Since when do we care more about what Olympic athletes wear and how they do their hair than their gold medals? David Webb, Sirius/XM radio host on the “Patriot” channel, lamented recently on Fox News that Americans aren’t showing enough patriotism with their uniforms.
Webb told guest host Alisyn Camerota on America Live that he was disappointed in the attire of athletes like gold medalist Gabby Douglas, who wore a hot pink leotard to compete in the gymnastic all-around. “What’s wrong with showing some pride?” he asked. He added, “We’re a very nationalistic nation.”
I think the most important thing an American athlete can do at the Olympics for his or her country is to win, not wear the right outfit. Stars and stripes are nice and all, but isn’t America supposed to be the place where people are free to express themselves? What’s more American than expressing yourself?
The only country that has more gold medals than the United States is China, the country that routinely takes naturally gifted children from their homes and puts them into training centers where they are “trained” to the point of abuse. Superb Chinese diver and gold medalist Wu Minxia wasn’t even told about her grandparents’ deaths over a year ago, as the news might “disrupt” her rigorous training. Oh yeah, and her mom’s been battling breast cancer for years, another tidbit Wu heard about only after winning the gold.
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Almost ironically, Webb cited the Chinese in that same segment for their national pride in wearing red. They’re not wearing red because they’re proud of their country; they’re wearing it because they probably have to.
The debate over what Olympians wear is silly. America is awesome, and we represent some of the best athletes in the world and bring home the gold, regardless of our attire.
Besides, if we’re going to talk about shameful uniforms, can we please mention the Spaniards and their hideous soccer jerseys? Those are bad news in the fashion department.
Image via Cristian_RH7/Flickr
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Comments 12
Y'know, you had me until the end, then you crapped on Spain. If you were paying attention to the Olympics. And the news. Then you'd know their team couldn't afford uniforms due to their tanked economy, so Russia donated them. The team's "self-expression" was in their national pride. At least their uniforms weren't Made in China.
I'm sure you knew this but just wanted to bait for page views. As usual.
I'm with DebaLa. The uniforms were donated to them, a very gracious offer considering how expensive football kits usually are. And who cares anyway, it's not like it affected their playing!
I do think the grey sweats could be just a little more patriotic since everyone wears them but the outfits they wear during the exercised don't matter that much.
But there's a lot to be said for the different outfits, i think it would get really boring if it were the same colours all the time!!
What she wore during her routines didn't bother me too much, though I prefered the ones that were similar to Mary Lou Retton's the best. What I don't like is the hideous brown or gray jackets our Olympians are wearing for their medal ceremonies! So drab and boring besides not being anywhere near patriotic.
I don't feel they "should" have to wear anything BUT I do like the stars and stripes. What can I say? It's also a lot easier to tell "who's who" while preforming. It was hard to tell with these Olympics. The little Russian girls wore a beautiful deep blue leotards with red and white jackets. They looked more like us that we did. LOL!
But no, I don't think there should be any requirements. What I like is just a personal preference.
I think they should wear something that has the colors red white and blue in it.. even if its a yellow shirt with a white star and blue and red stripes or somethin