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In Olympics, let's focus on the winner of the race -- not the race of the winner Login/Join 
I believe in the
principle of
Due Process
Picture of JALLEN
posted
Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been “Faster, Higher, Stronger.” It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to “Darker, Gayer, Different.” If your goal is to win medals, that won’t work.

A USOC official was quoted this week expressing pride (what else?) about taking the most diverse U.S. squad ever to the Winter Olympics. That was followed by a, frankly, embarrassing laundry list of how many African-Americans, Asians and openly gay athletes are on this year’s U.S. team. No sport that we are aware of awards points – or medals – for skin color or sexual orientation.

For the current USOC, a dream team should look more like the general population. So, while uncomfortable, the question probably needs to be asked: were our Olympians selected because they’re the best at what they do, or because they’re the best publicity for our current obsession with having one each from Column A, B and C?

Some breakthroughs in American sports were historic, none more so than Jackie Robinson’s in baseball. But Robinson didn’t make the Majors because he was black. His legendary career occurred in an age of outright racial discrimination, because he was was better at the game than almost everyone around him.

As my Fox News colleague Ed Henry wrote in his excellent book, “42 Faith: The Rest of the Jackie Robinson Story,” Robinson was not a kvetcher. “Don’t complain, work harder,” was his approach to the game, and the game of life.

Jeremy Lin, who played basketball at Harvard before joining the New York Knicks, did not become a media hero – remember “Linsanity?” – due to his Chinese heritage, but because he almost single-handedly turned around the struggling Knicks in 2012, and had fans delirious over his graceful shots and calm under pressure.

Back in 1993, when, it seems, America still had a sense of humor, the movie “Cool Runnings” portrayed a Jamaican bobsled team whose members willed themselves to compete in the 1988 Winter Olympics. Why was their feat noteworthy? Um … no snow in Jamaica, not racial prejudice.

That same year, Michael Edwards riveted world attention to the ski jumping competition. Didn’t matter that he finished last. “Eddie the Eagle,” as he was known, came from Great Britain, which also doesn’t get much snow and whose highest elevation is 4,400 feet. Ski off that hill and you’re more likely to land in sheep dung.

Insisting that sports bow to political correctness by assigning teams quotas for race, religion or sexuality is like saying that professional basketball goals will be worth four points if achieved by a minority in that sport – white guys, for instance – instead of the two or three points awarded to black players, who make up 81 percent of the NBA. Any plans to fix that disparity? Didn’t think so.

If someone is denied a slot on a team because of prejudice, that’s one thing. Complaining that every team isn’t a rainbow of political correctness defeats the purpose of sports, which is competition. At the Olympic level, not everyone is a winner. Not everyone gets a little plastic trophy to take home.

Sorry. “Faster, Higher, Stronger” still works better than “We win because we’re different.”

Link




Luckily, I have enough willpower to control the driving ambition that rages within me.

When you had the votes, we did things your way. Now, we have the votes and you will be doing things our way. This lesson in political reality from Lyndon B. Johnson

"Some things are apparent. Where government moves in, community retreats, civil society disintegrates and our ability to control our own destiny atrophies. The result is: families under siege; war in the streets; unapologetic expropriation of property; the precipitous decline of the rule of law; the rapid rise of corruption; the loss of civility and the triumph of deceit. The result is a debased, debauched culture which finds moral depravity entertaining and virtue contemptible." - Justice Janice Rogers Brown
 
Posts: 48369 | Location: Texas hill country | Registered: July 04, 2005Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Official Space Nerd
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Yeah, I thought that was a good article.

It should be self-evident that whenever people hype about how 'inclusive' or 'diverse' an organization or entity is, they aren't getting the best people for the job. The Olympics are like the military; either you want 'diversity' or you want 'the best.' You can't have both at the same time.

I like the comment about the NBA - they have WAY too many black people. They need to 'diversify' the NBA and force teams to start more Irish, Asians, South Pacific Islanders (hey, who's speaking out for the Samoans?), etc.



Fear God and Dread Nought
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Jacky Fisher
 
Posts: 21821 | Location: Hobbiton, The Shire, Middle Earth | Registered: September 27, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
delicately calloused
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quote:
Originally posted by Hound Dog:
Yeah, I thought that was a good article.

It should be self-evident that whenever people hype about how 'inclusive' or 'diverse' an organization or entity is, they aren't getting the best people for the job. The Olympics are like the military; either you want 'diversity' or you want 'the best.' You can't have both at the same time.
I like the comment about the NBA - they have WAY too many black people. They need to 'diversify' the NBA and force teams to start more Irish, Asians, South Pacific Islanders (hey, who's speaking out for the Samoans?), etc.


The response returned to this point is that one who asserts it must be racist to think diversity yields less than the best. Of course this is deception by distortion. Misplaced priority yields less than the best. The priority of race over quality can eclipse quality, but not necessarily so. While the priority of quality over diversity can eclipse diversity, but not necessarily so. One has to choose which to not necessarily sacrifice.



You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
 
Posts: 29607 | Location: Highland, Ut. | Registered: May 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
No double standards
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quote:
Originally posted by Hound Dog:...
It should be self-evident that whenever people hype about how 'inclusive' or 'diverse' an organization or entity is...


