Nerve Endings Firing Away » Sports

India – Cricket World Champions 2011

Patrix — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 20:32:26 +0000

This moment shall not go unblogged. Whatay match it turned out to be after the underwhelming semi-final with Pakistan. After conceding 274 runs and getting down to 31/2 with both Sehwag and Tendulkar back in the pavilion, people had started losing hope of ever winning the World Cup in their lifetime. But fans on Twitter kept the hopes alive and India’s much-vaunted batting lineup finally came good as Gautam Gambhir, Virat Kohli, Yuvraj Singh, and most importantly, the Indian captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni saw India home safely. MS Dhoni finished the match in grand style by lofting Kulasekara for a huge six to set off celebrations all over India.

It took 28 years but in the end, it was worth the wait. This World Cup compared to the others had been especially exciting with great performances mostly involving Ireland, Bangladesh, and England. Taylor’s blitzkrieg against Pakistan was also a sight to behold but in the end, it was India that remained consistent and won the day. Shabash, India.

Images courtesy Cricinfo:

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On the Suarez Handball

Patrix — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 17:46:25 +0000

[image source]

Luis Suarez will sleep well tonight and he shouldn’t. The best bit of acting today was by Suarez with his “Who me?” expression when the referee showed him the red card for thinking he was playing volleyball at the end of extra time. I believe that this was probably the most flagrantly deliberate handball I ve ever seen.
I agree and disagree with Dave Brockington here: yes, Suarez did cheat and he got caught (he wouldn’t have been sent off otherwise) and yes they should change the rule under those circumstances, the referee should be allowed to consider that a goal. I think that they should go even further: allow the goal, send the man off and give the attacking team a penalty kick. This is the type of behavior that FIFA should want to discourage.
Every time we see someone taking a penalty kick, Mercia always says “Poor goalkeeper!” I always say the pressure is not on the goalkeeper, but on the player(s) taking the penalty(ies). Today’s events have confirmed that for me yet again and I believe that there is absolutely nothing that can persuade me otherwise [source].

An otherwise liberal political blog, Balloon Juice has been hosting brief World Cup tidbits from their guest blogger, Randinho that I prefer to read every day. Admittedly, I’m a FIFA World Cup aficionado more than a football fan since I don’t follow club football much (if Suddenlink offers Fox Soccer Channel, I might be inclined to although ESPN3 is looking good now). This piece of opinion by Randinho perfectly captures my sentiments on the Suarez handball that sent Ghana crashing out of the World Cup.

Sure, Suarez was punished to the extent of the law but the context of his blatant foul meant that apart from missing the next match, his team and country hardly faces any consequences. It is like a cricket umpire giving an LBW and asking the bowler to try again and hit the stumps while the batsman stands aside. Suarez effectively converted a 100% likelihood of a goal into say, 70% likelihood. Given those odds (as long as they are below 100%, they are good), any player would have every reason to swat away sure goals especially for a knockout match in absence of a stricter punishment. I don’t even think you need technology to spot such kind of egregious fouls although I wouldn’t mind an instant replay review.

Without Suarez, Uruguay might lose its next match against Netherlands but in my opinion, they have lost all respect among all football fans. When you see their coach offer excuses like, “The hand of Suarez is the hand of God and the Virgin Mary — that’s how Uruguayans see it”, you know they are clutching at straws and trying desperately to regain lost honor. I was ambivalent about Ghana and Uruguay right up to that moment but now I wish Netherlands, the team I root for, crushes Uruguay just like Germany has been crushing its opponents. However, if Uruguay goes on to win the World Cup, I say FIFA fold away that Fair Play yellow flag that they trot out before every match because it is clearly not working.

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Watch FIFA World Cup 2010 Live on your iPhone

Patrix — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 21:42:28 +0000

ESPN3 and Univision have been doing a great job on live-streaming FIFA World Cup 2010 matches. The streaming quality has been extremely good and rarely have I seen the dreaded “Buffering” message in the middle of an exciting game. Although ESPN3 is available for select Internet providers and all college campuses, Univision is available everywhere although obviously the commentary is in Spanish. If you are at your computer, you’ve no trouble keeping up with the World Cup and I’ve been watching almost all the games. But what do you do when you are not around a TV or a computer?

