Imagine, if you would, the following scenario: Peter Ueberroth, Chairman of the USA Olympic Committee, is promoted to the head of the International Olympic Committee.
As Chairman of the IOC, Ueberroth loads the IOC Committee with Americans, and maybe a Canadian or two. Ueberroth then holds a closed door, secret meeting to have a secret vote whether to keep football (soccer) out of the next Olympics.
Why? Well, America and Canada aren't very good at it. Its not really a sport we play here, at least not after the age of 10, especially for men.
Ueberroth manages to get the vote he was looking for and announces that soccer will be banned from the 2012 and 2016 Games, because European and South American countries are too dominating and its just not fair to Americans and Canadians to keep a game in the Olympics that they don't have a chance of winning.
Besides, its just soccer. We don't care about soccer. Endless ties. 1-0 shoot outs. Diving Italians crying over an untied shoelace. Get rid of it.
Sound far fetched? Not at all. This is EXACTLY what IOC Chairman Jacques Rogge did to softball and baseball. In July 2005, Rogge, coward that he is, held a secret meeting to remove softball and baseball from the Olympics. His argument for doing so was that Americans were too good at it.
No mention that island nations, south and central American nations, Canada, and Asian nations all play the game. His concern was that Americans were too good at it and how could Europeans compete with America unless he tweaked the rules (aka, "cheated") a bit. So, Rogge and his team of Euro Cowards removed the sport from the Olympics for one reason and one reason only, because Europeans do not play it.
Oddly enough, we still see ping pong and badminton in the Olympics. (Yes, I said ping pong and badminton.) These are games Americans would only play after drinking too much beer at a barbecue.
But Rogge, whose own shady under-the-table dealings with the Chinese secured the Beijing Olympics in the first place, would never consider removing games that only the Chinese are good at. Olympic Ping Pong?. Really? What's next? Olympic Grand Theft Auto?
Rogge agreed to allow Chinese Internet censorship in Beijing without telling anyone he agreed to it. He did nothing when the Chinese clearly entered 12- and 13-year old girls in the gymnastics competition. He did all these things, including the removal of softball and baseball from the 2012 games to hurt American athletes. That's his only reason.
He is a COWARD and a disgrace to International Sport. He should be immediately removed from his position as IOC Chairman, and baseball/softball should be reinstated immediately for the 2012 games.
Euro Coward Rogge has ruined the dreams of many young athletes, mostly young women, by banning baseball/softball from the Olympics. The men have a chance to play pro ball some day.
There really isn't a viable women's softball league anywhere in the world. The Olympics are the pinnacle of the sport for these exceptional young athletes. Without the Olympics, they have nowhere to play.
Rogge, arrogant Euro coward that he is, has seen to that.
Congratulations to Japan for winning the Gold Medal in women's softball. I guess Team USA wasn't as dominating as Jacques Rogge thought they were.
3 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment
Brian Sulpher 10 months ago
Sadly, no North American will get into that position of power anytime soon... Canadian Dick Pound (I know, HILARIOUS NAME) basically set-up the entire anti-doping system and infrastructure used in today's olympics yet he finished a distant third in voting for the president of the IOC (behind Rogge and a South Korean). The Olympics has always been Euro-centric, and with a lot of Asian countries emerging as players on the olympic scene, North America will continue to be relegated into a position of taking it as the US, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, the islands, South America, and the rest will be considered too "new world" to get it. Sad...
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gem asdani 10 months ago
So baseball is out of the olymics, who cares? It had a short little run and no one cared. Soccer has been in the olympics for over a hundred years, and since everybody except you cares about soccer it will continue to be there.
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Tigershark 10 months ago
I think you miss the point. I am not advocating taking soccer out of the Olympics.
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