Years ago I was being interviewed for somewhat of a promotion at a college where I teach. The dept admin (off the record) indicated they were looking for the "right kind" of applicants.( Wink) In the final interview withe the VP Academics and the Dean, also the Director of Diversity, the central question was "how do you promote diversity in the classroom?"




"Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women. When it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it....While it lies there, it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it"
- Judge Learned Hand, May 1944
 
Posts: 30668 | Location: UT | Registered: November 11, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Is this the same USOC that let Dr Molester party on for decades?
Fine organization! Roll Eyes


End of Earth: 2 Miles
Upper Peninsula: 4 Miles
 
Posts: 16004 | Location: Marquette MI | Registered: July 08, 2014Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Hop head
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wondering, should we (USA) have a dismal or anything less than #1 performance in the Winter Games,
what will be the outcome?
hissy fits cause the world is racist?
or absolute silence?



https://www.chesterfieldarmament.com/

 
Posts: 10409 | Location: Beach VA,not VA Beach | Registered: July 17, 2007Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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quote:
Originally posted by lyman:
wondering, should we (USA) have a dismal or anything less than #1 performance in the Winter Games,
what will be the outcome?
hissy fits cause the world is racist?
or absolute silence?


C'mon, this is the US of A, where everyone gets a trophy! They'll throw out some garbage PC crap about how bringing the "right" people to the games is more important than winning, and we're just more progressive than everyone else.

Last I heard they were still trying to decide whether or not to let transgenders who were men compete as women. Whatever came of that?!



Mongo only pawn in game of life...
 
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Do---or do not.
There is no try.
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by Hound Dog:
Yeah, I thought that was a good article.

It should be self-evident that whenever people hype about how 'inclusive' or 'diverse' an organization or entity is, they aren't getting the best people for the job. The Olympics are like the military; either you want 'diversity' or you want 'the best.' You can't have both at the same time.

I like the comment about the NBA - they have WAY too many black people. They need to 'diversify' the NBA and force teams to start more Irish, Asians, South Pacific Islanders (hey, who's speaking out for the Samoans?), etc.


Samoans are tough as nails. If the NBA were to ever mandate a certain number of them on each team, the league would have to allow bodychecking.
 
Posts: 4493 | Registered: January 01, 2004Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Did you hear now that a coin flip is racist according to one olympian?

http://www.koat.com/article/tw...-flagbearer/16756022




 
Posts: 1514 | Location: Ypsilanti, MI | Registered: August 03, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Savor the limelight
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Not only their race, but their religion as well. How many back stories on athletes talk about their religion these days?
 
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delicately calloused
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quote:
Originally posted by trapper189:
Not only their race, but their religion as well. How many back stories on athletes talk about their religion these days?


I've seen emphasis placed on a certain religion as if competing and interacting with the rest of the world without blowing everyone up is some kind of achievement.



You’re a lying dog-faced pony soldier
 
Posts: 29607 | Location: Highland, Ut. | Registered: May 07, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Tribalism on the march.

Silent
 
Posts: 1019 | Registered: February 02, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Maybe, if enough people stop watching the pendulum will begin to swing in the right direction again. I hope so. It is sad to have something like the Olympics loose the very spirit of competition and pride.


JC
 
Posts: 1267 | Location: Roswell, GA | Registered: June 27, 2006Reply With QuoteReport This Post
High standards,
low expectations
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quote:
Originally posted by ubelongoutside:
Did you hear now that a coin flip is racist according to one olympian?

http://www.koat.com/article/tw...-flagbearer/16756022


That guy is an entitled asshole. I hope the internet tore him up for that comment.




The reward for hard work, is more hard work arcwelder76, 2013
 
Posts: 5252 | Location: Edmonton AB, Canada | Registered: July 05, 2003Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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Picture of maladat
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quote:
Originally posted by Surefire:
quote:
Originally posted by ubelongoutside:
Did you hear now that a coin flip is racist according to one olympian?

http://www.koat.com/article/tw...-flagbearer/16756022


That guy is an entitled asshole. I hope the internet tore him up for that comment.


I couldn't believe it when I saw that on TV last night.

There was a tie in voting to select the flagbearer for the opening ceremonies.

Before the vote, it was decided that in the case of a tie it would be settled with a coin toss.

The guy is outraged that they went ahead with the coin toss instead of choosing him because he's black.

Are you f'ing kidding me?
 
Posts: 6319 | Location: CA | Registered: January 24, 2011Reply With QuoteReport This Post
Member
posted Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by maladat:
quote:
Originally posted by Surefire:
quote:
Originally posted by ubelongoutside:
Did you hear now that a coin flip is racist according to one olympian?

http://www.koat.com/article/tw...-flagbearer/16756022


That guy is an entitled asshole. I hope the internet tore him up for that comment.


I couldn't believe it when I saw that on TV last night.

There was a tie in voting to select the flagbearer for the opening ceremonies.

Before the vote, it was decided that in the case of a tie it would be settled with a coin toss.

The guy is outraged that they went ahead with the coin toss instead of choosing him because he's black.

Are you f'ing kidding me?


Well it was racist that he wasn't chosen. But if he was chosen because he was black that wouldn't have been racist. See how that works?
 
Posts: 1029 | Location: CT | Registered: March 17, 2008Reply With QuoteReport This Post
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