Foo - Hippies and sports competition don't mix?

I know this is Foo, but I don't know any of those guys there... :D

Wait. I'll make it a cycling- related: "Treks are nice, safe, generic bikes..." ;)

Anyhow, did you see the Bode Miller interview with Tom Brokaw? How the hell did he become a world-class skier with absolutely no killer instinct?

I think his Unibomber living-in-a-shack-hippies-for-parents did a few too many bongs with him... :)

His whole persona is fake IMO. The more he denies that he cares the more you just know he's dying inside. He tries to be so cool but he's really just full of s#it.

Wah.
Now find a bike racer to whine about.

Where is M. C. Hammer when you need him?

It's BUCKET time!

And all this time I thought this was from a 15 year old, not a 45 year old. What is happening here?

I know this is Foo, but I don't know any of those guys there... :D

Wait. I'll make it a cycling- related: "Treks are nice, safe, generic bikes..." ;)

Anyhow, did you see the Bode Miller interview with Tom Brokaw? How the hell did he become a world-class skier with absolutely no killer instinct?

I think his Unibomber living-in-a-shack-hippies-for-parents did a few too many bongs with him... :)
Couldn't agree more. Nike put so much into Miller's goal of 5 medals and he flopped on the biggest stage. He is such crap, I can't believe Nike would put that much into an athlete and only have him choke. That would be like if Lance just got drunk all the time and road his bike around. Miller is a TERRIBLE spokesperson for American during the olympic games.

So the guy did'nt win and now he's a big looser to all of you? Paleeeese Grow up. Sports and compitition is'nt all about winning.

Anybody remember Reebok's massive Dan or Dave campaign before the '92 Barcelona games??

At least those two guys were genuinely nice and understood that it was kind of funny when the campaign fizzled BEFORE the games even began!

Bode's hype was as much NBC's fault as anyone else's. They hyped him up like he was Phil Maher, Ingmar Stenmark, Tommy Moe, and Jurgen Klinsmann all rolled into one. NBC did that with others, as well. It's all about creating a story.

Look at the Shani Davis crap. Yeah, Shani didn't participate in the team relay, but neither did gold medalist Joey Cheek. But Joey is a personable guy, so Chad Heddrick didn't publicly chastise Cheek. Davis had every right to skip the relay to focus on his specialty and not have to apologize for it. NBC would not shut up about it, though, so Shani looks like a spoil-sport for skipping the event.

Anyway, there were plenty of awesome performances that NBC ignored so they could talk about Bode, Shani, and Michelle Kwan more and more. That's the nature of media.

hippies dont mix with anything well...

Hacky Sack Boooi!!!!!! *cough cough*
Man the best boarders are stoned ,and people ski loaded all the time.
While there is real talent there you can't reach down into the powder and grab up a racer, tell him, ok you're the country's hope for gold now, and actually expect a gold performance. That's a stupid amount of pressure. Beside when the networks in American NEED an American story unfortunately it becomes a fishing expedition sometimes. Now Davis...the speed skating brother from Detriot and the "other guy on the squad"...there's a story.....man they hate each other....and Davis kicked his ass..

AND screw the relay if it's going to blow you specialty race. Like racing an extra little stage before the ITT.

Now Davis...the speed skating brother from Detriot and the "other guy on the squad"...there's a story.....man they hate each other....and Davis kicked his ass..

AND screw the relay if it's going to blow you specialty race. Like racing an extra little stage before the ITT.

Bingo.

...But Davis is from the (ahem) mean streets of Hyde Park in Chicago. Had to make that horrendous trip up Lake Shore Drive to Evanston to do his training. That's like a 14 mile trip. In their profile of him, NBC made it sound like Shani had to dodge a hail of bullets and pit bulls to travel three hours each way to train. What a load of bull. I'm sure Shani would have told them so, as well, but I doubt he had any editorial control of this 'human interest' feature by NBC. Shani would say, "Let's shut up and skate."

I saw Chad H just hatin' on Davis, wouldn't even congratulate him on a medal win in one of the races but was all smiles and for the other medalist American. I see a smack down for those two. Is Heddrick a country club type, because it's like a class war with those two?

