TMZ-style behind the scenes in Rio - who was the jerk athlete?

I flew out to Pre this year and met a bunch of the athletes who competed at Rio. Every one of them was extremely nice and signed autographs and took pictures with everyone who asked.

The most striking example was Boris Berian. After his race, he had taken off his spikes when he went into the media tent. Walking out onto the black rubber walkway where people were lined up for autographs and pictures, you could tell his feet were burning, but he insisted on taking pictures with and signing the programs of everyone waiting. That really speaks volumes about him.

Jager, Coburn, Simpson, Lagat, Rowbury,Farah, all seemed more than happy to sign and pose for photos even seconds after finishing what must have been grueling races.

One of the best experiences was meeting Brenda Martinez. I was talking to her after her race, telling her how I'd skipped my senior trip to go to the meet. She then called over her coach and gave me her extra VIP pass that gave me access to the whole stadium, including athlete warm up area! It was surreal to sit down under a tent only to have Alberto Salazar sit next to you recapping a 10k with Mo Farah, to see Shannon Rowbury complete her cool down, and to just witness the habits of these elite athletes. Only wish I could have met Centro!

From what I've seen at Pre and Millrose, pro runners are some of the most gracious, kind professional athletes of any sport. Keep it up guys!

PorkPieHat wrote:

bolt not nice wrote:

Wow, she sounds like an even bigger jerk than Bolt.

She had a disappointing games,wanted a gold so who can blame the little sweetie for being abrupt.

Meet her Amsterdam have a couple of Heine's, maybe a smoke and youll change your mind.

She also had a very painful adductor injury.

"Don't mess this up Seb!"

Surprised no one else mentioned this. This was the best part.

Unfortunately easy wrote:

The biggest jerk in Rio was Caster Semenya.

This ^^^^^

No one else was as big of a jerk as he is.

This kind of made my day.

I'm calling out the Kiprop story. He's always been a Snickers man.

Never-CJ Nation wrote:

Coach wrote:

The least amiable athletes U ever met was the duo of CJ Hunter and Marion Jones. When others were shaking hands and taking pictures, some for 10 minutes, CJ walked in front of Marion with his hand out ready to stiff arm any autograph or picture taking fan.

My wife & I had exactly the same experience with Hunter, on separate occasions, during the 2000 Trials. Total jerk.

We were at a professional meet in 2000. One of my friends went to get something out of the car and when he came back he said he saw C.J. yelling at a 6 year old boy (guessing the age) in the parking garage. Said C.J. was cursing at him, intimidating him and could be heard from across the garage. My friend was the type of person who never had anything had to say about anyone.

Marion was at the same meet. This was when she was America's Sweetheart. I had never seen anyone so insincere. She was extremely aware of the cameras and would smile and take pictures and sign autographs when the cameras were on her and ignore everyone the second the cameras turned away. Then act nice when the cameras would turn back to her. She would literally stop talking to kids the second the cameras were off of her and hand back the pen before signing autographs.

This so called journalist looks like a hobby jogger to me. 5th man in xc in high school. Lmao. Only wears the most expensive running gear everywhere.