Zach Solomon sent me the links below for two articles on the Olympics. The first is about the controversy over the gold medal awarded to a female Chinese gymnast for her performance on the uneven parallel bars, even though an American gymnast received the same score. The situation is complicated by allegations that the Chinese gymnast does not meet the mimimum age requirement of 16. If you'd like to comment on this article (NO SUMMER PROJECT CREDIT CAN BE EARNED FOR COMMENTING ON THIS ARTICLE), it can be found at
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/gymnastics/news/story?id=3540418
The second article is about the controversy over a photo of the Spanish basketball team showing all the players stretching the skin around their eyes to make them look squinty, presumably mocking the Chinese. If you'd like to comment on this article (SUMMER PROJECT CREDIT CAN BE EARNED FOR COMMENTING ON THIS ARTICLE), it can be found at
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/summer08/basketball/news/story?id=3541355
Please do not repeat the mistake of the Spanish basketball team by being disrespectful in your comments to any of the individuals or groups named in the articles, lest you incur the angst of the ENTIRE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY (not to mention your teacher)!
3 comments:
I'm commenting on the second article about the Spanish olympic team and the slant eyes. I would have to agree the statement made by Jason Kidd regarding the fact that if the americans would have mad the same gesture suspensions and other accusations would have incurred. The entire incident just shows us the difference between cultures and what is accepted there. I don't think the Spanish team meant any harm by doing the slant eyes but as Jason Kidd said i don't think it is fair to other teams that would have gotten a fairly severe punishment.
COMMENT BY ZACK SOLOMON
Bonjour, Mrs. Stotler! I am commenting on the first link. If the Chinese girl and the American girl recieved the same score, then there should have been a tie-breaking event to see who really was better than the other one. I have been hearing all the allegations conserning the ages, and it seems that the only problems with the Olympics had been directed towards the Chinese. If the girl is underage for the Olympics, she should be disqualified because the Chinese did not follow the proper rules, and the metals should go to the other players. Now, I don't know the outcome of the metal issue, but I am thinking that some bias was going on during the games.
~H.Baker
To what Heather said- the judges were very biased towards the Chinese, they gave them much higher scores then what they (in my opinion) deserved. For example: synchronized diving- the Chinese were off even on the simple moves... the Russians however performed more difficult tasks and barely got any credit. And on the underage issue, is it honestly that hard to find out the girls real identity? The Chinese were being very under-handed and biased, so honestly- I don't think they earned anything besides more disrespect.
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