So the guy did'nt win and now he's a big looser to all of you? Paleeeese Grow up. Sports and compitition is'nt all about winning.

You sound canadian. :D Sorry but competition is exactly that, the goal is to win. Especially, 100% more so, and explicitly, if you are hyped to be the best of the best in all categories of a versatile sport.

I hear that kind of crap all the time when we suck certain years. Take this year, we are going to come up with some stupid excuse as to why our team didn't medal in hockey. We sucked, the team should be castrated and rebuilt. The team was to old and relied to heavily on old timers. No one is gonna tell the golden boy that! We are going to be polite and say we got outplayed, but in the end, we sucked ass, we could have/should have done more and we didn't. This has been an embaressing couple of years for hockey. Thank god the canadian women know how to keep it together and kick ass.


ps I can't say much about bode directly. I come from an area where almost every great sportman spends his time in front of a bong and beer and still competes well, sometimes on world circuits. Oh and screw all of you who don't like hippies :D...

Bode Miller is a great skier, he won the right to go to the olympics by beating other Americans in the trials. Who gives a crap about his parents, more right-wing talk show BS. He went and skied well, others skied better, so what, Austria puts more attention to developing skiers, the US breeds football players, who's fault is that, Bode's parents???

hell no.... he lost..period.
Winning isn't everything but losing sucks. :)
Our hockey wanks figured they had it in the bag, underestimating your opponent and being over confident is the kiss of death. Not too mention it's a team sport which they all seemed to forget this time 'round. Gret's need a good slap for this year, the games had already started and we were in Canada trying on the uniforms. I hope one day it WILL be ALL amateurs once again. No pro hockey or basketball players, they really don't mesh with the spirit of the Olympics when they aren't even at the opening.

Take this year, we are going to come up with some stupid excuse as to why our team didn't medal in hockey.
Your team won. It's just they were all women. The men however made it clear that they expected nothing but gold and wouldn't settle for less. So they got nothing at all. Kinda sounds like the American Alpine skiing team. They labeled themselves the best in the world and had their ass handed to them for the most part.

As for Bode Miller, he's a fat, boozing, partying ski bum that's made his millions, conned Nike out of a bunch of dough, wrote a worthless book and will probably disappear from the public memory pretty quickly unless his name is turned into a verb. Imagine going 5 over par. You'll have Bode'd the hole.

Your team won. It's just they were all women. The men however made it clear that they expected nothing but gold and wouldn't settle for less. So they got nothing at all. Kinda sounds like the American Alpine skiing team. They labeled themselves the best in the world and had their ass handed to them for the most part. .

Agreed, and we should have medalled, we just didn't put the best team on the ice. We put the oldest :D

hell no.... he lost..period.
I think in order to lose, you have to at least have competed. I'm not sure that Bode qualifies. He either DNF or DQ'd most of his races, probably so he could get back to the disco.

Gotta make last call one way or the other? lol The fact he qualified was either an anomaly or the pressure really did cook him down. I remember when I was skateboarding instead of breathing, I would have weeks where I could do anything I set my heart on doing, and would have qualified for any competition. I wonder if this might have been the case, stars aligning, and a change of beer brand perhaps. Or bad qualifiers on the others part as well. Ah **** happens, he was an interesting story that will vanish under the dusts of time once again.

Agreed, and we should have medalled, we just didn't put the best team on the ice. We put the oldest :D
I actually enjoyed the Sweden-Finland gold medal game because having spent some time in Finland, I knew how much the Finns wanted to beat the Swedes. Finland has two official languages, Swedish and Finnish. It's a holdover from when Sweden ruled Finland for over 600 years. The two countries are cordial to each other, but when it comes to competing against each other, they smile a lot, but deep down they want to kill each other. Not on the level of Australia vs England in rugby or cricket or Pakistan vs India in cricket, but the whole nation of Finland probably wanted to jump off a cliff when the Finns lost.

Kinda sounds like the American Alpine skiing team. They labeled themselves the best in the world and had their ass handed to them for the most part.


