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Olympics 2012 - London
- Thread starter tannerztigers
- Start date
spook said:
brilliant
It shouldn't be a big deal, but it is. Thats why Hooper did it, very simple and innocuous way to draw attention to an issue.
Has there been any controversy over the goose who draped himself in the flag at the opening ceremony? Took the focus off a favourite of mine Lauren Jackson, the official flagbearer, detracted from the formality of the occassion, disrepected the flag, thumbed his nose at tradition, and generally made an embarrassing display. He should be sanctioned IMO.
rosy23 said:
the fact that, as far as I know, the opening ceremony flag-draped over the official uniform, when we had an official flagbearer, was not a media 'incident', yet Damien Hooper wearing an Aboriginal flag was, is self explanatory.
If they both breached uniform rules I still don't see why you think one should be sanctioned and the other was innocuous. Is it because one was Aboriginal and one wasn't? I have no issue with how Cathy Freeman flew both the Australian and the Aboriginal flag on her victory lap of honour but that's different from competing in a non-official uniform to make a political statement.
rosy23 said:
he didn't compete in an unofficial uniform. He wore an Aboriginal flag t shirt around before the fight, to make a political statement. The goose with he flag cape at the opening ceremony was making no political statement. He was making a nationalistic/ patriotic statement. (I'm being generous there).
I guess it comes down to whether or not you beleive that the Olympics are not political. I believe they are inherently political. Thats not to say I don't like the olympics and don't admire the athletes, I do, but the olympics are inherently political. Always have been and always will be. So to say Hooper is wrong to make a political statement, which on the scale of political statements was innocuous, is, in my view, wrong.
Tommo37 said:
What exactly did she say?
I can understand people being quite suspicious of China considering their drug cheating throughout the 1990s and I can understand people being even more suspicious this time as well considering you have a 15 year old Chinese female swimming faster than an American male Olympian.
Ms Ye stunned the swimming world with a final freestyle lap time of 28.93 seconds, which was faster than that of Ryan Lochte in the corresponding men's event. The American clocked the second fastest time in history to win the gold medal
http://www.theage.com.au/olympics/swimming-london-2012/china-defends-yes-performance-20120731-23bzt.html
tigersnake said:
Thats the problem though mate is that Australia already has an official uniform, including t-shirts to wear before fights.
He is representing Australia and therefore should stick to doing just that. He is there to fight, not make political statements.
He has been sponsored by Australian taxpayers and supported by all Australians to represent us all, not just "his people" as he stated.
Whether he likes it or not, "his people" are all of us.
Liverpool said:
I know we have an official pre fight uniform, I was making the point to rosy he didn't compete in non official attire.
As for the political statements, see above. We disagree Liverpool, what a shock. I'll now spend 20 pages trying to attempt to make you change your view slightly, (not).
rosy23 said:
wilson is a sydney journo and is doing the swimming with ray hadley and susie o'neill on foxtel.
IanG said:
wilson said that she refuses to support d'arcy because of his history and wilson and hadley basically come out and suggested that the quick female chinese swimmer might be taking performance enancing drugs because of the past history of female chinese swimmers.
it was last nights heats.Tommo37 said:
whoops, rebecca wilson. my bad. i don't know her that well, but whenever i hear her she comes out with absolute trollop. she has a weekly segment on SEN's the run home as well.
tigersnake said:
Nah, don't bother mate...I think most Aussies are against this type of abusing a position to try and push a political/personal agenda.
The Olympics isn't a forum for this sort of behaviour.
I think the bigger debate is the Chinese swimmer.
I don't give a stuff how talented a 15 year old is but for people to try and defend a 15 year old female who has just swum faster than the 27 year old male Olympic champion in his peak, in the corresponding event...they are either naive or just plain stupid.
Watched the women's basketball last night, they played ok, France just had that little better teamwork and their point guard was the difference. I've now seen Cambage play about 4 or 5 times now and she's done nothing in those games. Was ineffetctive last night and turned the ball over countless times