We have to go to Houston for Ash’s dad’s surgery on one of the semi-finals days. Since the surgery is expected to be routine and non-serious and most of our time will be spent in the waiting room letting her dad convalesce post-surgery. We wouldn’t have bothered if it was one of the group stage matches but a semi-final cannot be missed. Since we are not sure whether the hospital will have a TV or even have WiFi, we searched for an alternative that would let us watch it on my iPhone. And of course, there is an app for that.

OrbLive ($9.99) streams live TV on your iPhone as long as you can see those programs on your computer. It is also available for all Android phones. First, you have to download, install their software, and create an account at MyCast. Once you do, all you have to do is to install the app, login with your details, and keep the OrbLive software running on your PC. ESPN3 can be found under the TV tab and it works great on WiFi, and 3G networks. I haven’t tested it on the Edge network yet but some reviews say that it does. Some reviews on the App Store can be scathing but I have had no problems and generally if AT&T works fine in your area, you should have no problem on 3G. You can adjust the connecting settings if the picture is blurry. You have to remember to keep the computer at home/office on and the desktop software running. Your desktop basically acts like a server relaying content to your phone so along as the connections are reliable, you should have no problems. Considering that this app has not been banned from the app store and relies on legal media streams, you aren’t breaking any law either.

Of course, OrbLive has other uses like accessing the media on your computer including your iTunes library, movies, photos, and documents. Now, I hope that this does not fail at the time when we need it the most. Now even cricket is available on ESPN3 apart from other great content. You don’t have to miss out on any must-watch games if you are away.

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The ‘much-awaited’ USA – England Football 2010 World Cup Match

Patrix — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 20:53:16 +0000

The FIFA World Cup 2010 kicked off today with both encounters in Group A ending in draws. South Africa surprised Mexico by holding them to a 1-1 draw and France and Uruguay played largely defensive football for 90 minutes to stay scoreless. But the real encounter at least in the United States is being hyped up endlessly everywhere. It is the USA – England match.

By some stroke of luck, both teams have landed up in the same group and will meet tomorrow in what some call a ‘grudge match’. I don’t know what grudge they are still holding; surely it can’t be the Boston Tea Party. We plan to go to Buffalo Wild Wings to watch the match and I’m sure it will be packed although this town is half-empty this time of the year. Nearly all the bars and clubs in town are showing the live telecast of the World Cup; quite different from four years ago. We’ll definitely be supporting USA and not just because they are the underdogs but also because the US has significantly improved its game and are no longer considered pushovers in international football.

Whether the match lives up to the hypes or will England finally pull itself together for the World Cup stage and wipe the floor with United States, remains to be seen. Nevertheless, we’ll be enjoying the match dressed in navy blue amidst chants of U-S-A U-S-A.

Update: We were surprised to see Buffalo Wild Wings packed with American fans and we could wriggle into the last two seats at the bar. The atmosphere was festive with people dressed with blue and white. Every US attack was cheered and every England foul was booed. You can imagine the pandemonium when the English goalkeeper, Green fumbled the ball and let in the equalizer. Couple of our American colleagues from work had joined us and were equally surprised to see the enthusiasm for a sport that they thought had no support in this Texan town. One of them was watching the game for the first time and had to be filled in with the little details like what’s a yellow card and that it is not ok to touch the ball with your hand deliberately. Overall, it was a great experience and with any sports, it is best enjoyed amongst friends and fans.

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Post tags: England, FIFA, rivalry, United States, World Cup

Sports and Government Bureaucracy

Patrix — Fri, 14 May 2010 20:10:29 +0000

Why I relate these stories, though, is to give a sense of how hard it was to make it in any Indian sport apart from cricket. Most of those sports are run by the government, and I don’t need to elaborate on the inevitable inefficiencies that result, and the hardships and bureaucracy that young sportspeople have to battle. You always feel that you’re fighting against the system, and whatever you achieve is in spite of it. I cannot stress this enough: To just survive the damn system, to keep playing the sport you love through years of this crap, you have to be made of stern stuff.

