New Paula Radcliffe t-shirt

[Dick Knights Mumm]

And you can bet they are not so hard on themselves.

She was in emotional turmoil - stretched to the limits of her physical capability in front of a world-wide audience. I would not even start to judge her.

 

[Yorkie]

And you can bet they are not so hard on themselves.

She was in emotional turmoil - stretched to the limits of her physical capability in front of a world-wide audience. I would not even start to judge her.

Exactly.

 

[Brovion]

And you can bet they are not so hard on themselves.

She was in emotional turmoil - stretched to the limits of her physical capability in front of a world-wide audience. I would not even start to judge her.

Yeah but that's the point. Anyone can start running a marathon and then stop when they realise they're not going to win. What we admire sportspeople for is that ability to do what we can't, to make that superhuman effort and then we quite rightly call them 'heroes'. If Radcliffe had won, or even finished when she was obviously distressed then she would have my total respect and admiration. As it is just just looked 'normal'. Yes I do have sympathy for her, of course I do, but if she wants to be remembered as a great sportswoman, a great competitor as opposed to the running equivalent of a 'flat track bully' then she has some bridges to build.

 

[Man of Harveys]

After seeing her asthmatic toddler-voice interview with a simpering Steve Cram last night, I lost just about any sympathy I might have had with her.

She virtually admitted that she stopped running because she realised she wasn't going to win. She clearly got her training wrong and was outrun and her weirdo coach and husband hasn't prepared her for that one bit.

Can't remember who said it but there's a quote about winning like a champion but another matter entirely to lose like one. She lost like a stroppy two year old at bedtime.

Anyway, hats off in equal measure to the incredible Kelly Holmes...giving athletic inspiration to us somewhat less lithe 34 year olds everywhere.

 

[larus]

Why aren't this lot all world class football players? Hey, come on, you love the game don't you. Guess you're all just a bunch of failures. Probably play junior football, then go and get pissed.

It's so easy to mock someone who's given their all, then just run out of energy. I've been there playing sport, you want to run again, get to the ball, wahtever, and the body won't do it. It's not down to will/determination, it's the body can't do no more.

How many of you have entered competitions, either team or individual and not won? Yes, that's right, all of you (for those that haven't, you don't have the right to comment because you don't understand what's involved to push yourself to the limit so go back to your playstations).

So, she's a failure is she. Just happens to be the world record holder, and beat the previous mark by quite a bit.

The old saying is true, 'Better to try and fail, than never to try at all'.

Respect from me to Paula. I like running, and run about 4 1/2 mile in 30 minutes. Now, if I could keep that up for 3 hours, I would complete the marathon (only about 6 miles behind Paula). The difficulty is that there is a load more effort required to go from about 6.5 minutes per mile to 5.5 minutes per mile.

 

[Pavilionaire]

She IS a quitter because she chose to give up.

She is also a role model, and has a responsibility to convey the importance of not just winning, but taking part.

She's not the golden girl we all thought she was, and some people aren't comfortable with that.

Thank God for Kelly Holmes.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

She is a hero for breaking the world record not so long ago. She is NOT a hero for dropping out of this race. I ran the London marathon and it f*&king hurt, but I finished it despite being overtaken by a womble near the end. I didn't see Orinoco overtaking her.

Typical British attitude - congratulate a sportsperson for not winning.

 

[Wozza]

You think Paula's bad...


They said they'd throw me off the boat
By Stephen Gibbs, and Caroline Wilson and Alex Brown in Athens
August 24, 2004

"I had some pretty hard words thrown at me" ... Sally Robbins is comforted by her mother Marian, yesterday.


Physically paralysed, perhaps mentally broken, and no doubt spiritually shattered, Sally Robbins could not have felt any worse - until her Olympic teammates threatened to throw her off the Australian boat.

"I had some pretty hard words thrown at me. I had some pretty tough things to take," said 23-year-old Robbins last night. "I haven't really experienced anything like that before."

Most of those who have commented on her "no-row" display in the women's eight final on Sunday agreed they had never seen anything like it before.

But some of them apparently had. The same rower, dropping her oar in a similar manner, cost Australia what seemed certain victory in the world championships just two years ago.

And that experience may have contributed to the intensity of the abuse Robbins copped from her teammates after she stopped rowing on Sunday in the last 500 metres with Australia still in sight of a medal.

"I didn't say anything back because I didn't know what to say. I was stunned myself," she told Channel Seven news.

