Thread: Trash talk backfires at the Beijing Olympics

BEIJING (AP)—Yelena Isinbayeva got the Olympic gold and a world record; American Jenn Stuczynski got the silver and a lesson in humility.

And we now have a new rivalry that should make woman’s pole vaulting fun to watch for many more years to come.

Big poles and big mouths don’t go together. Stuczynski knows that now. Pole vaulting isn’t basketball or boxing. It’s far too graceful of a sport for the kind of trash-talk she doled out before the Beijing Games.

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That's funny

I actually watched this event unfold.
It was amazing!

Not the trash talk, the breaking of the record.
In the end, there was a lone girl, Elena, who had already gotten the gold and the olympic record with her jump of 4.95m
The bar was raised to 5.05m (old world record stood at 5.04m).
She tried once and failed.
She tried a second time and failed again.
The crowd (mostly Chinese, of course) was going wild by this point and everyone, regardless of nationality, wanted to see her triumph!
Third time was a charm and the crowd went nuts!

That's what the Olympics is all about. She was no longer Russian. She was human.
Everyone forgot about nationality for a brief few moments while the human spirit triumphed.
That is, by far, the best moment I have seen at these Olympic games.

In an interview afterwards, they asked her about the comments from the other vaulter.
She put it simply... "She said it. I did it."

Good old honest sport eh you just cant beat it.

That link above shows Liu Xiang story now.

This one is the "trashy talk" one

Trash talk backfires at the Beijing Olympics - Yahoo! Sports

Trash talk is a pretty common Olympic stupidity behavior. LOL

Originally Posted by LeenkzMike

Trash talk is a pretty common Olympic stupidity behavior. LOL

I mostly see this side of it:

Originally Posted by Zap

That's what the Olympics is all about. She was no longer Russian. She was human.
Everyone forgot about nationality for a brief few moments while the human spirit triumphed.

With my nationalist blinkers on...

I've just been watching interviews with Nick Willis who came 3rd in the mens 1500 and was amazed at how humble and intelligent he appeared.

And watching the BMX seeding round as Sarah Walker (one of the top 4 women) would remove her helmet and beam at the camera as she waited to see her time and placing.

Both are experienced campaigners and know what the media can be like but I doubt either have had to deal with it much. It's lovely to see that some (most) of the athletes are actually grounded, regular people with an irregular lifestyle.

Sarah did well in the BMX Strange sport to have in the olympics, but sure was interesting to watch!

No stranger than some of the others. It's actually amazingly skilled.

It would take me over a minute to ride that track and I'm pretty good (ie I can keep up with my 9 year old son and a friends 14 year old daughter and I do race).

One of the top women fell in the rhythm section and it's just so damn typical. You're turning to jelly, your lungs are burning and suddenly you don't want to go too fast, but you need to be balanced and fluid and in control and the ground is going up and down and your bike wants to take on a life of it's own.

There will lots of crashes - the sport is nothing if not spectacular - and those riders really are good.

I just wish Aus TV would show more of the goings on. Who wants to sit through a full game of soccer, softball etc when they could switch over to the BMX, field athletics and everything else that is going on.

Big poles and big mouths don’t go together. Stuczynski knows that now.

With a name like Stuczynski, isnt the P up there supposed to be capitalized?

Trash talking is standard phenomena in sports. It has a tendency to make the bearer look like a sap win or lose... but especially so in the latter.

Originally Posted by robjones

With a name like Stuczynski, isnt the P up there supposed to be capitalized?

She is Russian