Norway - Gold for Sportsmanship
 

In the final of the women's team sprint, Sarah Renner of Canada broke her
left pole on a climb. Almost immediately she was handed a new pole by what
looked like a Norwegian coach. Canada went on to silver, Norway finished
forth.

There should be a medal awarded for good sportsmanship.

Scott Elliot

"Scott Elliot" wrote in message
news:M1rIf.1896$_62.111@edtnps90...


There should be a medal awarded for good sportsmanship.

Scott Elliot


The cynics among us would say that he was just trying to keep a Swede off
the top step of the podium, but we try see things your way instead. It is a
much more cheerful point of view.

Blake

There was a similiar incident in the men's pursuit, this time involving
a Czech skier and a Norwegian coach. I don't think it is pure altruism.
It could be one of your skiers in trouble.

Chris

It certainly was a fine response, yet isn't doing so the standard or
even an established policy of some kind?

Gene

"Scott Elliot" wrote:

In the final of the women's team sprint, Sarah Renner of Canada broke
her left pole on a climb. Almost immediately she was handed a new
pole by what looked like a Norwegian coach. Canada went on to
silver, Norway finished forth.

There should be a medal awarded for good sportsmanship.

Scott Elliot

Gene Goldenfeld wrote:
It certainly was a fine response, yet isn't doing so the standard or
even an established policy of some kind?

Gene

I didn't think this was a big deal. Don't you guys remember Belmondo at
Salt Lake breaking her pole 3km from the finish. She also got a
Norwegian pole, if I am not mistaken. It doesn't mater who breaks the
pole, if any coach is standing nearby with a spare, the said athlete is
getting that pole. I think this is kinda like the unwritten rule in
road biking. If the leader goes down, don't attack.

Cy

Gene Goldenfeld wrote:
It certainly was a fine response, yet isn't doing so the standard or
even an established policy of some kind?

Gene


I don't remember exactly what happened, but a few years ago there was
an incident where either a Norwegian skier broke a pole, or a Swedish
skier broke a pole and a coach from either Sweden or Norway was right
there and DIDN'T give the skier a new pole. This was all over the
newspapers for a few days with discussions of bad sportsmanship, etc.
It may as a result now be policy of a sort after all the bad press.

Anyone remember more accurate details?

Joseph

On 15 Feb 2006 00:28:41 -0800, wrote:


Gene Goldenfeld wrote:
It certainly was a fine response, yet isn't doing so the standard or
even an established policy of some kind?

Gene


I don't remember exactly what happened, but a few years ago there was
an incident where either a Norwegian skier broke a pole, or a Swedish
skier broke a pole and a coach from either Sweden or Norway was right
there and DIDN'T give the skier a new pole. This was all over the
newspapers for a few days with discussions of bad sportsmanship, etc.
It may as a result now be policy of a sort after all the bad press.

Anyone remember more accurate details?

Joseph

In the Lillehammer Olympic Games 1994 Mika Myllyläs pole was broken in
the 10k and norwegian guy didn't give him a spare pole so he had to
ski 700 m with one pole.

kirjoitti:


I don't remember exactly what happened, but a few years ago there was
an incident where either a Norwegian skier broke a pole, or a Swedish
skier broke a pole and a coach from either Sweden or Norway was right
there and DIDN'T give the skier a new pole. This was all over the
newspapers for a few days with discussions of bad sportsmanship, etc.
It may as a result now be policy of a sort after all the bad press.

Certainly one of the most famous cases in this corner of the world
would be the Norwegian coach in Lillehammer 1994 who turned his back on
Mika Myllyl=E4 (who was at that point well on his way to medalling in
the 10km C race and eventually the pursuit, too) and walked away
holding a good half a dozen reserve poles.It caused a bit of an uproar
in Finland and didn=E4t go down all that well with the home audience,
either, who saw it as an infringement against the unwritten law, the
spirit of the Olympics and the duties of the host nation.

The explanation given by the coach was that he just couldn't give away
a pole because a Norwegian might have broken a pole right there, too,
and what would the Norwegian people have said if he'd no longer had a
fitting pole...

IMHO the unwritten law has never applied to relays (I'm not sure about
sprints, either) where teams either have had to rely on their own or to
form mutual assistance pacts with other teams. But if I'm mistaken or
things have changed, I'd welcome it.


Anders

Anders wrote:
kirjoitti:


I don't remember exactly what happened, but a few years ago there was
an incident where either a Norwegian skier broke a pole, or a Swedish
skier broke a pole and a coach from either Sweden or Norway was right
there and DIDN'T give the skier a new pole. This was all over the
newspapers for a few days with discussions of bad sportsmanship, etc.
It may as a result now be policy of a sort after all the bad press.

Certainly one of the most famous cases in this corner of the world
would be the Norwegian coach in Lillehammer 1994 who turned his back on
Mika Myllyl=E4 (who was at that point well on his way to medalling in
the 10km C race and eventually the pursuit, too) and walked away
holding a good half a dozen reserve poles.It caused a bit of an uproar
in Finland and didn=E4t go down all that well with the home audience,
either, who saw it as an infringement against the unwritten law, the
spirit of the Olympics and the duties of the host nation.

The explanation given by the coach was that he just couldn't give away
a pole because a Norwegian might have broken a pole right there, too,
and what would the Norwegian people have said if he'd no longer had a
fitting pole...

IMHO the unwritten law has never applied to relays (I'm not sure about
sprints, either) where teams either have had to rely on their own or to
form mutual assistance pacts with other teams. But if I'm mistaken or
things have changed, I'd welcome it.


Anders

Leave it to the Finnish guys to rember the details of that episode!

Somebody like Excel or Swix should do a sponsor deal for neutral pole
service. Kind of like Mavic does with it's yellow motorcycles in the
Tour de Fance.

Joseph