What are there, like 10 total alpine events? 1 each for Men and Women: Downhill, Super G, G, Slalom, and Combined, right?

The US took two golds (men's combined and womens (super?) Giant Slalom. Hey, that's 20% of the medals! [edit... I meant GOLD medals.... :o )

If the artificial hype about the US team had not been there, this would have been a major triumph. If the networks would just stop CREATING stories, the real stories will uncover themselves as the games roll along.

Remember how Phil Maher's SILVER in Lake Placid was a big deal? Or how his Gold in slalom, his brother's silver in the same event, and Bill Johnson's INSANE win in the downhill at Sarejevo were so cool because they were not expected? That stuff is what the olympics are all about.

Seeing the athletes who want it most when the promotional videos stop and the competition starts is what makes sports so good. Talk all you want. But you better bring your game when the gun sounds to start the race, kids.

I wouldn't mind if he went 0-5 if the whole skiing team hadn't labeled themselves the best in the world or whatever. If you're gonna make that claim, you'd better back it up. Joe Namath predicted the Jets would win the Superbowl, then he came out and beat the Colts and won the Superbowl. You don't make proclamations like that and then not back them up. If they'd instead acted humble and just proud they'd made it to the Olympics, did their best and lost, I wouldn't bash them so much, but to be prideful and boastful, then wilt under the pressure, that's what annoys me.

^^^^+2^^^^
If you're gonna boast you better have the most.
I can't comment on others' countries coverage but American coverage seems to forget that the whole world is at the games not just the Americans and....oh yea.... some other countries came to.

Kinda on topic, but did anybody understand those Nike Bodeist commercials? It just sounded like the drunken ramblings of the (Olympic) village idiot.

didn't see a one of them

Kinda on topic, but did anybody understand those Nike Bodeist commercials? It just sounded like the drunken ramblings of the (Olympic) village idiot.

Maybe it should have been JointBode.com instead.

^^^^+2^^^^
If you're gonna boast you better have the most.
I can't comment on others' countries coverage but American coverage seems to forget that the whole world is at the games not just the Americans and....oh yea.... some other countries came to.
Primetime coverage concentrates on the games where Americans have a chance at medalling or are somewhat exciting. Daytime coverage showed whatever was on with an emphasis on hockey, curling, x-country skiing and the biathlon. When I watched during the day, I saw one hockey game after another and on another channel it was one curling game after another. The primetime coverage had features on athletes from other countries too (the female English curling captain that's on welfare, the Australian skier that's internet mogul, the women's Chinese speedskater that medalled in SLC, the Korean short track speedskaters, etc.) , but of course the emphasis will be on American athletes.

lol...he a toker as well? I'm likin' the cat more and more, I'm sure Canada could squeeze him onto the squad if America don't want him back.

lol...he a toker as well? I'm likin' the cat more and more, I'm sure Canada could squeeze him onto the squad if America don't want him back.
We'll trade you Bode for Clara Hughes and a box of Timbits.

um.....no.....she looks better in speed suits.....our best medalist ever? You must be knocking a few back with Bodie....lol

It was worth a shot. How 'bout just sending the Timbits and a player to be named later.

I'll even send you the 80 pac.... assorted?.... I was thinkin' we should spray some speed suits back on the original crazy canucks and see what happens....lol Mighn't be fast anymore but it could be kinda funny. We need some new balls out skiers, that is some sick sick speed though. I wonder why they never seem to post the speeds in these sports?

You sound canadian. :D Sorry but competition is exactly that, the goal is to win. Especially, 100% more so, and explicitly, if you are hyped to be the best of the best in all categories of a versatile sport.

I hear that kind of crap all the time when we suck certain years. Take this year, we are going to come up with some stupid excuse as to why our team didn't medal in hockey. We sucked, the team should be castrated and rebuilt. The team was to old and relied to heavily on old timers. No one is gonna tell the golden boy that! We are going to be polite and say we got outplayed, but in the end, we sucked ass, we could have/should have done more and we didn't. This has been an embaressing couple of years for hockey. Thank god the canadian women know how to keep it together and kick ass.


ps I can't say much about bode directly. I come from an area where almost every great sportman spends his time in front of a bong and beer and still competes well, sometimes on world circuits. Oh and screw all of you who don't like hippies :D...



