A. BrainsAnswer: D. All of the above.
B. Honesty
C. Common sense
D. All of the above
Some of you are old enough to remember the old ABC sports programs, whose opening shots always included Jim McKay's famous voice-over, "The thrill of victory . . . the agony of defeat." According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Arien O'Connell of New York City experienced both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat last Sunday . . . in the same event!
Arien was the fastest runner in Sunday's Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco, but wasn't awarded the first place trophy. Nor second place. Nor even third. Why? Because she hadn't registered as an "elite" runner to get a 20-minute early starting time in a less crowded field.
So Arien, a fifth-grade teacher by day, watched as the trophies were handed out to three women who ran 11 minutes slower than she did.
When the judges and sponsors recognized the inconsistency, they . . . did nothing.
Reports the Chronicle:
"At this point," Nike media relations manager Tanya Lopez said Monday, "we've declared our winner."
Maybe the next time Tanya buys something, the clerk should give her the wrong change. When she asks about it, the clerk can just say, "At this point, we've given our change."
By the way, just a week before the San Francisco debacle, the fourth-place runner in the Chicago Marathon didn't get the fourth place prize either. Wesley Korir didn't run with the "elite group" in that race, so he too was ineligible for a prize, even though he outran the fourth-place "winner."
It's a strange sport that requires you to announce in advance that you might win in order for you to be acknowledged as the winner when you do, in fact, win.
Nike, hang your head in shame.
And change your name.
You don't deserve to call yourself by the Greek word for "victory" when you don't acknowledge the true victors in your own sporting events.
To read the San Francisco Chronicle article, click the following link.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/10/21/BAUC13L3GQ.DTL&nopu=1
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