kiltedrunner wrote:
Well done, you've managed to provide paragraphs of text without providing the bits everyone is actually talking about- the sickness excuses, 'how can I be so good yet so terrible' etc. Following up mild praise with an excuse is disrespectful, leaving the excuse bit out is therefore misleading. For what it's worth, I like Jakob's persona and enjoy the drama it brings to the sport, but Thoughtsleader was claiming he doesn't disrespect his fellow athletes, which in my opinion isn't really true. He's not Conor McGregor no, but he's not Nuguse either.
You confuse explanations with excuses -when Cheruiyot explained his underperforming in Tokyo Olympics with a hamstring injury, that was an explanation, not an excuse. And when Wightman in the same games concluded that he had a one race fitness, but the lack of strength to do heats, semis and final: that was an explanation and not an excuse. And when Jakob told about his (obvious) 2023 sickness, and speculated in 2022 about fouls he did in the racing strategy, this also were explanations… So could he have formulated his explanation in 2022 in a less awkward way -so Wightman didn’t feel a shift from the initial respect to disrespect? Certainly -but Jakob’s problem was that he thought (maybe wrongly, but still) that he would had been the best in WC 2022 with a different strategy. And as an honest, competitive guy he just had to say it (to himself and others)…
