"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[gwalla]

Did anyone else see that Brazilian marathon runner get tackled mid-race by some asshole from the crowd?

That was bad enough. What a shitty thing to happen, and what a shitty thing to do. But what really pissed me off was that the announcers started referring to the costumed jackass as an "apparent protester", and then as simply a "protester". Why? There wasn't any evidence that the guy was protesting anything, and the guy he assaulted was Brazilian, not American.

And it eventually turned out that he wasn't a protester, he was just some (ex?-)priest from Ireland with mental problems, who had also run out onto the track on a previous occasion (wearing the same costume!) during an indy-car race and narrowly avoided getting his ass run over.

(Oh yeah, and nice job, Olympic Security! One of your guys was right there on a bicycle and couldn't prevent the guy from attacking; the crowd had to pull him off of the runner.)

Comments

[ludwigvantx.livejournal.com]

Oh Hisham was impressive. He was out to just win one gold medal in his last Olympics, and he got two. The male Chinese diver who's name I forget completely OWNED the competition. He had a 101 point dive!

And I agree that Hamm shouldn't give back his gold, especially after his high bar routine. If he hadn't messed up in vault, there would be no dispute over the winner.

Remember the Ukrainian (or was it Russian) female hurdler who was knocked out of the finals by a Canadian runner who stumbled over a hurdle? I would've let the Ukrainian run again by herself (don't make the whole field re-race) since it wasn't her fault.

I'm so glad I didn't seek a career in sports. Things aren't always fair.