[Source: The Man with the Maruti 800]. Amit Varma in his weekly column for Yahoo India narrates his personal experiences on dealing with horrific conditions in order to compete at the state and national level. While I never competed at that level, my brother Aditya had similar experiences when he traveled to the Maharashtra hinterland (Kolhapur or Sangli I forget) for football. Fithly living conditions, inadequate food (brinjal was the staple food), and even more horrible sanitary conditions so much so that we had to unearth some remote acquantance in that town so he could use a decent toilet. Predictably, he never went back for the national selection.

Amit is right in pointing to government-run bureaucracies in sports. You only have to look at the state of hockey and compare it to cricket. However, Amit also points to East European countries in his column for their excellence in chess during the 80s. As we know, those countries weren’t exactly free-market utopias with privately-run sports bodies. Heck, China even today is a completely state-run machinery and manages to give the U.S. a run for its medals in the Olympics. While I don’t condone that model of nurturing sports either, why this disconnect? Why did India have the worst of both worlds?

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Nike’s Human Chain

Patrix — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:41:44 +0000

Nike: Human Chain from Duane Baxter on Vimeo.

No one understands sports better than Nike. And perhaps that is why ‘Just Do It’ has to be one of the best slogans for a brand in advertising ever.

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Managing Tiger Woods’ Married Life

Patrix — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 21:07:13 +0000

Ben Crane, a PGA player, has even harsher words. “This is no surprise to anyone who knows Tiger,” Crane tells Life & Style. “He’s a phony and a fake and he can’t retain that squeaky-clean endorsement deal any longer.” Crane also believes Elin may have known about Tiger’s other women. “She’s no fool,” Crane says, adding that perhaps Elin “turned a blind eye because of the money and the kids and the lifestyle he provides.”
PGA golfer Charles Warren agrees that it may have been more than love that attracted Elin to Tiger but that she should definitely leave him in light of what’s happened. “She was very young when Jesper introduced them,” Warren tells Life & Style. “She had stars in her eyes and maybe dollar signs too. But no, she should not stay with him. What kind of message would that send to her sister and mother and all the women out there? That your husband can be a bastard but as long as he makes the deal worthwhile, you’ll stay?”

[Source: Golfers Hammer Tiger Woods: 'A Phony And A Fake'] Flaming hypocrites. Even if Tiger Woods is a sleaze bag according to his wife, he probably still can wipe the golf course with these guys’ asses. Just because he has cheated on his wife doesn’t make him any less than an awesome golfer. And if if Crane is to be believed and Tiger’s wife knew about his affairs then it is even less of an issue. We cannot dictate how any couple chooses to live their married lives; if they are alright with their spouses cheating on them because they get to enjoy a life of luxury, so be it. Do these guys secretly wish they had such an arrangement? And of course, we didn’t know that Mr. Warren the golfer was the unofficial decider on who should stay married in the PGA tour.

Whatever Tiger’s wife saw in Tiger is none of his frikkin’ business and all he should care is how less badly he can get beat on the course when Tiger is playing. If our Presidents and Senators are sending similar messages by continuing to stay married to their spouses after having cheated, how would a golfer doing the same cause any turmoil in the moral fabric of our oh-so-pious-society? I’m sure Sen.Vitter and Sen.Ensign to name just a current few could really use your advice. Mind doling it out to them and see what happens?

