U.S. Trackster Apologize for Preening
S Y D N E Y, Australia, Oct. 1 -- Americans finally had a big night atthe Olympic track, prompting three playings of “The Star-SpangledBanner” for U.S. relay teams standing atop the victory stand. And that’s when the trouble began.
Marion Jones won gold in the U.S. women’s 1,600-meter relay andbronze with the 400-meter squad — making her the only woman to winfive track medals at one Olympics. The U.S. men swept both relaysSaturday.
Michael Johnson capped his golden Olympic career by running theanchor leg on the winning 1,600-meter relay team, preserving hisrecord of having won only gold in his five Olympic and nine worldchampionship medals.
In the 400-meter relay, Maurice Greene was the anchor as U.S. squad won in 37.61 seconds. On a victory lap, the Americans —two of them barechested and wrapped in the stars and stripes —preened and flexed muscles while posing for several minutes.
And, when awarded their medals by former Secretary of StateHenry Kissinger, the foursome — Greene, Jon Drummond, BernardWilliams and Brian Lewis — continued clowning. Greene stuck histongue out at cameras.
“I held my breath,” U.S. Olympic Committee vice presidentSandy Baldwin said today (Saturday night ET).
“I tell the athletes at every one of the briefings thatAmerican athletes are judged by different standards than the restof the world, because we live in a blessed country. Anytime weforget that for even a moment, we’ll be criticized more than mostpeople will.”
Preening and Boos
The criticism came from fans in the crowd, who whistled andbooed the Americans as they celebrated. It also came from some U.S.athletes, who cringed at the antics.
“The girls were thinking, ‘We’re kind of ashamed.’ For us, we tried to handle it with more dignity. That’s not the image we wantup there,” said Nanceen Perry of the women’s 400-meter relay team.
“The whole way they were going about it, making all sorts ofcomical faces — you could do a little bit of that, but they weredoing it throughout the national anthem. How do you expect anybodyto respect our flag if you don’t? I think foreigners think we’rerude, anyway, so it just confirms the whole image they have ofus.”
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