Thursday, August 21, 2008
US softball team loses 3-1 to Japan
The United States softball team beat Japan two out of three games in Olympic competition, had a better overall record, & lost the Gold Medal to Japan.
Preliminary & medal round competition baffles at times. For one example, it provides the strange spectacle of sprinters & hurdlers not running full out to the finish line in the short distance prelims, as if those final 10 meters will exhaust them beyond any hope of recovery for the next race 24 hours later. It's understandable in the middle & long distances. Swimmers don't have this luxury since they can't be certain what's happening in the other lanes. Not once did we see Michael Phelps easing up down the stretch lap. Some of the swimmers had 30 minutes or less to prepare for the next race. If Usain Bolt hadn't broken the 100m record in the final, he would've been stuck with the frustration of knowing he might've broken it in the qualifier if he hadn't hot dogged the end. That's his concern. He doesn't deserve a lecture on sportsmanship from the IOC president, who never breaks a sweat as he's wined & dined year round by the world's political & corporate tyrants. We've seee plenty of perfunctory handshakes & hugs over the past two weeks.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." Thomas Jefferson
Preliminary & medal round competition baffles at times. For one example, it provides the strange spectacle of sprinters & hurdlers not running full out to the finish line in the short distance prelims, as if those final 10 meters will exhaust them beyond any hope of recovery for the next race 24 hours later. It's understandable in the middle & long distances. Swimmers don't have this luxury since they can't be certain what's happening in the other lanes. Not once did we see Michael Phelps easing up down the stretch lap. Some of the swimmers had 30 minutes or less to prepare for the next race. If Usain Bolt hadn't broken the 100m record in the final, he would've been stuck with the frustration of knowing he might've broken it in the qualifier if he hadn't hot dogged the end. That's his concern. He doesn't deserve a lecture on sportsmanship from the IOC president, who never breaks a sweat as he's wined & dined year round by the world's political & corporate tyrants. We've seee plenty of perfunctory handshakes & hugs over the past two weeks.
Labels: sports