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© patrix for Nerve Endings Firing Away, 2009. | Permalink | One comment
Post tags: affair, hypocrisy, marriage, society, Tiger Woods

Atomic Cities for Olympics 2020

Patrix — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:00:00 +0000

Talk about emotional blackmail :) Hiroshima and Nagasaki are launching a joint bid for the 2020 Summer Olympic Games. To be fair, Hiroshima has hosted the 1994 Asian Games. By the way, Delhi is also mentioned as one of the contenders. Hmmm…let us first not mess up the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

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Rio for 2016

Patrix — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 16:30:21 +0000

Rio de Janeiro was selected as the host city for Summer Olympics 2016. Of course, in the United States, the news made more splash not because Rio won but because Chicago lost. What’s so special about yet another American city losing the Olympics bid after the fiasco at Atlanta, you ask? Well, this time President Barack Obama made a last-minute flight to Copenhagen to make a pitch for Chicago. So when Chicago got kicked out in the first round, it was naturally Obama’s fault because after all, Obama is considered a messiah not by his ardent fans but rather by his fiercest critics who expect him to churn out miracles because he speaks of hope. In fact, one IOC member from Kenya even voted for Nairobi after Obama spoke.

After all, why wouldn’t the IOC members vote for Chicago after being hypnotized by the magic of the black president regardless of the fact that the bid process started more than two years before Obama even started running for office. After all, George W. Bush was vilified by everyone after New York City with all its 9/11 memories lost the bid to London in 2005. Katrina wasn’t Bush’s watershed moment, no pun intended, but it was the rejection of the NYC bid. After all, how can a country recover when your Olympic bid is rejected? That’s why India takes part; the pain is simply unbearable and governments are toppled over the decision of 95-odd randomly selected sports officials of the IOC.

But of course, Obama didn’t know the perils of this rejection and was the only head of state who was in Copenhagen for support. King Juan Carlos and Prime Minister Hatoyama will not comment and insist they were hiking the Appalachian trail when asked where they were on that day. President Lula Da Silva only teleported to Copenhagen after the decision was announced. He wouldn’t want to stake his political future on such an important decision.

Back in the U.S., Obama’s critics were disappointed that he could not do what Hitler successfully did in 1936. If only the Olympics were held in black-dominated Chicago, a white man could sweep the track races and adorn the walls of uninspired white surburban kids in dorm rooms of Harvard and Princeton. The news channels suddenly discovered the high crime rate of Chicago before told that perhaps Rio has a higher crime rate and of course, seeing Cidade de Deus (City of God) on the weekend helped. But as the obviously obese Bill Bennet on CNN said it best, it is better to see girls in bikinis at Rio than fat men eating in Chicago. He followed it up by stuffing his face in a deep-dish pizza and commenting on healthy eating as the only healthcare reform we should adopt.

In order to silence the cheering in the Weekly Standard offices post-announcement of Chicago’s elimination and to respond to the general glee from conservatives, Barack Obama should immediately resign from the Presidency as atonement for his sins. Forget the economy, healthcare, immigration, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the disappointment of not seeing synchronized dances at the opening ceremony in 2016 with people shouting USA! USA!! is crime enough.

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© patrix for Nerve Endings Firing Away, 2009. | Permalink | 24 comments
Post tags: Barack Obama, olympics, politics, sarcasm, Sports

Perfect Prediction

Patrix — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 15:14:16 +0000

Mike Blowers of the Seattle Mariners makes the perfect prediction [YouTube]. I loved Rachel’s commentary, “accurate to the last detail, he is like Nate Silver”. Nerd!

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Rules of Gully Cricket

Patrix — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 18:27:04 +0000

Love this rule of gully cricket: “Overs are not necessarily six deliveries. Typically, only when a batsmen raises the question of remaining deliveries do overs come to an end” [source: to be revealed later]. More to follow. Name your favorite rules in the comments.

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Cricket under attack in Pakistan

Patrix — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 15:12:39 +0000

The Sri Lankan cricket team was attacked in Lahore injuring 7 players and killing five policemen. Is this the end of international cricket in Pakistan as we know it? Hosting the next World Cup is definitely out; and if it isn’t India should not go to Pakistan even if it is the goddamn final. It definitely puts a big question mark on those who had claimed that we should keep cricket and politics separate. Imagine the furore in India if any Indian players were attacked in Pakistan in the days following the Mumbai terror attack.

