Updated throughout the day with quick takes from staff.
Alright, Mike Freidman, you're wearing that ridiculous mask to "protect the airways." I'm not scientist, but I'm sure the masks were unnecessary, but fine, whatever, man. But how do you explain the floppy bucket hat and pink sunglasses? You cannot simply scare Chinese pollution away with fashion faux pas.
However, after presumably seeing how silly they looked, the cyclists who wore the masks -- Mike Friedman, Sarah Hammer, Bobby Lea and Jennie Reed -- apologized this morning:
“We deeply regret the nature of our choices. Our decision was not intended to insult BOCOG or countless others who have put forth a tremendous amount of effort to improve the air quality in Beijing.”And with that, hopefully we will hear nothing else from the U.S. indoor track cycling team.
This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.
12 comments
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That’s terrible behavior.
by Dan Barker on Aug 6, 2008 10:05 AM EDT reply actions
Lame on so many levels. And even lamer that they caved so quickly.
by Block O on Aug 6, 2008 12:17 PM EDT reply actions
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Yeah how dare someone insult
the tolerant and benevolent Chinese government. They have gone out of their way
to ensure basic human rights for all of their citizens, from censoring their
media to regulating the number of children they can have. Tommie Smith and John
Carlos would probably be considered traitors by Dan Barkers standards!
by fingerinmychili on Aug 6, 2008 12:20 PM EDT reply actions
FingerChiliDude: Did you ever consider that perhaps it insults the Chinese people?
by cmottram on Aug 6, 2008 12:24 PM EDT reply actions
Stupid. Hey, they are Olymic athletes…is their immune systems so weak they are likely to get sick from polution?
Get a grip, people. You represent 300 million people and the greatest nation on Earth. Show some sense and some pride!
by mightyhokie on Aug 6, 2008 12:45 PM EDT reply actions
Stupid. Hey, they are Olymic athletes…is their immune systems so weak they are likely to get sick from polution?
Get a grip, people. You represent 300 million people and the greatest nation on Earth. Show some sense and some pride!
by mightyhokie on Aug 6, 2008 12:45 PM EDT reply actions
I guess the Chinese people don’t realize their air is intolerable? Of course they know. They’ve struggled with it for years and years. I’m betting the average Chinese weren’t in any way "insulted", because most of them wear masks, too (except for the next few weeks, I bet). The Chinese know the air in Beijing is poisonous. Just Google "Beijing Air Pollution" and you can see that improving the air quality has been an issue in regard to the Olympics for several years both from media in and outside of China. The air quality, apparently, has improved temporarily. The fixes look to be short-term and the people that live in Beijing will be right back in their masks in September.
by henry clay on Aug 6, 2008 12:52 PM EDT reply actions
i hope that when they appologised they pronounced bocog like BO-COG and didnt say the letters. we didnt mean to insult your acronym, our bad.
now take off those stupid masks, sack up and win us some medals.
by stevenchabot on Aug 6, 2008 1:12 PM EDT reply actions
China has a huge problem with flatulence. What’s their population? 200,000,000? That’s a lot of foul gas.
by whamo on Aug 6, 2008 3:45 PM EDT reply actions
So they are stupid for wearing masks in Biejeng? Do the locals wear masks to protect themselves for the low air quality as well? The question isn’t why they wore the masks but why they apologized for wearing them.
by egad on Aug 6, 2008 3:51 PM EDT reply actions
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cmottram.tsn: I think this Blog should stick to sports, because outside of that
genera you look pretty ignorant with your statements. No I don’t think the Chinese
citizens were offended. If you knew much about the air pollution in that country,
you would have known it’s been a problem for there many years and the masks are
a very common practice. Maybe you should talk to one of the 10,000 students that staged a sit in @ Tiananmen
square, and ask them how they feel about theses athletes actions. Now they
banned Darfur activist Joey Cheek from even entering the country, the only
thing I think those athletes did wrong was back down!
by fingerinmychili on Aug 6, 2008 7:32 PM EDT reply actions
The masks in airports are so common that the Americans were the only ones wearing them?
by cmottram on Aug 7, 2008 9:26 AM EDT reply actions
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