# Sportsmanship?



## silu (3 August 2012)

While not an equine related subject I'd be interested on others opinion on what happened in the cycling sprint.
While it was great for Sir Chris Hoy to win another gold medal I did not like that the lead off man in our sprint team admitted he purposely fell off his bike shortly after the start as he realised he'd had a dreadful start. May say he admitted he'd done this in an interview just after the race. Now after "reflection" and no doubt huge horror from GB Cycling big wigs, he's has since said he didn't "cheat" and much is being made of the fact that he is German and didn't quite make things clear when speaking in English....bull ****.It leaves a very nasty taste and while it's great to win, I am amazed that the rules of cycling allow a restart for any reason. Bet Bolt would have liked a restart in The World Athletics 100 meters final!
If our lead off guy did do exactly what he said he did, this would seem much worse than what went on in The Badminton fiasco.We'd all love to restart a show jumping round after a refusal/knock down of a 1st fence...bet Mary and Tina would echo that.


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## hcm88 (3 August 2012)

Agree, I find it hard to be pleased for them as they technically did cheat. Victoria Pendleton et al all got disqualified for minor errors yet this (frankly quite major) error isn't picked up on.


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## bongo-girl (3 August 2012)

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt.  The interviewer said 'did you pull a fast one' and he looked confused and obviously latched on to the word 'fast', replying along the lines of 'yes I wanted to go fast'.  Apparently his English isn't that good, having only moved to the UK in the past two years.  (I know a lot of Germans speaker better english than then English, but it was post race, a lot of noise etc etc) Guess we'll never know for sure 'cos we aren't in his head.  But the start was reviewed by the judges and they were happy to let them keep the gold.  They were quick to disqualify Vikki Pendleton, so gotta believe they will do what they have to do...


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## Nollaig Shona (3 August 2012)

I got the impression he was joking when he said "I did that on purpose"  I don't know anything about cycling sports, but it did look like there was something wrong with his pedals and he couldn't pedal properly, and he fell off trying to go around the bend.


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## Cedars (3 August 2012)

He was interviewed last night and said he didn't do it? I think watching footage, its pretty obvious it wasn't purposeful.


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## Jnhuk (3 August 2012)

I thought he said it as a joke. The guy who won the gold shooting had made a similar joke about missing two of the clays (or whatever you call them) just to make the end more nail biting!


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## Spudlet (3 August 2012)

I think the interviewer asking someone who has English as a second language whether they were trying 'kidology' (is that even a word?) followed by asking them if they were 'pulling a fast one' was a bit unfair really - it seemed to me when I saw it live that he was saying 'yes, a fast one, I wanted a fast start' and had misunderstood what pulling a fast one actually means. It can take a long time to pick up all the idioms and little sayings in a second language after all.

Personally I don't think he fell off on purpose - to me it sounds more along the lines of 'oh no, I meant to do that!' as you would say when you fell over, as a joke.


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## combat_claire (3 August 2012)

Cedars said:



			He was interviewed last night and said he didn't do it? I think watching footage, its pretty obvious it wasn't purposeful.
		
Click to expand...

On the footage you can see him clearly wobbling and trying to regain momentum before he falls. As the posters above have said I think his admission was language barrier rather than confession of cheating.


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## doctordoolittle (3 August 2012)

I am pretty sure he was joking!! I think it just doesn't come across because of his english!

They watched the replay and said it was a mechanical issue as the front wheel locked and something to do with pedals - the olympic committee arent completely stupid!! The wouldnt just give a restart for a fake falling off!


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## tasel (3 August 2012)

I'd say it was a language problem, too. Knowing both languages, I can tell you that "pulling a fast one" is hard to understand if you're German.

And that bike looked awfully wobbly. A lame horse wouldn't be allowed to start, so there's no horsey equivalent...


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## armchair_rider (3 August 2012)

Even if he did go down delibirately none of the other teams seemed to object so I would assume that it was 'legalised cheating' which every team can and does take advantage of. Personally I think it's nice to have a situation where the race can be restarted if somebody has a problem. In contrast the poor sod that broke his chain at the start of the time trial knew 2 seconds into the event taht he had no chance what so ever


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