We will have to agree to disagree here. I agree that the goal of compitition is to win at the olympic level for sure but that is the goal that is not everything that is involved. Take some of the younger stars out there, sure they would like to win but they also see it realistically that they are learning for the next olympics. And just because some one fails doesn't mean everyone should come down hard on them. I hate it how in this country for example the Yankees are doing good so all of a sudden you have Yankee fans in San Diego. I was a Yankee fan in the 70's and 80's damn it and they sucked :)



I wouldn't mind if he went 0-5 if the whole skiing team hadn't labeled themselves the best in the world or whatever. If you're gonna make that claim, you'd better back it up. Joe Namath predicted the Jets would win the Superbowl, then he came out and beat the Colts and won the Superbowl. You don't make proclamations like that and then not back them up. If they'd instead acted humble and just proud they'd made it to the Olympics, did their best and lost, I wouldn't bash them so much, but to be prideful and boastful, then wilt under the pressure, that's what annoys me.




^^^^+2^^^^
If you're gonna boast you better have the most.
I can't comment on others' countries coverage but American coverage seems to forget that the whole world is at the games not just the Americans and....oh yea.... some other countries came to.

This makes no sense. If Bode won 4 Golds then you would be saying, "See just like Namath he can really back it up" and if Namath lost you'd say," Man you cant say all that if you can't back it up". It's called hindsight.

Are you guys Yankee fans :D

Assorted, but in such a way that there's more chocolate ones than all other Timbits. As for spray painting middle aged men, hey, whatever floats your boat. ;)

If Bode had won all 4 golds I'd be so stoked for him as an individual, no matter what boasting took place. Seriously I'd be so pleased for him and the American Alpine program.

I hate it how in this country for example the Yankees are doing good so all of a sudden you have Yankee fans in San Diego. I was a Yankee fan in the 70's and 80's damn it and they sucked :)
It's still better than being a Mets fan during the same period. At least the Yanks won two World Series and Don Mattingly battling Wade Boggs every year for the batting title gave us something to root for.




This makes no sense. If Bode won 4 Golds then you would be saying, "See just like Namath he can really back it up" and if Namath lost you'd say," Man you cant say all that if you can't back it up". It's called hindsight.
If Bode had actually finished his races and made them close, I wouldn't bash him so much. But since he partied so much the night before his races, then either didn't finish or wasn't even close the next day, I can't look at him as an athlete that's interested in competing and doing his best. Michael Jordan may have spent a few nights before playoff games gambling in Atlantic City, but he came out the next day and beat the crap out of the Knicks anyway. Bode didn't do that.




Are you guys Yankee fans :D
Yup, since the seventies.

Baseball? I thought we were talkin' sports....lol

If Bode had actually finished his races and made them close, I wouldn't bash him so much. But since he partied so much the night before his races, then either didn't finish or wasn't even close the next day, I can't look at him as an athlete that's interested in competing and doing his best.

Bode finished 5th in the Downhill. Yeah, he didn't win it, but he didn't exactly do poorly in that one.

... and no.... I'm not a Yankee fan. Go Cardinals!

I guess pro squash is off the radar then ..... those guys are so messed up when they compete sometimes.
Maybe that IS the test of wether you get to be a pro or not is the ability to make it look like a killer test of abilities to the layman when in reality you're all a bunch of loaded goofballs havin' a blast. :p Could turn pro sports on it's ear.

I don't see losing as the issue, here.
My problem is that he didn't seem to care that he completely tanked.

He is the classic example of the kid, who is spoiled because he has such great natural talent. When you don't have to work for what you get, you don't appreciate what you have.

I don't see losing as the issue, here.
My problem is that he didn't seem to care that he completely tanked.

