Archive for the ‘Shenanigans’ Category

Belgian cyclist is sent home; presumably after having too many Trappist Ales

Posted by Chris Lund under Shenanigans on Aug 10, 2012

The Olympic party times will roll on for a few more athletes who have their events done at the games and you can expect phenomenal shenanigans to ensue. We already looked at the antics of Australian rower Joshua Booth who was sent home early from the games for an alcohol fueled rampage and here we are again.

Well, Booth may have been outdone.

Belgian cyclist Gijs Van Hoecke has been sent back to Belgium following a night which he probably doesn’t remember. After the completion of his cycling events in which he finished 15th in the omnium, while Belgium was ninth in the team sprint, Van Hoecke took to London for some serious fun.

Van Hoecke was removed from the Games by the Belgian Olympic Committee after images of him appearing drunk were published by The Daily Mail.

The photos show the 20-year-old being carried into a taxi outside a London nightclub. Van Hoeck has his eyes closed and his clothes are soaked.

The Belgian Olympic Committee called the incident “deplorable.”

Van Hoecke expressed regret for the actions and where he chose to celebrate his experience at the Olympics.

“What happened is a pity. I am sorry, this should not have happened,” Van Hoecke told RTBF television. “But I also think that after two years of relentless work, I have the right to let my hair down. It would have been better if it had not happened here in London.

“I chose the wrong moment. Having said that, it was outside the Olympic Village, I wasn’t disturbing other athletes, they didn’t say anything about it.”

While I’m sure the Belgian Olympic mission would love positive press above all else, I have trouble defending their choice to send an athlete home two days before the closing ceremony because he got busted in an inebriated state by a tabloid.

According to reports he didn’t do anything to harm anyone (but himself) and, as he himself points out, the Olympics have been the culmination of four years of incredibly hard work. He should have the right to have a good time. If he happens to look like an idiot in the process, so be it. Plenty of other athletes have been busted partying hard without repercussions, why should he be an example?

You can find the pictures in question here. They are equal parts hilarious and damning. Know your limit, stay within it.

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Usain Bolt has “lost all respect” for Carl Lewis

Posted by Chris Lund under Shenanigans on Aug 10, 2012

Nothing like a good generational feud to get a day started as it appears as though Carl Lewis and Usain Bolt have lost whatever tolerance they had for one another. Lewis came up with some controversial remarks directed at the Jamaican sprinting program and this has not been met kindly by the fastest human being ever named after a weather phenomenon.

What did Lewis say, you ask? Way ahead of you.

“Countries like Jamaica do not have a random program, so they can go months without being tested. I’m not saying anyone is on anything, but everyone needs to be on a level playing field.”

The implication there is pretty clear despite Lewis’ cover. Lewis who, in the interest of context, has been hyping up the US like nobody’s business, is suggesting that Jamaica’s program slants the competitive balance in their favour and the Usain Bolts and Yohan Blakes of the world are allowed to dope like crazy, shatter records and get the drugs out of their system for the Olympics.

Enter Bolt.

“I’m going to say something controversial right now. Carl Lewis, I have no respect for him,” Bolt said. “The things he says about the track athletes is really downgrading for another athlete to say something like that. I think he’s just looking for attention, really, because nobody really talks much about him.

“That was really sad for me when I heard the other day what he was saying. It was upsetting. I’ve lost all respect for him. All respect.”

Asked which specific comments from Lewis made him angry, Bolt replied: “It was all about drugs. Talking about drugs. For me, an athlete out of the sport to be saying that. That was really upsetting for me. Really upsetting.

“To jump up and say something like that. As far as I’m concerned he’s looking for attention. That’s all.”

To quote Denzel Washington in Training Day, “Boom.”

Now there are many ways to look at this. One way to look at this is Lewis could very well be pointing out an unfair advantage to Jamaica. The other way is that he’s a bitter old codger who’s trying to create a fuss for the benefit of his own country because he can’t stand someone looming large over his legacy.

I’m leaning towards the latter.

