nothing to see here wrote:
Symmonds wasn't whining. He talked about getting fairly beaten in the last 100. If you quoted the whole interview, you'd see that he accepted that his finishing place was probably where he should have finished. He just didn't have his typical kick.
Sure, if you cherry-pick one sentence and focus on that, you can call him a whiner, but if you read the whole interview, you'd see that he gave a pretty reasonable response to the questions asked.
Plus, who figures on having 10 in the final? It was notable. The announcers mentioned the oddity of having 10 line up for the final as well. Are the announcers whiners, too?...
Fair enough. You are right, I did not read the whole interview. And I do have great respect for Symmonds. Great talent. Great competitor. And I think he ran an excellent race. So, my apologies to Symmonds and his fans.
My comment wasn't really about Symmonds, however. Although I can see how one would interpret it that way. My comment was on the consistent whining (and yes, I will call it whining) that comes across every time an American does not win. "Surely those African juniors are 25 years old instead of 18." "Obviously they are all also using PEDs." "The Brits were 'losers' for (rightly) pointing out that the Americans had passed the baton outside of the legal zone" and finally
"David Monti Provided First Quotes From Nick Symmonds, And He's Pretty Ticked There Were 10 In The Final We agree with Symmonds, who wonders how the hell there were 2 extra men added to the final, neither of whom was Abubaker Kaki." as posted on Letsrun homepage. Granted it is only a headline. But it IS the headline that Letsrun chose to post.
Now, seriously, don't you think that Letsrun viewers from other countries would look at all of these the same way - with a roll of their eyes and a quick quip about whiny Americans? I think that Americans are not, in general, a whiny people. And I am simply hoping that we can do a better job of portraying that fact in the media.