On Fri, 6 Oct 2000 23:31:55 -0600, Glenn Smith wrote:
>Did you see Devers even wince? It looked to me as if she just calmly walked
>off the track. It didn't even look as if it bothered her to not be able to
>race. In
>her CBC interview she just said 'It just didn't happen for me today' didn't
>even
>mention what kind of injury she had.
>
>Looks pretty fishy to me,
>Glenn Smith
>[EMAIL PROTECTED]
In the NBC slo-mo replay she had a wince of apparent pain on her
face just as she stepped down off the hurdle, then she pulled up
just before she got to the next hurdle.
Whether the wince on her face was a sign of physical pain due to
a muscle injury, or a sign of mental pain that she got an awful
start and her probable last chance at Olympic hurdle gold was
gone, I have no idea.
However, the list commentary is correct- in past decades athletes
in injury pain would have CRAWLED to the finish line hoping to
somehow squeeze in that 4th place to get from the semis to the
finals, even if it meant they might tear up their leg so bad it
would take surgery and a year to recover. It was worth it,
because this 'big meet' only came around every four years, and
there may never be another opportunity at Olympic 'glory'-
whatever that meant, or whatever feaux-drapings the Lausanne
pooh-bahs wanted to hoodwink us into believing to continue
to grow their personal Olympic empire (which they liked to
call "the Olympic movement" as if it was like political nation-
building or something).
Today track & field athletes seem to think that if the muscle
flexes a bit it might be an injury (one never knows), so best to
drop out because the Olympics are less important than continuing
the GP-circuit gravy train.
Instead of a once-every-fourth-year-chance-at-glory, it's
a once-every-fourth-year-distraction-from-your-professional-
occupation-with-not-much-to-make-it-worth-your-while-to-be-
distracted.
For other than a scattered two or three American superstars
(Micheal Johnson or Bruce Jenner for instance), the financial
rewards associated with Olympic gold from endorsement deals are
less than the returns they can get on the GP-circuit.
And Olympic silver and bronze is practically worthless.
Win a gold in an event that is not high visibility to Americans,
and it is also worthless, as far as helping to make a mortgage
payment.
Track & field athletes are not in the realm of the Dream Team
basketball players, who are "on vacation" from their jobs
and are already so filthy rich they can treat it as fun
recreation.
Maybe the answer is to start paying-for-place in the Olympics to
all athletics finalists. Make it twice what Zurich pays, if that's
the relative importance that Lausanne wants to place on the Olympics.
It's certainly not like the IOC is short of cash or anything.
I don't know if this story-line is actually what made Devers
pull up.
But I suspect (and hope) that it is more likely than any kind of
doping under-the-table-deal to pull up in return for covering up
a positive.
RT
