Norway - Gold for Sportsmanship

Scott Elliot wrote:
Just an update. According to our local paper Sarah Renner has sent the
Norwegian coach, Haakensmoen, a bottle of wine as a symbol of gratitude.
Unfortunately he won't be able to drink it while staying at the Olympic
Village due to the no drinking policy.

Also, the Canadian Olympic Committee is sending a letter of gratitude to the
Chef de Mission for the Norwegian Olympic team.

Scott

......and one of the Alberta Ski Resorts has offered him and his family
a one week free vacation.

Scott Elliot wrote:

It is an unwritten rule of sportsmanship that you want the athletes to
determine the results, so a coach should be willing to assist any competitor
with a broken pole in the interest of fair play. Unfortunately not all
coaches buy into the concept of good sportsmanship. One particularly
obnoxious coach has been widely quoted as saying, "Winning isn't everything,
it is the only thing."

This is the actual quote:

"Winning isn't everything -- but wanting to win is."
- Vince Lombardi

The non-quote you stated has become the "Play it again, Sam" of
sports. (Bogart never said that line in Casablanca, for those
not in the know.)

Lombardi stressed winning, but he also stressed that to be the
best you have to beat the best. Defeating a lesser opponent or
an opponent at less than their best (in the case of the Canadian
with no ski pole) is no victory.

That sounds a lot like the Norwegian coach.


Not all athlete full appreciate this either. At a Canadian National
Championship I gave a pole to a skier from another province. He never even
told his coaches, because they did not have any idea where my pole was. The
only way I got it back was by personally looking through the equipment rack
outside their team waxing tent when I got back in off the course. Good
sportsmanship also includes thanking those who go out of their way to
assist.

In an unrelated sport, similar things have been happening in the
A1GP racing series. When teams run short of equipment after
damage, they have been sharing; rules have been bent to help
teams with injured drivers or with other problems. Everyone in
the series wants to compete and win on a level playing field.


Bob Dog

In the Sprint today an Italian broke his pole and immediately a pole was held out for him.

It was an excellent move and I wondered if it was a well drilled team procedure or was it another
Norwegian.

"Street riots and flag burning over Norway's poor Torino Olympic
performance!"

Well not quite.
http://mysjkin.blogspot.com/2006/02/...ning-over.html

Mysjkin
http://mysjkin.blogspot.com