Fair or foul: Tshepiso Masalela DISQUALIFIED for celebration / pretending to shoot Habz on finish line. Noah Lyles watch out.

Nah homie, you're just sad and depressed and need to see what is ultimately fake drama between other people to give your anemic system some fleeting and vicarious "excitement" in your otherwise rude life.

How about taking up a hobby and hoping to actually achieve something to replace the void - a birdhouse? cutting board? knit yourself some mittens or a scarf?

I am so glad they called it cause the amount of stupid finish line antics I’ve seen at local races is gross. The Alex yee arm crossed thing or “silencing the haters” sign for winning your local 10k in 45 minutes. Cringe.

Let them talk off the track, bring hype before like Kerr and Jacob. No need for finish line rubbish, and shake hands at the end and show some sportsmanship.

After his win in the '84 LA Olympic 1500 meters, Coe made a huge display of flipping the bird to the spectators in the stands.

Y'all should watch Jumpman's recent video, which covers the topic. I am in agreement with him.

Did he yeah? You must be a historian of the sport.

See I could have sworn he was putting up two index fingers with his palms facing outwards gesturing that he had in fact just won "TWO" Olympic 1500m titles back to back (which I think he just had?), in a direct response to the fickle UK media questioning if he should have been selected ahead of Peter Elliot (who beat him in the AAAs) as I believe Ovett (WR holder) and Cram (the reigning WC) had already been automatically selected. But then again I don't have a great memory and could be completely wrong about that....

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The DQ for an apparent finger gun gesture occurred in Poland, which has much stricter gun ownership regulations than the USA.

In Poland citizens can own a gun only if they first obtain a permit, only if they intend to use the gun for specific purposed, and they must pass a medical, psychological and other examinations first.

Not sure who the officials were or where they were from that made the DQ in Poland, but one has to believe that the general attitudes and beliefs toward guns likely contributed to the decision to DQ.

Attitudes toward gun gestures associated with sports have changed since Noah Lyles made his gesture in 2022. That was when the NBA was in the beginning of the Ja Morant gun incidents, and both the NBA and NFL have taken a much harder stance against the use of finger gun gestures since then.

If Lyles made that same gesture today, he would be more likely to receive a DQ.

have a drink my man. Consider being less of a smug a-hole. You will probably live longer

Damn, americans are soft. Im dissapointed with so many in here supporting this. DQ for this?

Its nothing. Ridiculous.

Whilst I accept some athletes do it as a playful gesture, the point is it is ambiguous enough and has very obvious connotations that are threatening. And whilst it may not literally mean an athlete is going to shoot someone, it is generally intended as an insult. Would giving someone the finger after a race be acceptable? No it would not, certainly not in my country. It's also a gesture that has gang-related connotations in many countries.

These are professional sports people with sponsors competing in a regulated competition, with sponsors & financial backers, in front of the media & fans, some of which are impressionable children.

When London won the 2012 Games against Paris, would it have been acceptable if Lord Seb Coe looked over to the French delegation and did the gun sign to them? Do we not hold everyone to the same standards?

You wazzock.

Again, there is a line here for everyone, even you. Almost everyone here is saying that the usual finish line antics, whilst cringe, aren't really an issue at all. But there is a tangible difference between making a 'shh' motion, and pretending to shoot a specific athlete in the head. If that isn't the line for you, there is nevertheless a hypothetical celebration that would be 'too far' for a professional athlete- pretending to stab the other athlete to death? Running up to a competitor's family and giving them all the finger? A sieg-heil?

If we agree that this isn't WWE and there are limits to how obscene a distance running celebration is allowed to be before a DQ or fine is appropriate, then this is a conversation worth having before the major champs return, because as others have noted, these celebrations are becoming much more common and not just in the B races like this one.

crazy thread, same behaviors, totally different reactions.fans and refs.

one ok fun, another not fun, one dq one not,

ok, lets dq on how we feel, not funny, DQ,

okee dokee

Agree.

No, theres no actual difference. Its all antics. Its the same as doing the finger across neck motion, which is way more "offensive" but very normal in sports. None of those you mention is anything else (apart from sieg-heil) anything more than antics. Also, there is different categories. If you include running up to a family, thats another category. Lets keep it to the one we are in: antics against competition. This is nothing, why didnt you guys react like this when Noah did it?

To compare it to WWE is ridiculous. And more common? Hello, look at the last 30 years. These things ebb and flow with the different athletes. Then we should also remove trash talk, celebratitions before the finish line, staring at a competitor before the race, no boasting etc. You could argue one could get a warning etc, but straight to DQ? Its still ridiculous.

Coe was not "flipping the bird". He was clearly gesturing with his index fingers. His display was aimed at the press and other people who had doubted him.

The Noah situation has been addressed multiple times already- he looked like he was pointing because of the use of one finger, that's why noone particularly cared. Since then we've seen a clip of him doing an Eastwood-esque 'quickdraw' and shooting multiple opponents who he'd just defeated (after the race, from a distance). This is obviously less ambiguous but it is undoubtedly more 'theatrical' than if he'd walked up to one specific athlete and pretended to shoot them in the head point blank. I'd completely disagree that the finger across the neck motion is 'way more offensive'; particularly as the athlete does it to their own neck. A fair comparison to Masalela's action in this case would be an athlete reaching towards an opponent's neck and pretending to slice it, or pretending to tie a noose around an opponent's neck. Would you be ok with that? If not, why not?

Also, I've already said I think the way forward with this type of conduct is through a fine (perhaps shaved off his first place winnings) rather than a DQ, in the same way that other 'serious' sports treat these kind of professional conduct infractions.

I played coos and robbers at school as a child. We shot each other thousands of times. I watched a movie last night where people held real guns and shot each other and fake blood made it look like people got killed. If that is acceptable, how can a finger warrant a DQ? Do you even hear how silly that sounds?