He is the classic example of the kid, who is spoiled because he has such great natural talent. When you don't have to work for what you get, you don't appreciate what you have.
Until you actually reach international competition as opposed to the state finals. Then the athlete is just another hopeful trying to eek out a win. Is it stupidity or arrogance that lets them think it's a cake walk against the worlds' best? Where were the coaches in all this?

I don't see losing as the issue, here.
My problem is that he didn't seem to care that he completely tanked.
+1

To quote the NYT, "He occasionally granted short interviews, where with spectacularly poor timing, he professed his general lack of interest in winning Olympic medals."

I can understand the lackadaisical attitude towards the Olympics and winning medals, but if you're gonna accept your selection to the team, your duty becomes competing to the best of your ability. Whether you win or not isn't the point. It's whether you've competed as best you could. I don't think he competed as best he could.

I was unaware of his lack of interest..... why was he on the squad then?

I was unaware of his lack of interest..... why was he on the squad then?

I think it was so he could party on an olympic level. :rolleyes:

lol....well why the hell not.....can't blame him there one bit. :))

I think it was so he could party on an olympic level. :rolleyes:

I think we can all relate to this one. How can you fault Bode for wanting to champion this cause?

He was in the backyard of the great Alberto Tomba, who was known to cavort and party all the time before winning his races. The Italians embrace him as a national hero.

The difference is that La Bomba acted as if he cared about the partying and skiing in equal parts.

Bode made the mistake of going on 60 Minutes, therefore creating a firestorm in the hypocritical American media which goes like this: "oh my goodness! drinking!!?! how could he?? now a word from our sponsors... Bud and Miller..." Then Bode had to be all contrite and act like he was sorry, which he obviously wasn't. More respect if he would have just said, "hey, it is what it is," and then got back down to business. He got caught in his own hype. He's still world class in his sport, but fell to the pressure that is the Olympics.

Tomba was insane on his skis, truly scary to watch him attack.
Bsides I think the only way one could be loose enough not to rip your leg off in a 140-160 km/hr crash is to be three sheets to the wind to begin with.

Bode made the mistake of going on 60 Minutes, therefore creating a firestorm in the hypocritical American media which goes like this: "oh my goodness! drinking!!?! how could he?? now a word from our sponsors... Bud and Miller..." Then Bode had to be all contrite and act like he was sorry, which he obviously wasn't. More respect if he would have just said, "hey, it is what it is," and then got back down to business. He got caught in his own hype. He's still world class in his sport, but fell to the pressure that is the Olympics.

Hit the nail on the head. Now he has to apologize for his drinking F that. Bode is now my new olympic hero, Hippie? No way, Punk more like it:

from yahoo.com:

When police officers raided the Austrian biathlon and cross country houses, they found 100 syringes and evidence of blood doping. In a less publicized incident, a police raid of Bode Miller's trailer home turned up three empty bottles of Jack Daniel's and five frozen burrito wrappers.

see

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/news?slug=dw-wrap022606&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

I would love to hang out with this guy and do some skiing and drinking.

um.....no.....she looks better in speed suits.....our best medalist ever? You must be knocking a few back with Bodie....lol

Hey, didn't you guys have that babe Canuck figure skater ten years ago? What was her name, Josie Chenard or sumpin' like that?

I wonder who's the lucky bastard is that's tappin' her? :p

http://www.scratchspin.com/2001/canopen01/chouinard1.html

This one?

Until you actually reach international competition as opposed to the state finals. Then the athlete is just another hopeful trying to eek out a win. Is it stupidity or arrogance that lets them think it's a cake walk against the worlds' best? Where were the coaches in all this?

Firstly as an aging Hippie I resent the thread title.

B) Bode has competed on an international level before, it's not like this
kid just popped up outta nowhere and no one knew who he was, uh, unpredictable? inconsistant?
Look at his history. Same with the rest of the team, they've all been there.

3) I don't think any team gets to the Olympics with the desire to come in 2nd or 3rd or 23rd
for that matter. If any team didn't boast that they are the best in the world well then they
shouldn't be there. To put it in a cycling perspective you never heard T Mobile saying we are
2nd or 3rd best did you?

Marty