Are Australia's Olympians in any way representative of the population? If they are, we're in a lot of trouble.
Never before has there been such a bad bunch of petulant, spoilt whingers. When I'd though I'd said all I could about them in their lead up to London, the news just keeps rolling in. I remember in the Sydney Olympics the media poured scorn and outrage at the over zealous winning celebration by Maurice Green and the US relay team when they won Gold. They were accused of being bad sportsmen. The arrogance of people who celebrate a win! Geez, fast forward to London 2012, and the behaviour of Australia's athletes - NOW we have seen bad sportsmanship! We're stuck with a bunch of whining losers who, if they actually make it on the track, will be impossible to support because of their exploits off it.
Australia has over 400 athletes in London, and the majority are probably great. But its the 20 or so who are having tantrums about anything and everything in sight. Like this guy...
http://www.theage.com.au/olympics/athletics-london-2012/ross-threatens-olympic-walkout-20120725-22ppm.html
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| Give us your best victim pose |
Why doesn't the AOC have a plane waiting at Heathrow for all the ungrateful 'athletes', fuelled and ready to take them home where they can be forgotten. Call their bluff. Rattle a tin around the streets to raise money for it, no doubt people will only be too happy to contribute.
Ross, who is a member of Australia's 4x100m relay team, is eligible to compete in the Olympics blue riband event because he clocked 10:23 seconds – a B-qualifying standard time – at the nationals earlier this year and at a recent meet in Europe.
He's eligible - not deserving.
However, he has reached breaking point after Athletics Australia officials would not tell him why he was overlooked. Melissa Breen was nominated for the women's 100m after she ran a B-standard time and selectors will soon choose between fellow B-qualifiers Steve Solomon and John Steffensen to compete in the 400m event.
To quote a 6 year old when his brother gets a bigger ice cream "but its not fairrrrrr"
“I'm actually thinking about pulling out all together if I don't get answers,” Ross said. “I'll actually be happy to pull out if I don't get answers to why I wasn't nominated for the 100m.”
You'll be "happy" to pull out? So evidently the fact that you are lucky enough to be competing in an OLYMPICS at all means absolutely nothing. I would have though it would be a lifelong dream for most athletes. Gotta love that commitment to excellence.
Ross said he was committed to sacrificing his place at the Olympics and would “have to” live with what many people would consider an extreme action because – after coming out of retirement and giving his all to represent Australia at London – he has felt a distinct lack of respect from his sport's officialdom.
And what respect have you earned? What respect are you showing to your sport, your team, your country? If you do go home, you will be leaving the rest of the 4 x 100 relay team in the lurch. Great team player.
“All I wanted is an answer, a simple answer,” he said. “I'm doing this because I haven't got any answers personally. I've been trying to get answers but because it's always being hand-balled to other people it's been difficult to find a straight answer. The strangest thing of all is I'm trying to find out why they nominated Steve Solomon and John Steffensen to run but didn't want to nominate me.
Don't worry about Steffensen, you don't need any answers about him, he has nothing to do with you. Just worry about yourself. maybe worry about trying to run faster even?
“Am I not good enough? Am I not good enough to them to run the 100m when I have proven time and time again that Josh Ross always comes through with the goods . . . 'Am I not good enough to be nominated?' That is the big question – although it is a strange question.”
Its not a strange question. No. Josh Ross is not good enough. Always comes through with the goods? When?
Ross believed such a stance was required to ultimately improve the lot for Australia's athletes. He could not understand why his federation would not nominate the likes of himself or Tamsyn Manou (nee Lewis), a triple Olympian and former world indoor champion who was not even selected for the team despite posting a B-qualifier for the 800m .
First you're riding Steffensen's coattails, and now Tamsyn Lewis? Geez, you've picked some real winner there. Steffensen and Lewis weren't nominated because they are not good enough, they didn't qualify. And, more importantly they weren't nominated because they are annoying, bad sports, and because more trouble than they're worth.
And well done Ross, you've catapulted yourself to their lofty heights.
Great Britain has nominated athletes who have run B-qualifying times in the men's 100m and women's 800m. “There is a bigger picture than just me not running or Tamsyn and whoever else,” Ross said. “You have to look at the future of the sport, the up-and-coming athletes.
Firstly, if the future of Athletics in Australia is Steffensen, Tamsyn Lewis and Josh Ross, then its probably time to give the game away. Secondly, Lewis has retired, Ross has come out of retirement, and Steffensen is a never was. So what future is it that you speak of?
We have the best 400m sprinter [Steffensen] that we've ever seen on the team and he's not [picked yet]; we have our best 100m sprinter and he's not making it ... the younger athletes must be thinking 'if they're not making it what hope do I have?'
Well Josh Ross, not including Steffensen will show young athletes that they aren’t owed any favours, and that running their mouths off isn’t a way to get what they want. That’s the message it sends. And hopefully they listen, so we don't have to put up with a new crop of whingers in 2016.
I think it is time to fix athletics in this country and [for the officials] to do things the right way. “If we don't speak up now and make stands to change the sport it will never happen, I just want you to know this is [the reason for] my stand.”
based in the past week, Australian athlectis will be well on its way to being fixed when Ross, Steffensen and Lewis are no longer a part of it.
And having a tanty because you don't get things your way is not the same as making a stand.
Ross said the chance for him to compete against Jamaica's world champion Usain Bolt, history's fastest man, would perhaps help AA to inspire youngsters to remain in a sport that constantly loses its best prospects to the football codes.
Using the word “compete” is being very generous. Taking his B-qualifying form into the race, Ross wont get past the heats. So he will have to get drawn in the same heat at Bolt if he wants to race him. And if this happens, the only time we will see the two is the same tv screen is if Bolt is still on the track celebrating his cruisy victory, as Ross huffs and puffs past a few seconds later on his on his way to the finish.
And INSPIRE youngsters? What kind of inspiration have you been so far? Complain. Whine. Complain some more. And if you don't get what you want, take your bat and ball and go home. A true role model for the kids out there.
More importantly, no matter your exploits on the track, you and your team mates have already outshone them, there's not enough Gold in the world to eclipse your whining.
“Australians want to see Australians compete,” he said. “The fact is I'm here in London [where I'm being accommodated, clothed and fed] so why not let me run?”
No Josh, that may have been true at previous Olympics, but not any more. After yours and your mates behaviour, most people want to see you actually live out your threats. Go home.
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