Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Stay Classy Apolo

I know I'm a little late with this, but I've been stewing on it for a while. I know everyone is enthralled by the disaster prone events going on in Vancouver, but I've managed to avoid caring about everything aside from Curling. Outside of the Norwegian's pants its all about as exciting as a bowl of oatmeal to me, and I've finally reached the point where I don't care about bruised shins or egos.
These look good on the ice and the back 9.

So despite my all encompassing apathy I found myself (stuck) watching speed skating and the invincible Apolo Anton Ohno. NBC proceeded to beat me over the head with interviews and clips of him dancing with the stars, and I did my best to keep my eyes from rolling back into my head. Thanks to all of the media posturing I was now aware that he was one away from having the most Winter medals of any American, which I have to admit is impressive since I don't have any. Plus I watched him obliterate the field in a qualifying race, so it was plausible that he would be taking home the gold. Then the wheels came off, and my initial annoyance with him bloomed into full fledged indignity.

During the final lap of the medal race Ohno sat in fourth place, and we all held our breath as he made a move at the turn to take the lead (a similar move in the previous race destroyed everyone, he could have crawled across the finish line), only to find himself still firmly in fourth. Then, by God’s grace, as they rounded the last turn the Korean’s in second and third tripped over each other and crashed leaving Ohno to take silver.

Padded Wall 2 - South Korea 0

This type of finish can be dealt with in a few ways;
A) Realize you basically came in fourth, be humble and grateful.
B) Realize you basically came in fourth, look disappointed, but gracefully accept your medal.
C) Whoop it up, get in a fist pump, ignore that you basically came in fourth, showboat and brag about your six medals.
That goatee doesn't look stupid at all, not one bit.

Most people would choose something similar to A or B, but guess what Apolo went with? For someone who is no stranger to shady wins, you would think he would have a little more class and at least see that he got away with one here. Apparently not, so The Sports Optimator would like to congratulate Apolo Anton Ohno on his sixth medal, stay classy.

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