Olympic Disappointment

Yes the US is leading in the medal count, but we're also leading in the "most embarassing" Olympic moments as well. Not that everything has been an embarassment. Certainly US swimming is strong, as is the gymnastics arena. Track & Field was "OK" only, but the two words that I'm trying to get to are: MARDY FISH.

Sure he's a no one in the tennis world. Best ITF ranking was at 17, as of 2003 was ranked 20, and is currently ranked number 49 in the world. He's a clay court player mostly but made it to the gold medal round against a tired and cramping Nicolas Massau from Chile. Massau played 20 hours of tennis in 8 days, and was on his last legs at the start of the match. Fish noticed in the second game of the first set that Massau was ready to keel over, was cramping and was stumbling around the tennis court. Fish was unable to put him away and ultimately double faulted so many times and produced a HUGE amount of unforced errors that he lost the match to Massau who was playing on one leg, one arm and his raquet in his mouth. It was painful to watch but none the less, interesting to watch a tennis "pro" slowly beat himself against an inadequate opponent. I could only think that if Massau was at full strength, Fish would have lost soundly 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 to Massau. This probably will go down in history as one of the biggest all time chokes.



The US mens basketball team however, is an all together different but equally embarassing choke. Highly paid professional players who are paid millions to play every year and who are supposed to be the best of the best get trounced by Italy. WHO!?? Yes, Italy.

(Cologne, Germany) (AP)
"They're going to be in for a lot of lessons for the next few weeks," U.S. coach Larry Brown said. "It's a young team, and it's a different game internationally."

Ahh... no it's not. The game is still "put the ball in the basket" right? So what's the problem? These players don't want to jeopardize their "Phat new ride yo." or possibly pull a hamstring. Besides, their not motivated - their not getting any more money for representing their country right? Hell, I'd suspect half of them are too busy to get some Greek trim in and around the olympic grounds to be much worried about making 3 pointers from the outside. The US will face tough opposition in their next bout and may be eliminated by this team:


Let's hope they can beat the odds and not embarass themselves too much. Hey, maybe we can get those little guys on the US team for 2008!