the WWE. Bolt seems typical of his fellow sprinters based on how they act before, during and after races. Hey guys, you can smile once in a while.
In contrast, the women’s 100-meter winner Shelly-Ann Fraser, also of Jamaica, was bubbly and effusive in her post-race interview, with a smile that lit up the Bird’s Nest. It was impossible not to feel happy for her, while with Bolt I wished he had tripped while showboating.
The best display of maturity and sportsmanship came from someone who lost a gold medal with one mistake. American Lolo Jones was leading the women’s 100-meter hurdles and needed to only clear the final two hurdles to grab the gold. But she hit Hurdle 9, stumbled and finished seventh. It was a shocking end for the prerace favorite.
Jones was classy enough to give NBC a postrace interview where she calmly analyzed what happened and said that it “sucked” to hit a hurdle on the biggest stage. She also interrupted the interview to stop and hug the silver medalist passing by, telling her, “Good job, sweetie.” Jones let her true emotions come through when a camera caught her sobbing uncontrollably in the stadium tunnel. Based on the chartacter each showed, I’d give Jones a gold over Bolt any day.
By Jim Buzinski
13 responses so far ↓
1 canmark // Aug 20, 2008 at 6:32 am
I find Usain Bolt’s mugging for the camera to be rather amazing. While everyone else has their ‘game face’ on, while everyone is trying to stare down the competition, Bolt is hamming it up like some kid at a high school track meet. I do agree that Shelly-Ann Fraser is a delight, reminding me of the great American sprinter Evelyn Ashford. And good on Lolo Jones for doing the post-race interview after that devastating stumble.
2 Manute Bol // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:30 am
I agree. They have really nasty attitudes and should be disciplned.
3 Jeanne // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:54 am
Usain Bolt is 22 - give the guy a break! He is winning, he is going to be rich, he is currently the best - let him show his self-confidence. I never had a problem with this kind of behaviour, most guys I know at 22 are overly self-confident, love to show off. There is no harm to it in my opinion.
4 Jay Original // Aug 20, 2008 at 11:49 am
Traditionally I have been known to bed the cocky SOB who finishes first rather than the good sport who is just happy to be in the race. Boring!
5 Cyd Zeigler jr. // Aug 20, 2008 at 12:23 pm
I have no problem with any of the male sprinters. They seem to be having fun and they seem to be proud of what they’re accomplishing. Bolt’s done something no one has ever done before; I think that’s pretty cool. I’ll be cheering for him for years to come.
6 Kick // Aug 20, 2008 at 5:04 pm
This is all just so hunter-gatherer with the men preening and plucking their victory feathers and the women sharing their winnings with the others.
What Usain Bolt has done is an amazing accomplishment. I will judge him less on what he does after winning versus what he does off the track. We have to remember that our Golden Boy Michael Phelps had his DUI- and hopefully learned from it. Let’s hope Usain Bolt can remain grounded and bring some money and good to Jamaica- where so many people live in poverty.
7 Scott // Aug 20, 2008 at 5:09 pm
There’s no doubt Usain Bolt has done some amazing things on the track. That doesn’t change the fact that he’s coming off as an incredible ass, and I’m glad at least one author has finally called him on it.
8 Jim Buzinski // Aug 20, 2008 at 6:08 pm
“This is all just so hunter-gatherer with the men preening and plucking their victory feathers and the women sharing their winnings with the others.”
Hey Kick, that is brilliant — I should just outsource my posts to you from now on!
9 badger634 // Aug 20, 2008 at 8:10 pm
All of these athletes have put in a lifetime worth of work, and are the BEST in the WORLD at what they do. Bolt did something that humans have done for millenia, but did it FASTER than anytime in recorded history.
He’s allowed to showboat.
10 David // Aug 20, 2008 at 9:57 pm
I totally agree. In addition to Bolt being an ego-maniac; he hails from Jamaica, land of homophobia where killing a gay human being is actually encouraged by their government! YES! I am telling the TRUTH, people. With all his “showboating” during his performances at Beijing, I would NOT doubt for one second that Bolt would be more than happy to kill a gay person. What a pathetic little third-world country.
11 Black // Aug 20, 2008 at 10:37 pm
That’s right David! Just like how when the American athletes win we are to assume that they would also be more than happy to rape a woman because more women are raped in the US than in any other country in the world. . . Oh wait we don’t assume that. Unless we are completely insane.
12 James // Aug 21, 2008 at 9:07 am
When you guys are not b*tching about NBC and the coverage, or the amount of time spent on Michael Phelps, or the lack of American fans at events, now it the behavior of the male sprinters.
Really, if you are going to b*tch about every singe topic, shut it off and open a book, or watch Big Brother 10 on CBS.
13 tim jones // Aug 21, 2008 at 9:38 am
they preen and are cocky because they are good and they are also showing there big proud packages.
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