Imran Khan who had claimed that cricketers will never be harmed no matter how bad the situation got in Pakistan is eating his words now. The paranoid Australians come off quite wise now. It is time to quit trying all the people-to-people contact with Pakistan because it is clearly not working and Pakistanis have to get their shit together first because right now, it isn’t clear who exactly is running the country. In my opinion, like communism, Pakistan is a failed idea although I don’t know how to fix it.

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Post tags: cricket, failure, Pakistan, Sports, terrorism

Really, Kelloggs

Patrix — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 19:05:27 +0000

Seth Myers on Kelloggs and the Phelps Bong controversy.

Priceless quote – “If your kids argue why can’t they smoke pot and Phelps can’t? The appropriate response is, you can AFTER you win 12 gold medals for your country.”

By the way, some Indian readers might be confused by why smokin a Bengali is such a bad thing. Isn’t Bipasha Basu just that and her sponsors aren’t dumping her?

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Bong no way Steroids A-OK

Patrix — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 04:38:01 +0000

Why isn’t Alex Rodriguez’s steroid use in 2003 more serious than Phelps’ bong use? Are the Yankees going to dump him or is he going to lose his endorsement deals? I bet you not.

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Tough Guy Challenge 2009 Photos

Patrix — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:22:20 +0000

Amazing photos from what they call the “the safest most dangerous taste of physical and mental endurance pain in the world” called the Tough Guy Challenge. Why ‘Tough Guy’ when I can see at least one woman in the pictures or is it generic as in ‘hey guys’? I love the guy in the Borat costume; you wouldn’t want to wear that when running through fire.

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Obama and the College Football Playoffs

Patrix — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 17:14:46 +0000

This op-ed in NY Times on Obama’s suggestion that college football should have a playoff system instead of the current top-two battling for the national championship is one of the stupidest commentary I’ve read. First, it is a suggestion by a football fan and not the “first policy proposal”; any football fan with half a brain would know that Obama cannot and will not impose his will on the system. It does not “sit uncomfortably alongside an economic stimulus and withdrawal from Iraq” because frankly you’re the only person who can equate football with real-life problems. It is akin to worrying about Seabiscuit’s next race during the Great Depression and thinking they are two equally big problems.

As for “ruining what is great about football”, you’re aware that the other famous cousin of football, the NFL does have playoffs, right? Even in the NFL, a perfect record in the season still doesn’t mean you will win the Superbowl. Just ask the New England Patriots from last year. And if you must mention USC’s derailment of the title bid last year following a loss to Stanford, you must also remember that they’ve been kept out of the title game in spite of having similar records as the top two teams except they’ve beaten superior teams. Heck, I’ll go out on the limb and say that by BCS’s current logic, one SEC team should always figure in the title game given the level of competition in the league.

In spite of having your “first major philosophical break with the candidate I voted for”, you still talking about spreading the wealth and gasp at the horrors of including “football’s neglected working class, like Utah and Boise State.” Well, if they seem so horrible and undermatched, wouldn’t they lose in the first round of the playoffs and “two upper-crust contenders like Alabama and Oklahoma” would eventually rise to the top in tune with their oh-so-perfect record. But I guess you rather invest your belief in the sentiment that “lose once, and your team finds itself at the mercy of the voters and the dreaded computers” because we know how that worked out in Florida in 2000. What are you afraid of, if a “upper-crust” team can win it all in the regular season, what’s a couple of play-off games for them, huh?

Finally, I admire your love for the “technocratic appeal of the computer rankings” because I’m sure that’s where games are supposed to be decided – on IBM servers. Talking about a healthy debate and your comment that “the president-elect has shown himself to be adaptable and open to dissenting viewpoints. After a national “conversation,” and perhaps the appointment of a presidential commission, I believe he can be convinced to come to his senses” sounds so appropriate because Jesus seems to have told you, son, you can never be wrong and ultimately the world will come to its senses and understand you. Our current President seemingly is under the same impression. Good luck to ya!