As criticism of Robbins by fellow rowers in turn drew criticism onto them, Australia's Olympic chief, John Coates, last night warned athletes not to attack each other publicly.

"Basically in our team, you do not slag off your mates," Mr Coates said through AOC media director Mike Tancred. "Sally Robbins gave 100 per cent commitment in that boat and it's not for other team members to question her commitment."

But last night ABC's Lateline aired an audio interview with one of the crew, Kyeema Doyle, who indicated that the team was expecting a problem with Robbins in the final. She said she had spoken to another crew member, Julia Wilson, before the event and told her that the team could make up for any lapse by one person. She had said to Wilson: "Don't you worry if something goes wrong, we'll do it."

Doyle said last night: "We thought if it only happened in the last 500 or the last 250 [metres] . . . we had to believe that it wouldn't matter . . . that we could get that boat across the line. It just happened too early."

The ABC sports reporter Peter Wilkins said on Lateline that the team's seeds of doubt had been sown during the repechage event.

Also last night, former Australian rower and 2000 Olympic silver medallist Rachael Taylor said that some of Robbins's teammates had witnessed her stop short of the finish line during the 2002 World Rowing Championships in Seville. Then, as part of the women's quad scull team, Robbins dropped her oar hundreds of metres short of the line as "Australia was blitzing the race, leading the entire field all the way," according to Taylor.

"It was as about as sure a thing as you could get to having the world title in the bag, when with approximately 400 metres to go Sally Robbins stopped rowing.

"The Australian crew dropped back and finished in fourth position. Sally's three teammates were understandably shocked, devastated and inconsolable: not at all dissimilar to the sickening re-enactment I witnessed on Sunday." Those three teammates - Donna Martin, Dana Faletic and Amber Bradley - did not row again with Robbins but are all in Athens as part of the quad team.

Taylor knows three of Robbins's teammates in Sunday's race in Athens - Wilson, Jodi Winter and Vicki Roberts - from having rowed with them at the Seville championships.

Wilson, who had implored Robbins to start rowing again, said of her teammate after Sunday's race: "I just want to stress there was not a technical problem. No seat broke. There was nothing wrong with the boat. We had nine in the boat but only eight operating. That's all I'm going to say."

Also after the race, one rower was heard to call out to Robbins: "Tell the truth, Sally!" Another yelled: "Don't lie!"

Taylor said she had spoken out now because Robbins's teammates were unfairly being tagged "some sort of evil unit" for what was an understandable reaction to being let down. "I'm only doing this because my best mates are over there in Athens," she said. "If Sunday's display by Sally were the first time she had acted in such a way, you would have seen a very different reaction by her crewmates.

"[But] Sally's crewmates in the women's eight had overcome their doubts about her 2002 performance, and given her their trust. What the public witnessed after Sunday's race was the crew's devastating realisation that this trust had been misplaced in what should have been one of the greatest moments of their lives."

Last night Robbins told Channel Seven that she had previously broken down while racing, without detailing any event. "Suddenly fatigue sets in and I just can't move, you know. It's a feeling of paralysis where you just hit the wall," she said.

Taylor described Robbins as "an awesome chick", "an amazing technician", and "one of the most physically impressive athletes I've ever come across", but compared her quitting on Sunday, and in 2002, to an Olympic swimmer stopping mid-race in a final. "There is no doubt in my mind that Sally Robbins quitting on Sunday was a repeat display of complete mental weakness, not 'physical exhaustion' as the media is reporting."

Taylor said that no rower at Olympic level should stop mid-race due to pain. "I know first hand exactly how exhausted you get in a rowing race, and let me tell you, the thought of stopping is very tempting when you are burning up in pain and under the extreme pressure that international competition produces."

In an emotional letter to the Herald, Taylor wrote: "I have never, ever seen anyone at an elite level stop rowing except for Sally Robbins, twice, under extreme pressure and in extreme pain, both times costing her crewmates medals at the highest level. The fact this has occurred numerous times in her career is criminal."

However, the Canadian men's eight entered Athens as gold medal favourites, but stumbled to fifth in the final on Sunday after rower Ben Rutledge froze in a similar manner to Robbins.

"No one blamed him individually," said the Canadian rowing head coach, Brian Richardson, formerly with Rowing Australia. "There was no pointing of fingers."

The chief executive officer of Rowing Australia, Andrew Dee, said he would investigate Taylor's story but that there had been "no evidence of any weakness" in the selection process of Robbins.

"At this stage I'm not in a position to confirm it. If that had happened I'm sure the selectors had considered it."

