European Arrogance

[kilmainham]

...check this out, if you want evidence of IOC (EOC) arrogamce and contempt against the USA, I offer the following for your consideration...

...IOC members from Italy 5

...IOC members from Sweden 4

...IOC members from Switzerland 4

...IOC members from Germany 4

...IOC members from FU#KING Morocco 2

...IOC members from arguable the most important member (at least financially) USA 2

...yeah, that's really fair

...BUT FEAR NOT MY FRIENDS BECAUSE THE IOC IS GOING TO INCREASE IT'S MEMBERSHIP BY SIX VERY SOON...GUESS HOW MANY OF THESE NEW MEMBERS ARE FROM THE USA???

[Rob2012]

BUgger off

[Faster]

Germany has 3 members not 4.

Lets try to explain this:

The maximum permanent IOC members allowed per nation: Two

IOC memberships is granted to presidents of the federations of Olympic sports, so when Tamas Ajan, Rene Fasel, LamineDiack, , Habu Gumel, Denis Oswald, Els van Breda Vriesman, Sepp Blatter, Philip Craven, Ottavio Cinquanta and Goran Petersson (amongst others) leave their posts they will no longer be an IOC member

Further to this, the Athletes Commission is formed by athletes elected by their peeers that are also independent of the 2 person maximum.

In over a decade I have not known a US sports official to run for the office of any Olympic sports federation or any athlete to stand for election to the Athletes Commission. Since new members cannot be appointed because the USA has two permanent IOC members already that is their quota until the USOC pushes some athletes to or officials to stand for office.

Also at present the IOC is made up of the following

Europe: 43 members

Asia: 23 members (I wonder where Tokyo got those 6 votes that would make up for no Korean, Chinese or their own votes in the first round)

Americas: 19 members

Africa: 17 members

Oceania: 4 members

111 members total, of those the majority is non-European.

[Pure facts]

...check this out, if you want evidence of IOC (EOC) arrogamce and contempt against the USA, I offer the following for your consideration...

...IOC members from Italy 5

...IOC members from Sweden 4

...IOC members from Switzerland 4

...IOC members from Germany 4

...IOC members from FU#KING Morocco 2

...IOC members from arguable the most important member (at least financially) USA 2

...yeah, that's really fair

...BUT FEAR NOT MY FRIENDS BECAUSE THE IOC IS GOING TO INCREASE IT'S MEMBERSHIP BY SIX VERY SOON...GUESS HOW MANY OF THESE NEW MEMBERS ARE FROM THE USA???

Thanks for a good laugh.

You clearly have no clue what you are talking about. See Faster's post for an explaination (you could have done somne research yourself but hey, what's the point).

To be honest, the US could probably claim for a 3rd seat having the USOC President or General Secretary selected as a NOC representative (but again, changing USOC leadership every other year certainly doesn't help here).

Sweden is going to get down to 3 after Vancouver as Pernilla Wiberg is standing down and not candidate from Sweden is running for a spot on the Athletes Commission and Italy may also get down to 4 depending on whether its candidate is elected or not.

As Faster pointed out, one of the main reasons behind the US being so out of touch with the rest of the Olympic Movement, is the proportionally spectacular lack of US leadership in major federations, association of federations...

On top of that, the 2 IOC members in the US are not very influencial.

The US is trying to get an Athlete elected on the IOC Athletes Commission which is a good move.

[Faster]

I wonder if a hockey player would be elected so soon have Saku Koivu was elected.

[Rafa]

I demand 10 spots for South Africa

[oakydoky]

...check this out, if you want evidence of IOC (EOC) arrogamce and contempt against the USA, I offer the following for your consideration...

...IOC members from Italy 5

...IOC members from Sweden 4

...IOC members from Switzerland 4

...IOC members from Germany 4

...IOC members from FU#KING Morocco 2

...IOC members from arguable the most important member (at least financially) USA 2

...yeah, that's really fair

...BUT FEAR NOT MY FRIENDS BECAUSE THE IOC IS GOING TO INCREASE IT'S MEMBERSHIP BY SIX VERY SOON...GUESS HOW MANY OF THESE NEW MEMBERS ARE FROM THE USA???

Instead of European arrogance I think it is an Americans failure to understand geography - since when was Morocco in Europe?

[Faster]

We've know for years that them there Americans ain't got none them patients for that there book learnin'.

[oakydoky]

We've know for years that them there Americans ain't got none them patients for that there book learnin'.

Lol.

[kilmainham]

We've know for years that them there Americans ain't got none them patients for that there book learnin'.

...dat thare b purrrrte fun e...cuse me whilst eyes fetch me a beer from the fridge...then eyes a gonna watch me some NASCAR...them good ole boys are some kinda athleets...maybees one day yall eur-o-peeings will include NASCAR in them thare Olimpiks...shore beats watching them thare Chi- o- knees midgets playin a ping pong...

...actually, that was pretty funny Faster...seems like you're beginning to appreciate that the USA is not some huge monolith.

[kilmainham]

BUgger off

...bugger off and piss off...love those cheeky British expressions

...BTW, I sure hope the London 2012 people put on a better display that what happen in Bejing. Good God that was AWFUL and embarrassing. With all that great talent you have over there and out comes Jimmy Page looking like Keith Richards. The whole thing looked like a scene from an Austin Powers movie. Bullocks!

[Rob2012]

It was fairly average, but so was Sydney's in '96 and they put on a spectacular Olympics.

I think you meant Bollocks, by the way.

These are bullocks:

And so are these...

