What is it about Americans and ice sports? Skategate

[Cloxxki]

For years we've seen hard feelings in speed skating.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/winter06/speed/columns/story?id=2338484

The unspeakable happened in women's figure skating, making pro cycling seem like a checkers tournament
http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonya_Harding

And now, again on ice, short track this time...
http://rt.com/sport/simon-cho-speedskating-sabotage-us-802/

 

[hiero2]

Is it just Americans? I don' thin' so, man. Check the Norwegian and Finn news for scandals in the last 20 or so years. Svenska, ocksa, ja?



Oh, yeah, right-on call with Ms Harding. She was a real whinner, that one. Neeeeeeeeeyyyy.

 

[Cloxxki]

Is it just Americans? I don' thin' so, man. Check the Norwegian and Finn news for scandals in the last 20 or so years. Svenska, ocksa, ja?



Oh, yeah, right-on call with Ms Harding. She was a real whinner, that one. Neeeeeeeeeyyyy.

Fair enough. I just found the link and felt like putting it in some sort of context. As not much of an ice sport conaisseur, and certainly not of US sports, it seems like a lot of bad mojo there.
Anyway, this is bad. Hard to imagine this being less bad than a positive test and simply admitting it, in terms of disciplinary action. In short track people get badly hurt even when their skates are fine. Similar to cutting someone's brake lines in IndyCar? Yes, cut brake lines also negatively effect lap times.

 

[Fatclimber]

Not sure why you put this in the clinic. Reminds me of Lemond and his flopping front brakes, musta been 'nother 'Merikan on his team messin with stuffs.

 

[veganrob]

Really lame Cloxxi. Really lame. As an american I more than willing to admit that we are as guilty as any nation when it comes to scandals, but this, please. I am not throwing stones at Korea because that is the country of origin for the parties involved. It is human nature dude. All countries do it. Get it. sheeesh

 

[ToreBear]

Is it just Americans? I don' thin' so, man. Check the Norwegian and Finn news for scandals in the last 20 or so years. Svenska, ocksa, ja?



Oh, yeah, right-on call with Ms Harding. She was a real whinner, that one. Neeeeeeeeeyyyy.

Yes it's just Americans. Sorry. Oh wait we had a speed skating skandal a couple of years back. Something about a coach not being nice to one of the women athletes getting fired. Oh, wait. He's American.

No, it's just the americans.

 

[Cloxxki]

As much as I do like to poke at Americans (easy targets of late), that was actually not my intention here. Just saw similar odd cases of dis-granting another their success in ice sports. In fact I don't know of similar ones in other nations, could well be honest coincidence or at worst slective memory.

It's posted in The Clinic because I don't post on short track forums, if such exist. It's a case of possibly criminal sabotage, and it's happening right here, right now. If you care about cheating, you care about this. It's a moral issue, these athletes and coaches are off the safe track. People need to take sports a bit less serious sometimes.

 

[Zam_Olyas]

The best http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONViuMXi2nE and she has a clinic connection, her boyfriend is Alex Schwazer.

 

[Robert21]

Of course it is not just Americans who are willing to cheat to win. But on the other hand could anyone imagine an American saying something like:

The most important thing... is not winning but taking part; the essential thing in life is not conquering but fighting well.

On the other hand an American is reputed as saying:

Winning isn’t everything; it’s the only thing.

http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/FootballStudies/1999/FS0202h.pdf

It could even be argued that Armstrong effectively adopted the 'Full spectrum dominance" mindset of the American military, adapting it to the sporting arena.

Edit. Also of relevance...

Bigger Stronger Faster: The side effects of being American.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1151309/

In America, we define ourselves in the superlative: we are the biggest, strongest, fastest country in the world. Is it any wonder that so many of our heroes are on performance enhancing drugs? Director Christopher Bell explores America's win-at-all-cost culture by examining how his two brothers became members of the steroid-subculture in an effort to realize their American dream.

Steroids are as American as apple pie.

And in the spirit of Rambo let me tell you, we are going to win this time.

 

[neineinei]

Eric Heiden winning Superfrog 1978.

 

[hiero2]

Heiden - that's funny!

I do think Americans are more likely to cheat than some nationalities, but I'm pretty sure it ain't just us. As a matter of fact, the nationality I would be MOST surprised to be caught cheating would be Japan. The Chinese and Koreans don't find it beneath them, but neither do the Aussies, the French or the Italians. The Kenyans are leading the running world at the mo, on EPO. The cc skiing epo scandals started, as I recall, up in one a' them northern European countries. The Germans have yet to live down the state-run campaigns from before the fall of the Berlin Wall.

My guess would be, that if you could put numbers to it, there might be a correlation to the amount of corruption in the society. People DO put numbers to that kind of statistic, although I don't know how valid they are.