Daily Mail columnist Martin Samuel believes that Nodar Kumaritashvili‘s coffin should be stamped with a maple leaf. “Made in Canada, it should say. Made by the perversion of the Olympic movement for national gain; made by a culture of worthless aggrandisement and pride.”
Samuel goes on to blame Canada’s Own the Podium program, and the lack of track time given to international competitors like Kumaritashvili, who he says, “was no threat to anybody.” In fact, he calls it cheating. Canada’s greedy guts were also given a finger-wagging by Stephen Colbert and his “don’t be an icehole” campaign, but obviously he wasn’t expecting this to end in death. It did end in beer though: Vancouver’s R&B microbrewery created a lager in salute.
This is what happens, I suppose, when we act against our nature. Maybe it wasn’t so bad being the dopey nice guy who always gets the Participation ribbon, the constant butt of jokes from our meathead neighbour who insists we hold the can of cleaner as he shines his medal collection.
That said, if we get one second less high-diving practice time than the Brits during the 2012 London Olympics, we’ll be watching, Mr. Samuel.
This article appears in Feb 11-17, 2010.
Yeah, and the Daily Mail is such a reliable, highly reputable source of news. A news source that has “Femail” on it’s home page, writ with tabloid BS that would make TMZ cry.
I do have to somewhat agree that Canada has been playing 100% by the rules. They are allowed to restrict access to the venues, or schedule time for other countries when they are at say Olympic qualifiers in another nation. Hey good for Canada…do what it takes to make you feel good about yourselves. We all know we would never want a competition to have people equally acclimated to the environment they are to perform in. I know the US did the same thing with restricted access—but I do recall it was not to the degree that Canada and their Own the podium selves have done this year.
But hey—good for you. You want to do whatever is necessary to put Gold around your necks. Best of luck–hope you can deal with that conscience that you used to have.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-…
Fever, your mention of Femail reminded me of this article from the Daily Mail someone sent me last week. That’s the kind of quality journalism the old Daily Mail like to print. O Brother!
Thanks for that, Andy. It gives me faith that mainstream journalism from the UK is highly accurate, informative source.
Just like their medical journals.