I'll let you Google image Bollocks for yourself, so you can see the difference.

[kilmainham]

It was fairly average, but so was Sydney's in '96 and they put on a spectacular Olympics.

I think you meant Bollocks, by the way.

These are bullocks:

And so are these...

I'll let you Google image Bollocks for yourself, so you can see the difference.

...GOOD GOD...it looks like Amy Winehouse and Celine Dion hooked up to that YOKE..

...thanks for the correction...never heard of a bullocks, now I know...

... I must admit that however bad the English production was in Bejing it was STILL BETTER than the productions at the Atlanta 1996 Games...pick-up trucks???...no wonder the IOC (EOC) doesn't want to come back to the US...how Atlanta ever got an Olympic Games is beyond me, I'm sure some money changed hands there...

...BTW, is it "wanker" or "whanker"...?

[kilmainham]

...bugger off and piss off...love those cheeky British expressions

...BTW, I sure hope the London 2012 people put on a better display that what happen in Bejing. Good God that was AWFUL and embarrassing. With all that great talent you have over there and out comes Jimmy Page looking like Keith Richards. The whole thing looked like a scene from an Austin Powers movie. Bullocks!

...any word leak out on what the Opening Ceremonies in London will be like?...

[oakydoky]

...GOOD GOD...it looks like Amy Winehouse and Celine Dion hooked up to that YOKE..

...thanks for the correction...never heard of a bullocks, now I know...

... I must admit that however bad the English production was in Bejing it was STILL BETTER than the productions at the Atlanta 1996 Games...pick-up trucks???...no wonder the IOC (EOC) doesn't want to come back to the US...how Atlanta ever got an Olympic Games is beyond me, I'm sure some money changed hands there...

...BTW, is it "wanker" or "whanker"...?

Erm, it was Great Britain's production. Good God, your geography is beyond terrible. First you claim that Morocco is in Europe and now you claim that the British handover ceremony was an "English production" instead of British. I'll leave it you to google what Britain is but you clearly don't understand that it is more than one country. Anyhoo.........

Please consult an atlas for future posts.

P.S. It is spelled 'wanker' but I'm sure you're familiar with the word.

[Rob2012]

The director of the ceremonies will be announced later this year, so no, we've no idea what it'll be like yet.

[stir.ts]

so wrong.

[baron-pierreIV]

Actually, this is the real Bullock's, a legendary southern California Dept Store chain (now extinct): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullock's

I think the 2 of you mean either Sandra Bullocks or "bollix"!!

[GoNutz]

Erm, it was Great Britain's production. Good God, your geography is beyond terrible. First you claim that Morocco is in Europe and now you claim that the British handover ceremony was an "English production" instead of British. I'll leave it you to google what Britain is but you clearly don't understand that it is more than one country. Anyhoo.........

Please consult an atlas for future posts.

P.S. It is spelled 'wanker' but I'm sure you're familiar with the word.

London is the Capitol of England though isn't it? As well as being the capitol of Great Britain?

[GoNutz]

Sorry I meant capital...haha

[stir.ts]

Hmmmmmmmm....

I must admit I don't remember the handover thingy, after the impersonal orgy of excess and showboating, not to mention the most ridiculous cauldron lighting imaginable, by a levitating awkward jogger ....thought it would have been Beijing handing over to London...is that wrong?

[oakydoky]

London is the Capitol of England though isn't it? As well as being the capitol of Great Britain?

London is the capital of Britain and is in England. But the Olympic games are not 'only' Englands. They are on behalf of the whole of Britain. Too many ignorant people, in the year 2010, are unable to understand that Britain is not England per se but made up of several countries and consequently the Olympics, whilst being staged in London (only 1 city can host) is a British Olympics. It's really annoying to read people still refer to Britain as only 'England'.

It's a bit like Moscow 1980 - whilst the games were staged in Moscow, the capital of Russia, the games were a games on behalf of the Soviet Union as that was the nature of the state - Russia wasn't solely the Soviet Union.

[stir.ts]

I think of them as London's games first, then England the country.

I guess they are GBs games....sorry.

[Rob2012]

London is the capital of Britain and is in England. But the Olympic games are not 'only' Englands. They are on behalf of the whole of Britain. Too many ignorant people, in the year 2010, are unable to understand that Britain is not England per se but made up of several countries and consequently the Olympics, whilst being staged in London (only 1 city can host) is a British Olympics. It's really annoying to read people still refer to Britain as only 'England'.

It's a bit like Moscow 1980 - whilst the games were staged in Moscow, the capital of Russia, the games were a games on behalf of the Soviet Union as that was the nature of the state - Russia wasn't solely the Soviet Union.

To be fair, plenty of Brits use Holland and the Netherlands interchangeably (I do when I'm not thinking) and wouldn't know the difference when asked. I'm not sure it's quite as big a mistake, or even if it really matters in their case anymore, but we're not always innocent of geographical ignorance.

In fact (and here's a little fact I picked up from QI) it's was quite normal right up until even just a few decades ago, before nationalism really came to the fore, for Brits to use England and Britain interchangeably, so I'm not going to be too harsh on Americans for getting the terminology muddled:

[Sir Rols]

It's a bit like Moscow 1980 - whilst the games were staged in Moscow, the capital of Russia, the games were a games on behalf of the Soviet Union as that was the nature of the state - Russia wasn't solely the Soviet Union.

And indeed, the sailing events were even held outside of "Russia", at Tallin, in what then would have been the Estonian SSR.

Actually, a question - are any events at London (football would seem the most likely) being spread out to Wales or Scotland?