The irony dripping from Carl Lewis accusing a program of manipulating doping rules, of course, is that he tested positive three times before the 1988 games where Lewis captured three gold medals, the most notable of which was the 100m sprint after Canadian Ben Johnson — you may know the name — tested positive in Seoul, easily the most PED ridden games in history. Why was Lewis allowed to compete, let alone allowed to keep his medal? The US Olympic Committee overturned his positive tests. Three times.

Pot, meet kettle.

The fact of the matter is that Usain Bolt has never tested positive for anything in his career, and we can’t assume that he will. Presuming PED use because of strong performances is a dangerous path as any avid baseball fan will tell you.

In the interest of fairness, it should be noted that Yohan Blake was suspended for three months in 2009 for stimulant use despite the fact that the stimulant was not on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s banned list. The suspensions came domestically because of the stimulant’s similarity in structure to one that is banned.

Again, this is Jamaica reprimanding its own people because of a tie they recognized, not an outside committee enforcing steadfast rules on a substance.

The sniping from Carl Lewis underscores the ridiculousness of our skepticism towards success. We ought to be skeptical of the Jamaican sprint program because of allegations that they don’t enforce doping regulations on their own people. Nonsense. Jamaica has no clear record of manipulating drug testing or allowing people to skip out or allowing those who have tested positive to compete. The United States on the other hand…

As if the sketchy legacy of Lewis wasn’t enough, perhaps we ought to invoke the Marion Jones saga, or Justin Gatlin who made his return to the Olympics this year after an eight year ban in 2007 which was reduced to four years. Now we’re learning of ties between sprinter Carmelita Jeter and hurdler Jason Richardson to Mark Block, a man linked to BALCO serving a ten year ban from track and field. Perhaps we ought to turn our attention to Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte or Missy Franklin? If the sprinting program can hide doping surely the swimming program can too.

The arc in narrative is the problem with this type of speculation. By picking out which exceptional performers we want to accuse of doping, we enter a vicious cycle of picking an choosing who we want to question. Bolt and Blake are being questioned by Lewis, but why not Jeter and Richardson? It’s an endless game of he said, she said.

Sure, you can question Bolt after he takes a shot at Carl Lewis who is, like it or not, an Olympic legend. The question after that should be how you view the guy with a history of cheating who accuses others of cheating. You could do worse than telling Carl Lewis to keep his mouth shout. Carry on, Usain.

Until they give us a reason to be skeptical, there’s no reason to think Jamaica is dirty. Just sit back and enjoy the run.

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Usain Bolt cares not for your made up rules or meddling staff

Posted by Chris Lund under Shenanigans on Aug 07, 2012

There’s something incredibly impressive about being the best in the world at something when people are trying to screw with you every step with the way.

In the case of Usain Bolt, he’s exceptional at running very, very fast. So fast that if he were a satellite NBC wouldn’t be showing the Olympics on a nine hour delay to their viewers. So fast that if he were were a Twitter server, we wouldn’t know about the Fail Whale. So fast that if he were a clock, Justin Bieber’s 15 minutes would have barely been noticeable and the world would be happy.

He’s that fast. Have you heard?

Training is developing your routine — finding a way to push your body to its furthest extent of excellence and making it the standard take lots of repetition. Professional basketball players have elaborate free throw routines, some people have musical accompaniments they like, Usain Bolt has his favourite warm up skipping rope.

Or, at the very least, he’s supposed to.

At the 100m final on Sunday, Usain Bolt was not allowed to bring his training rope into the arena for his warm up routine. A rule conscious usher told him it simply wasn’t allowed. The thing is, though, there’s no rule against it and it wasn’t the only time he was meddled with in preparation for the biggest track event in the world.

“Oh my God, why are there so many rules?! You can’t do nothing,” he [Bolt] told reporters after opening the defence of his 200m title with an easy heat win.

“It’s weird, some of the rules. I was coming in a while ago and I had my skipping rope in my bag and they said I can’t bring it in. I was like, ‘Why?’. ‘It’s just the rules’,” he said.

“I am going to do it tomorrow … I am going to stick it under my bag, bottom of my bag or something.”

