Best olympic athlete: Bolt or Ueno

[miltk]

Re: Best olympic athlete: Bolt or Ueno

When it comes to Olympic decathlon champions, the amount of attention and recognition they get depends on what's going on in the rest of the games. Jim Thorpe (1912), Bob Mathias (1948 & '52), and Bruce Jenner (1976) become the media darlings when no other athlete in the different sports put on dominating performances.



The psychology is,.... the media covering the Olympics is more fascinated and enamoured with world record times than they are with decathlon points. It may not be fair, but that's just how it is. I wish all the best for Bryan Clay, but in terms of media exposure and endorsement dollars, he will come out well behind Michael Phelps.

It's harder to fathom what "good" is in the decathlon points, but but understanding that 9.30 is better than 9.32 is easy.

I don't know how T&F gets treated in other countries but you can bet it's way better than the states. At least double the coverage we get. So the decathletes may be getting their due overseas. NBC and ABC before it provided ALL the video for the Olympics so it's all a matter of what they want to show,,,and clearly it's "Martha" and "Ellen" here in the states.

[Frankie's Market]

Re: Best olympic athlete: Bolt or Ueno

Many will say Phelps is the athlete of the 2008 Olympics....but Phelps was somewhat expected to take home 8 and he had god on his side in two events.

I say Bolt nipping Japan's Ueno by a whisker. Bolt is an obvious choice,,,,two golds two world shattering records , including one(the 200) that many thought was unbreakable for a long long long time.

I don't buy into the thinking that an Olympic champion who brings home the gold when he/she is expected to win is somehow a lesser accomplishment than an underdog who surprises the world by coming out on top. To me, it's simple: a gold medal is a gold medal. Both are significant accomplishments. Whether it's the underdog who's had to overcome the skepticism and doubt from everyone else, or the heavily favored champion who's had to handle the tremendous pressure and expectations of an entire country.

But Yukiko Ueno did something unexpected and remarkable,,,,she beat the USA softball team. For those who may not know, the US softball team was akin to the US baskeball team,,,,an unbeatable juggernaut,,,the May/Walsh of softball,,,,the China of diving and table tennis. The US domination is one reason given why softball will no longer be in the olympics. the US won by a total run production of 50+ to 1 in Athens, and in Beijing they outscored their opponents by 57 to 2,,,,until Japan in the final.

Ueno pitched every pitch of every inning in every game I believe, and in the last two days she pitched 28 innings in three games,,,21 yesterday and 7 in the final(the games are 7 innings). She did the unimaginable,,,the unexpected,,,,better than Phelps but not as good as Bolt, imo.

Japan's victory over the US in softball reminds me of the 1980 Miracle On Ice, when a very young team of American-born college hockey players shocked the veteran USSR team that had won the previous 4 gold medals. This was the same Soviet team that had actually beaten an all-star NHL squad 2 games out of 3 the year before. But lo and behold, Team USA played the game of their lives against the Soviets and pulled out a come-from-behind victory that shocked the world.

Of course, the significance of the Miracle On Ice went way beyond being a simple upset in hockey. The US-USSR was then engaged in the Cold War. The Soviets' invasion of Afghanistan created international tensions. The morale in the US was low, with the Iranian hostage situation and a poor economy. So when the Americans faced off against the Soviets at Lake Placid, there was a lot of nationalistic and political elements involved. It is these extraneous elements that, I think, made the Miracle On Ice an indelible memory for those who witnessed it. When you mention 1980 and Lake Placid, Americans will usually think "Team USA winning the gold in hockey" first before thinking of Eric Heiden winning 5 gold medals in speed skating.

In comparison, I don't think there is the same kind of nationalistic rivalry between the US and Japan, as there was between the US and USSR. But for the moment, the Japanese softball women are bigtime heroes in their home country. And their gold medal win does take some of the sting out of the Japanese baseball team's disappointing performance in Beijing.

[Walkoff Balk]

Re: Best olympic athlete: Bolt or Ueno

Former pro baseball player John Kruk like to joke that he's not an athlete, he played baseball. He was a handful of baseball players who can play with a soft belly showing. But, you have to give credit to Ueno for single handily beating the most dominate team in their sport. She had a bionic arm and looked like a male anime hero. Jenny Finch showed that a pretty face can be a dominate softball pitcher.