The Hater's Guide to the 2012 Olympics

In a sport I'd rather square off against someone stronger than me to build my skills in that sport. I'd rather skate off against Jaromir Jagr than some pipsqueak from the farm team.

Four Olympic badminton teams were disqualified Wednesday for trying to lose early matches so they would face less skilled players in the later knockout rounds.

http://bostonglobe.com/news/world/2012/ ... story.html

I fixed your boldfacing for you. They were disqualified for throwing matches, not just for jockeying for favorable matchings.

Four Olympic badminton teams were disqualified Wednesday for trying to lose early matches so they would face less skilled players in the later knockout rounds.

http://bostonglobe.com/news/world/2012/ ... story.html

I fixed your boldfacing for you. They were disqualified for throwing matches, not just for jockeying for favorable matchings.

They threw the matches because they wanted to play against weaker adversaries. How honorable! It just goes to show what your kind of thinking leads to.

They threw the matches because they wanted to play against weaker adversaries. How honorable! It just goes to show what your kind of thinking leads to.

Apples and oranges. You just equated two different things. You can't be ranked at the top of your sport by avoiding competing with people who are good at it. The guy who competes with the tenth-ranked instead of the top-ranked will never himself be the top-ranked. But when you buy a car from a used car salesman, is your goal to be ranked as the best negotiator around? No. Your goal is to achieve the deal that's most favorable to you. Sportsmanship is not something that the used car salesman is concerned with, so if you are then you're putting yourself at a disadvantage for no reason because of a dysfunctional idea in your head. Taoists refer to that as "overthinking".

They threw the matches because they wanted to play against weaker adversaries. How honorable! It just goes to show what your kind of thinking leads to.

Apples and oranges. You just equated two different things. You can't be ranked at the top of your sport by avoiding competing with people who are good at it. The guy who competes with the tenth-ranked instead of the top-ranked will never himself be the top-ranked. But when you buy a car from a used car salesman, is your goal to be ranked as the best negotiator around? No. Your goal is to achieve the deal that's most favorable to you. Sportsmanship is not something that the used car salesman is concerned with, so if you are then you're putting yourself at a disadvantage for no reason because of a dysfunctional idea in your head. Taoists refer to that as "overthinking".

Apples to apples. Did you not say this about competing in sports?

If I'm going to compete in a kayak race and I say that I'd rather race against a weak guy than an Olympian...

Could I be crowned the Olympic gold medalist by competing against the weak guy instead of the Olympian? Obviously not. You're a little confused about the difference between winning one match and being ranked number one.

Fencer screwed out of a medal by IOC. Criminal.

American TV Neglected the Saddest Story in the Olympics

All she had to do was not be touched in that one second and she would be advancing to the gold medal match. Unfortunately for Shin, the clock never started after the referee signaled to restart the match, giving Heidemann more than one second to land the winning touch.

Since the incident, it has come out that the timekeeper for the event was a 15 year old British volunteer.