Olympics: the dumbest question ever

[naplesme 58]

Anyone see the interview with Clarissa Chun after she lost her Bronze medal match? The reporter asked what IMHO had to be the dumbest question ever. Chun had just been pinned in the match and the reporter asked "All things considered you have to be pleased with your performance?" Chun looked at her for a moment like she was crazy and said "No" before she turned away from the camera. My question why can't they find someone who understands the sport and understands that expecting a happy to be here answer from a wrestler who has just been pinned, especially in your last match of the season is just plain stupid. :x

[Mathound 4]

After the individual match of the women's floor routine, I watched Shawn Johnson lose the gold medal to the Romanian lady in a very close final. Immedietly when she knew she had lost, you could see the disapointment, but shortly after she was all smiles and "appeared" to be very sportsmanlike, happy for the winner, and ok with second.

I was shocked at how well she handled take the silver. Then it was said, "They are trained at a very young age to compose themselves that way." I imagined a wrestler getting beat for the gold and no part of my mind could imagine the same reaction.

[Two_Cents 0]

There is a major difference between the two cases.  Johnson won a medal and Chun didn't.  I think most of us would be dissapointed to lose the gold medal match but at the same time be happy with the silver medal.

[Zeus 117]

There is a major difference between the two cases.  Johnson won a medal and Chun didn't.  I think most of us would be dissapointed to lose the gold medal match but at the same time be happy with the silver medal.

I don't know about that.  Having been beaten in the state finals I was VERY unhappy with my performance, especially immediately after the match.  Since then, 5+ years, I have come to terms with second place but I still don't like it.  In fact sometimes when people introduce me to others they say I was a state champ and I have to correct them because it bothers the hell out of me.  And that was just the KY state finals.  I can't imagine what I would have felt having lost in the Olympic finals.  However I agree that it must have been even worse to lose the way Chun did because it cost her a medal.  I guess I'm disagreeing with the happy about second place part not the other.

I think the problem people have with second place, especially wrestlers because we're so competitive, is that we are soooo close to winning it and don't make it.  I don't have a "second place is the first loser" attitude but I don't like to lose at anything.

[Two_Cents 0]

I never liked to lose myself although I was never lucky enough to be in the state finals.  I just think there is something to be said in calling yourself an Olympic medalist.  More people win the lottery in this country than win Olympic medals.  Look at Dara Torres.  She lost by .01 seconds and she has stated that she was disappointed that she lost but happy that at the age of 41 she was able to beat kids half her age and winning the silver medal. 

If the Rulon Gardner would have lost his gold medal match do you not think that after the initial dissapointment went away that he wouldn't have been proud of beating everybody in the world at his weight except the person that hadn't lost in several years?

I am not saying that you should ever want to lose but I would rather say I was an Olympic medalist than an Olympian.  For that matter I would rather say I was a state runner up than a state qualifier.