From her home state, the West Australian Institute of Sport threw its support behind Robbins, with the director, Steve Lawrence, suggesting "from a distance, all we can assume is Sally misjudged when she reached 100 per cent of her ability".

The rowing team arrived at the Olympic village late on Monday where Wilson apologised to Robbins - an apology demanded by Mr Coates.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

Well I still think you are being way too hard. I've never done a marathon, it looks too much like hard work, but the time taken means there is time for all sorts of thoughts to come into your head, and when you are at the limits of your physical powers I just do not think you would necessarily have them under control. She was stretched to the limits and was watching her dreams and aspitations disappear into the distance. At that moment she could not handle it. If that makes her normal - I am sure she will live with that.

She may not be an Olympic champion but she is still the world record holder of the toughest event in sport. Does that make her a flat-track bully ? And she has competed in enough races at enough distances, and finished out of the medals on enough occasions to know what that feels like. So I would not be so judgemental.

As for the interview - it was a no-win situation. If she didn't do the interview she would be criticised. If she does the interview she is criticised.

My scorn is for the BBC who over-hyped her to a ridiculous degree. When Batson was analysing the race it was clear he didnt think it was the certainty the BBC had made it out to be.

 

[Brovion]

..... So, she's a failure is she. Just happens to be the world record holder, and beat the previous mark by quite a bit.

The old saying is true, 'Better to try and fail, than never to try at all'. ....

For the last time it's NOT the failure! It was the quitting we're moaning about. The football equvalent would be Leon Knight just giving up and walking off the pitch because we're 3-0 down, not playing well with still another 10-15 minutes to go.

 

[Stumpy Tim]

Exactly DKM. She should be congratulated for her past achievements, but not put on some kind of pedastal for not winning. That's just bad sportsmanship by our press and looks bad on Team GB.

I don't think this is of her making, though I still think she should have finished the race. My problem is with the attitude of the press.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

She IS a quitter because she chose to give up.

She is also a role model, and has a responsibility to convey the importance of not just winning, but taking part.

She's not the golden girl we all thought she was, and some people aren't comfortable with that.

Hmm. Shall I stop or shall I carry on ?

You make it sound like a decision whether to have a cup of tea. She was at the limits of her physical endurance. How can your brain be expected to make such clear decisions. I agree it would have been better for her to have finished and been gracious in defeat, but her body and brain would not do it and I would no criticise her for it.

I don't give a monkey's cuss whether she is a golden girl or not. I just no not believe she deserves the criticism that some are choosing to give her.

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

For the last time it's NOT the failure! It was the quitting we're moaning about. The football equvalent would be Leon Knight just giving up and walking off the pitch because we're 3-0 down, not playing well with still another 10-15 minutes to go.

tosh. There is no football equivalent. No-one is at the limits of their physical and mental endurance in football. You will need a better comparison than that.

 

[Brovion]

tosh. There is no football equivalent. No-one is at the limits of their physical and mental endurance in football. You will need a better comparison than that.

You haven't seen me on Monday nights!

 

[Dick Knights Mumm]

boom boom.

 

[Man of Harveys]

And she's still at the limits of her physical endurance a good day later so she still blubbers every time there's a camera around? She reminded me of a dewy-eyed Shirley Bassey when she started sobbing about "her fans".

Why couldn't she hold her hand up and say something along the lines of "sorry, I just wasn't good enough on the day, fair play to those that won" etc.?

"I didn't start a war. Nobody died."
- Boris Becker, putting his shocking 1987 Wimbledon upset loss to unheralded Australian Peter Doohan into perspective.

 

[CHAPPERS]

f***ing hell you lot are harsh.

Imagine the pressure on her to win that marathon, even she expected to win it (although she chose to train at altitude and NOT in the heat) and when she knew she wasn't going to her mind must have been in a shocking state. I don't blame her, she doesn't owe you SHIT so stop talking as if she does. Lots ot athletes give up because they realise there is not a lot of point continuing to punish themselves if they have no chance of winning.


Did anyone else hear that America petitioned the start time so that they could have it on tv. The athletes wanted it to start at 6am when it wasn't so hot but it was changed to the evening for American tv time. Ridiculous.

 

[Everest]

 

[Icy Gull]

f***ing hell you lot are harsh.

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but the Diana syndrome of baring your soul to the world in your disappointment is not how I expect national heroes to behave. Cry your eyes out and gnash your teeth but do it in private, just what is the point in doing it in front of the world??

 

[smudge]

You lot make me sad. Pricks.