Coe, the Games chief, said skipping ropes were “not expressly banned”.

“I will look at this,” he said. “I presume the skipping rope was a warm-up aid so I will look at that.”

It was not clear at what exact point Bolt’s rope was taken off him.

“If it was taken away before the stadium, then that is not correct,” said organising committee spokeswoman Jackie Brock-Doyle. “If it was taken before he entered the field of play (track), then that is probably correct. We are still looking into it.”

That was just the beginning. As Bolt was nearing the moment of the race itself, continuing his warmup and trying to get loose, it was made clear to him that he wasn’t getting ready for the race properly and he needed to shape up.

“I was at the line and the guy was telling me to line up, to stay in a straight line. I’m like, ‘Really? We are about to run and you’re going to tell me to stand in a straight line?’. It’s kind of weird, these rules, which doesn’t make any sense to me personally.”

Again, this is the biggest race in the world. And to make things worse, he had to ignore a Heineken bottle crashing in behind him at the start line. As far as record setting days at the office go, this one was trying.

There’s a certain brand of absurdity which has come with these Usain Bolt stories and, if we’re doing a candid appraisal here, it reeks of individual heroes trying to take down the world’s greatest down a peg or two. The premier event at the Summer Games, and arguably any form of the Olympics, is the 100m dash. To have people confiscating warm up items from the world’s fastest man and forcing him to line up a certain way when there are no rules in place seems incredibly odd if we want to roll with another explanation.

The point which really shouldn’t need to be stated is that this competition is far too important to have power crazed volunteers interfering with athletes. It happens at amateur events all the time, a volunteer thinks that they are a gatekeeper of Ghostbusters proportions and is happy to lay the wood on anyone who crosses their authority. But please, for the love of God, not at the Olympic games, and certainly not the biggest events, and most definitely not to the best of all time at said events.

Especially if that person is all-world awesome the way Usain Bolt is.

You can take away his skipping rope, you can line him up in a straight line, but you can’t run faster than Usain Bolt and neither can anyone else, ever. The 200m semifinal goes on Wednesday, the 200m final goes on Thursday. He will sneak his skipping rope in, he will line up wherever he wants. He will probably win and by a lot at that.

Don’t trifle with the man. Playing with explosives is hazardous.

Cap tip to Darren Kritzer who tipped me off to this story of discontent.

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Australian rower Joshua Booth had a few too many and may be getting sent home

Posted by Chris Lund under Shenanigans on Aug 03, 2012

Say what you will about the Olympic Village, what with the majesty that comes with hosting all of the greatest athletes in the world and such and such, but it is probably one hell of a party. ‘Probably’ is the term I’ve opted for here because I haven’t been there personally. We’ve all heard the stories though, and after your events are in the books it sounds like a place for ‘Dude where’s my car?‘ calibre evenings.

The antics of one Australian rower won’t do anything to dispel this line of thinking as Joshua Booth, part of the Australian men’s eight team, went Queen’s University Homecoming on the neighbourhood surrounding the Olympic Village, allegedly causing damage to multiple storefronts, and was arrested by police.

Now there’s talk he will be sent home after his attempt to re-enact the events of ‘The Hangover‘.

Booth, who was described by one teammate as ‘a good bloke’, certainly won’t be putting a dent in the Australian reputation for rowdiness after the arrest. He was said to have ‘fainted’ (read: passed out) at the police station, which resulted in a head injury and trip to hospital. He was released without severe injury, beyond a killer headache, sensitivity to light and sound and a desperate need for Gatorade and crackers.

The Australian Olympic Commission will be looking into the incident and will be coming down with some sort of ruling on what to do with Booth. For what it’s worth, no charges were laid against Booth, though he was said to be meeting with police at an upcoming date.

Nick Green, Australia’s Olympic Commission chef de mission was called from the police station at 3.30am with the news that one of his team’s athletes was under arrest.
…
“We understand there was alcohol involved. Again I don’t know all the details. The investigation will present all that.”

Folks, know your limit, stay within it, lest you be sent home from the Olympics.

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