STIRRING THINGS UP
James Blake, Ara Abrahamian, the Spanish National Basketball teams, the under aged Chinese gymnasts…what the hell is going on? Yes, where there are games there is controversy. Surprisingly, most controversy lately isnt about freeing Tibet or the Chinese government supplying weapons to rebels who are slaughtering people and displacing them from their homes in the Darfur region of the Sudan, its all about the fairness and spirit of the games. While athletes are being yanked and spanked for doping, it’s the unruly and perhaps racist athletes that are making the headlines.

The good peeps at the Telegraph have discovered the latest photo in a series of embarrassing images to emerge from Spain. The latest “slant eyed” pose comes from members of the Spanish Tennis Federations female players and support staff. Allegedly shot back in February, the original photo caption reads: “Estamos preparados para China”, which translates as “We are prepared for China.” Why should we care? Because its all part of the larger picture. Aside from the fact that if any of our athletes here posed ala ‘slant-eyed’ they would have been fined and most likely kicked off the team. These ‘Chinese slant eyed’ photos are not funny. Sorry.

Watch this video from Spain…its disturbing on so many levels…the actions of the guy and the fact that no one came to the aid of this Ecudorian girl make me sick to my stomach.

And no, racism is not limited to Spain. Racism is rampant in Europe. There’s a fantastic expose from ESPN on the subject that I urge you to watch. The video is from 2006, but as we’ve seen lately, racism is timeless.

Now, all this Spainsh racism is throwing quite a kink in my adoration of one certain Spainsh treat. Yes, Im talking about Rafael Nadal. While I believe there is inherenat racism in Spain and most European countries, (as well as here) I have no reason to suspect Nadal is in any way, shape or form a racist. I am not labeling all people from Spain racist, I’m simply stating that the country as a whole needs to check itself…

But Rafa need not check himself…precious has clinched (at a minimum) his first Olympic medal-a silver-after spanking Novak Djovic 6-4, 1-6, 6-4 in the semifinals. On Sunday, Nadal will face Fernando ‘the cheater’ Gonzalez who won his match against James Blake…and caused a bit of an uproar for the ungentlemanly manner in which he won. I gotta give James ‘Booty’ Blake props for his reaction to the 4-6, 7-5, 11-9 loss to Gonzalez during the real-fake-live coverage of the match.

On the first point of the 18th game of the final set, with Gonzalez serving at 8-9, Blake tried to pass a charging Gonzalez by hitting it right at him. Gonzalez swerved, the ball landed long and Blake quickly realized the point had been put up for Gonzalez. He walked to the umpire’s chair and a long discussion ensued. Soon, it became obvious that Blake thought the ball had nicked Gonzalez’s racket on its way out, and if so, should have been his point. Unable to get any satisfaction from the chair umpire, who claimed not to have seen the ball touch Gonzalez’s racket, and by the rules, could not call for a replay on this, Blake eventually turned and looked at Gonzalez, back on his baseline, then walked slowly back to receive the next serve. (LA Times)

Blake waited until the news conference before calling out Gonzalez. He said his shot hit Gonzalez’s racket. “In what’s supposed to be a gentleman’s sport, that’s a time when you call it on yourself. Fernando looked me square in the eye and didn’t call it. I’ve spoken all week about how much I’ve enjoyed my Olympic experience, how much I love the other athletes,” he said. “These guys go out and compete their hardest. Win fair and square. Lose fair and square. So this is a disappointing way to exit the tournament, when you not only lose the match, but lose a little faith in your fellow competitor.”

“I’ll still have fond memories of the Olympic experience,” Blake said. “I still have a chance to get a bronze medal. But . . . it is a little disappointing. It disappoints me a little more in my competition, than the whole Olympic spirit, because I haven’t seen anything like that in these Olympics…We know when [the ball] touches us. And he knew that. You call it yourself because it is the right thing to do. Should I expect him to do that? Maybe not. Maybe I shouldn’t expect people to hold themselves to high standards of sportsmanship. But yes, I did expect a little more in the Olympics. We are competing under the banner of this event, to promote sportsmanship, to promote goodwill amongst countries.” I back ya up James, as do most people who were watching…sucks that Gonzalez advances to the gold-medal match Sunday and Blake will play for the bronze…but props to Blake for speaking up. I hope Gonzalez chokes on the gold…come on Karma, we need you this Sunday.

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As always, thanks for reading.
Delinda Lombardo
delinda@athlebrities.com