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2008 Olympics in Pictures

Patrix — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 19:54:19 +0000

With a million cameras hovering around every Olympic event, there are bound to be a billion pictures floating around on the Web. Boston.com’s The Big Picture photoblog is a big hit with photo enthusiasts and their Olympics wrap-up photo spread does not fail to disappoint.

For every moment of triumph, there are several other moments of loss that aren’t given their due. The Guardian captures the weird moments from the Olympics complete with snarky comments [via]. Don’t miss the Abhinav Bindra photo although he did end up with the gold. Also, check out this awesome interactive 360-degree panoramic photo of the Water Cube’s interior from atop the 10m diving platform. Peer down at the water too. Arvindblogs points me to this equally amazing panoramic view of the iconic Birds Nest (National) Stadium taken just before the 100m race.

If you found yourself scratching your head about some obscure reference to Olympics history by the commentators, Jason Kottke does a fine job of collating some of the noteworthy moments to remember from previous Olympics including Nadia’s perfect ten. I’m sure there are umpteen photo essays out there. Feel free to share your favorites.

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Post tags: olympics, photography, pictures, Videos

The Real Final Medal Tally

Patrix — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:39:21 +0000

The 2008 Beijing Olympics finally concluded with yet another show of pomp and grandeur. So how did these Olympics fare compared to the others? As the BBC Olympics blog put it best, “there are really 204 different Olympic Games every four years – one from the perspective of every country taking part.” So for China, U.K., and India, they were awesome simply in terms of gold medals won (medal in case of India). For the rest? It depends.

If you’ve been watching the Olympics in the United States on NBC, you might get the impression that the U.S. ‘won the Olympics’. After all, almost any medal tally in the media showed U.S. at the top with 110 medals with China second at 100 medals in spite of the fact that the International Olympic committee ranks the countries by gold medals won. Jenna Wolfe, the afternoon NBC commentator loved to say that athletes go to the Olympics to win medals so that’s what she is going to consider. Well, if that were true then I’m sure Phelps would have been just as celebrated if he had won eight bronzes. It is one thing for a country like Togo or Mauritius to be satisfied with a bronze but it is strange when an Olympics superpower like the United States considers all medals equal. And yup, the U.S. ranked the countries by gold medals in the last four Olympics.

So NBC, let us give credit where it is due and acknowledge that China kicked our asses this time. You may choose to harp on favoritism for the host country, age of the gymnasts, and untold resources for athletes but then other countries who’ve have lagged might say the same about you.

Even though we were told ‘taking part’ is everything in the Olympics, everyone likes to look at the rankings. While countries might be ranked by gold medals won, let us not forget that silvers and bronzes are treasured as well. So by assigning value of 3 for every gold, 2 for silver, and 1 for bronze, we can calculate the ‘real total’ of the medals tally. Although I was going to run the analysis after the Games concluded thanks to the data available at Swivel, Ozan Onay had already done an excellent job and I’m reproducing his table(s) here:

2008 Olympics Weighted Medal Tally

China narrowly edges United States so it isn’t really curtains for U.S. dominance considering China had home-field advantage. Russia is a distant third and rest of the countries don’t even make the three-figure mark. It shows you how much China and United States dominate in the Olympics thanks to their expertise in multiple disciplines. We had looked earlier at other forms of tabulations by population and GDP. So how do those rankings look?

2008 Olympics Weighted Medal Tally by Population

2008 Olympics Weighted Medal Tally by GDP

Thanks to just three medals for a growing economy and a populous nation, India ranks right at the bottom for the last two tables and jumps to the middle when medals are weighted by points.

Thanks again to Ozan for creating this script for the above tables. There are other scripts to create tables and graphs over at Swivel. You can download the data for the medals won, GDP, and population from Swivel if you want to run your version of the medals tally. There is a YouCalc widget if you want to display the results on your blog. I had initially thought of weighting the medals tally also by the size of the contingent fielded by each nation since more athletes = more potential medals but then Ozan alerted me to the problem of controlling for team sports which count only one medal per team. Anyway, here is a table for medals per athletes.

