Gays, Bolts, fiasco and romaniacs

While the other countries were sporting in track and field, Finland was diving. Low. No medals for us. Here's my (in)different summary of the world championship held in Berlin 2009.

The US athletics wore a sticker "JO" in their shirt, referring to the legendary Jesse Owens, who kicked a nazi ass big time at the Berlin Olympics in 1936. Being a black man, Hitler refused to shake his hand. When Jesse came back to the US, the behavior was not that much different. He was still regarded as a second-rate citizen. Like all afro-American back then. Maybe this was a way of rehabilitating him, who knows, but I guess that the most of the athletes were just honoring his success in Berlin.

Usain Bolt was amazing, again. The envious Swedes were spreading rumors that some in Jamaican team or related had used steroids or such. Pretty vague. I really hope that Jamaicans are clean, like the others too. Tyson Gay was running super-fast for an injured man. Maybe his injury was more like between his ears?

The Finns were a bunch of loosers. Olli-P***a Karjalainen was a disappointment in hammer throw. Tommi Evilä tried hard but didn't quite reach the final in long jump. Jukka Keskisalo did alright, being number 8 in 3000 m steeple chase final - as the second best European. Female javelin thrower Mikaela Ingberg was as bad as she has lately been. I wonder why she gets chosen to race every goddamn time, although she hasn't been in shape for ages. Maybe her coach, the ever-respected gold-medalist in Söul 1988 has too much to say who gets to throw in major tournaments. And maybe they both like to see the world for free, see the champs for free and feel the atmosphere for free?

It's very noticeable that Kenian top runners acquire citizenship of other countries just to get to race and earn money. The competition is so tough in Kenia that a lot of talented athletes have no other way to break through. Finland has not been that attractive a choice for many, and what we have got has been a group of has-beens. Edward Hämäläinen, Wilson Kirwa and Franz Kruger had already reached their top before they became Finns. Now they are or should be retired.

What about men's javelin? It was the first time ever that Finland had 4 men in the WC javelin final. What happened? Not much. Positions 5th, 6th, 9th and 11th were not actually what we were expecting. And this time it should have been almost a child's play to grab a silver and a bronze medal. Gold went deservedly to a Norwegian, who was according to my modest book-counting the only medalist coming from Nordic countries. Yes, the Swedes were not much better either, but that wasn't my headache. In fact, I almost hoped that ANY athlete from Nordic countries would have made it. Not necessarily Thorgildsen, though.

One female runner looked like a man, gathering a lot of headlines in media. Because she won, the headlines got bigger. And I thought it wasn't a beauty contest. It's kind of politically incorrect to criticize anyone's appearance, especially women's. Although I must admit that there were a lot of beautiful women in the Olympic stadium. One of the women, an Australian sprinter Sally McLellan, had small boobs - compared to the others who had none. And when she kneeled down to start the race, the camera man tried to peep inside her shirt. It happened EVERY TIME! In the first and the second round, in semi final and the final! It felt like an obsession. Granted, she was a world class athlete and therefore one of the most photographed. But still, zooming into her cleavage - was it necessary? Every time?

When the world championships were over, I didn't have to change my mind about which country had the most beautiful women. It's the Romanians. Not a beauty contest, like I said, but a fairly comprehensive sampling still. It has nothing to do with the sports, I digressed once again. Sorry about that. Also I do think that "Who's the sexiest athlete in Berlin" type of voting polls are clearly out of line. And I did enjoy watching it, the results and records were satisfactory per se. Apart from the Finns obviously. Alas.