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© patrix for Nerve Endings Firing Away, 2008. | Permalink | 8 comments
Post tags: analysis, competition, NBC, olympics, Sports, United States

Rules of Celebration post-Olympic Victory

Patrix — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 20:03:23 +0000

Olympic athletes train for a long time before it comes down to mere seconds in their respective races. Usain Bolt has been a phenomenon at the Post-Phelps 2008 Beijing Olympics and thanks to his cool Jamaican attitude, is also a crowd favorite. You may remember couple of Chinese fans sneaking into the group hug with Bolt’s family after his amazing 100m victory. Usain Bolt will be remembered not only for winning the 100m and 200m double after 24 years but more importantly for being the first man to do it in world record times. And what world records at that! He almost sauntered in to the finish line during the 100m celebrating and thumping his chest after the 80m mark while his equally celebrated competitors were still struggling hard. In spite of doing that premature celebration, he still smashed the world record with plenty to spare leading commentators to speculate how much more he could have broken it by had he continued his pace. The crowds loved it except for one man – International Olympic Committee (IOC) Chief, Jacques Rogge.

In Rogge’s words, “I think he should show more respect for his competitors and shake hands, give a tap on the shoulder to the other ones immediately after the finish and not make gestures like the one he made in the 100 metres.” He went to say, “You don’t do that. But he’ll learn. He’s still a young man.” Excuse me, what does a sports bureaucrat know about celebrating post-victory? Being an Olympic athlete himself (sailing 1968 – 1976), he should’ve known better. Has he never watched competitive sports and not seen anyone else do it? A sportsman is anything but humble; the world generally excuses arrogance on the sports field and as Mohammad Ali said, it ain’t braggin if it is true. The morally bankrupt Olympic Committee criticized for accepting bribes to host the Olympics and looking away from China’s continued human rights violations is hardly the authority on good behavior let alone moral superiority [image source].

Wild exuberant chest-thumping celebrations are hardly new to sports. Even if we ignore those crazy and wild end zone celebrations in NFL, there are plenty of examples in Olympics itself. Phelps and his teammates screaming and stretching their arms after that fantastic 4×100 relay or Kitajima’s screams after each of his Olympic gold-winning victories, or even that famous Australian swimming team playing the air guitar after their unexpected victory following Gary Hall’s claim that Americans would smash the Aussies like guitars. Bolt’s celebration given his astounding achievements were hardly any different. Heck, Shawn Crawford the person who came in second defended Bolt, “To me, I don’t feel like he’s being disrespectful. If this guy has worked his tail off, every day, on his knees throwing up like I was in practice, he deserves to dance.” So if Bolt’s competitors have no problem, Rogges had little reason. I’ve seen my share of track and field events this Olympics and in no race has the winner gone over to shake hands with others; in fact others have congratulated the winner.

Is it because Bolt hails from a small country that has successfully swept the sprint medals? Or is it because the celebration does not follow Rogges idea of muted ‘sophisticated’ form of behavior? I guess it is somewhat like the reaction some Americans have toward the loud boisterous attitudes of African-Americans (think Punjabis in India) and it makes them look down on such behavior when in fact it is simply a different form of behavior that departs from their preconceived notion of the norm. Asafa Powell minced no words in saying just that after yet another gold for Bolt in the 4x100m, “the US did it all the time and nothing happened.”

We often get caught in the hype they try to sell us that Olympics is “we are the world” kinda mushy stuff but at the end of the day, it is an intensely competitive sports event. Victors are not only excused but in fact entitled to their choice of celebration.

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© patrix for Nerve Endings Firing Away, 2008. | Permalink | 2 comments
Post tags: bureaucracy, celebration, olympics, Sports

“Michael Phelps is the new Chuck Norris. And Chuck Norris is fine with that.”

Patrix — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:35:25 +0000

Michael Phelps at conception

Before Usain Bolt smashed those world records in 100m and 200m with astonishing ease, Michael Phelps and his record eight Olympic golds were the talk of the town. Of course, there were a couple of close shaves but Phelps literally demolished his opposition and now promises to return albeit with a less punishing schedule in London 2012. The fawning of NBC commentators notwithstanding, Michael Phelps is a genuinely talented and hard-working athlete who totally deserves his success. His comeback in the the 100m Fly against Cavic was breathtaking although some naysayers have their doubts. However, this video evidence is hard to argue with :) His 12,000 calorie diet and 96 km weekly swims for training is making waves not to mention his freakishly physique. A post on Gawker on his ‘freakish physique’ has tons of Chuck Norris-type homage messages for Phelps:

Michael Phelps is a 7-foot man mountain who can palm a medicine ball.
Michael Phelps swam the Atlantic Ocean…for fun.
There is no ‘ctrl’ button on Michael Phelps’ computer. Michael Phelps is always in control.
Michael Phelps once ate a whole cake before his friends could tell him there was a stripper in it.
While urinating, Michael Phelps is easily capable of welding titanium.
Michael Phelps can explain the Xenu origin story in 7 minutes.
For some, the left testicle is larger than the right one. For Michael Phelps, each testicle is larger than the other one.
Michael Phelps has Martha Stewart personally deliver the eggs for his breakfast every morning. And then he ridicules her when she doesn’t make them perfect.
Michael Phelps can split the atom. With his bare hands.
When Michael Phelps farts, the Red Sea parts.
Michael Phelps CAN believe it’s not butter.
Michael Phelps gets an epidural when he has to poo.
Michael Phelps removed his own foreskin with the lid of a tuna can at the age of two. That foreskin now comprises the entire highway system of the town of Des Moines, Iowa.
Michael Phelps makes me attracted to fish.
When Michael Phelps lands in New York his plane touches down at JFK, LaGuardia AND Newark Liberty Airports… at the same time.
Michael Phelps is going to successfully reunite all four Beatles.
Michael Phelps brought Pangaea back together so he could enjoy one uninterrupted ocean.
Michael Phelps is the only person I want at 3 am answering the phone. And 3 pm and 9 am and 6 pm and 5.17 and 2.10. Especially then.
Bob Costas is still fellating him and asks you be patient.
Michael Phelps is will be Obama’s running mate. He’ll also be McCain’s running mate.
Michael Phelps was on hand to suggest the name “Nastia” to Mr. and Mrs. Liukin.
Michael Phelps best friend is a humpback whale that answers to the name ” Bessie ”. They often go on 9 million mile swimming trips together, just for the heck of it.
Michael Phelps told Russia to cut it out and they sort of left Georgia alone.
Michael Phelps is the answer to every question that begins with “Why” and ends with “the universe.”
Michael Phelps produces excessive greenhouse gases that he may one day swim uninterruped around the globe.
Michael Phelps once answered the Sphinx’s riddle by staring it in the eye and pantomiming one slow butterfly stroke.
Michael Phelps made Godot wait for him.
Michael Phelps wasn’t even at the 2008 Olympic Games. He phoned it in from his Wii Fit.
Michael Phelps pisses blue Gatorade.
Michael Phelps can cure baldness. He just doesn’t want to, because “Some folks gotta lose!”
Michael Phelps never gets the “Sorry, but the princess is in another castle” message in Super Mario Brothers.
Michael Phelps was training in a river and smiled at a group of women washing clothes on the banks in passing. It is the creation story of Ancient Egypt.
Michael Phelps canceled Arrested Development, just so everyone would have something to bitch about.
When Michael Phelps appears, the lion doesn’t just lie down with the lamb, but offers to help with its organic chemistry homework.
Michael Phelps is the operating system for the next Mac ~~Air~~ Water.
And on the seventh day, Michael Phelps rested.

Got any of your own?

Follow me on Twitter: @patrix. For content without Link Posts, use this feed. For Link Posts only, use this feed.

© patrix for Nerve Endings Firing Away, 2008. | Permalink | 7 comments
Post tags: celebrity, cool, humor, olympics, Sports, swimming