New Olympic Record Set: Biggest Pussy in Bobsledding History

DCDawg · #1 02-25-2010, 02:23 PM

Can you imagine training to get to the Olympics as the #11 athlete in the world, and then chickening out? Incredible.

Fear prompts bobsledders to quit Olympics - CNN.com

Fear prompts bobsledders to quit Olympics

By Steve Almasy, CNN

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
NEW: Coach Tom de la Hunty: "I have to support" the pilot's decision

NEW: Teammate: "If you ask me if I want to slide I'd say, 'Yes'. But I don't have to steer"

Edwin van Calker, driver of the Dutch four-man bobsled quits the Games citing lack of confidence

Van Calker said his decision is unrelated to death of Georgian luger

(CNN) -- Tom de la Hunty took Dutch bobsledder Edwin van Calker to the Whistler Sliding Center track one last time Tuesday and asked his driver if he could do it.
He wasn't asking him to win; he was asking him whether he could compete. The coach and his pilot walked the course, and de la Hunty told van Calker to think about it, giving him an hour to make a decision.
Time offered no healing. Van Calker told his coach he just couldn't drive this track and so on Wednesday the four-man No. 1 sled from the Netherlands pulled out of the Olympics.
Because their driver was terrified.
"I've never seen someone get to a major event and not compete because they're scared. You keep your inner fears to yourself and do it," de la Hunty told reporters at a news conference. "That's why it's such a popular sport in the military. It's that kind of macho sport. You go over the top together."
Van Calker, ranked 11th on the World Cup four-man tour, crashed on his first run during two-man practice on Saturday. That and the memories of other crashes, including one that resulted in two teammates in the hospital, were too much for van Calker.
He never felt comfortable on the track during the two-man competition when he and teammate Sybren Jansma finished 14th. He and the rest of the four-man team were absent from two training runs on Tuesday, as he struggled with what to do. It didn't help that eight sleds crashed on that first day of training.
And so that night, he made the decision to give up.
"I have to look after my boys and can't close my eyes to that," he told reporters. "For me, it's not about performing. It's about surviving."
It was a split decision among the team to quit the games, said de la Hunty, who talked about how he told his driver he was making a choice he would regret forever.
"I've told him that to his face,"de la Hunty said, "but as a coach I have to support it because I'm responsible for him sending his team down the track in the right frame of mind."
For Timothy Beck, who wanted to continue, it was a heart-wrenching outcome to his last Olympics.
The man who carried the Dutch flag in the opening ceremonies said there was no tension on the team, but he wasn't the one looking out for three teammates.
"If you ask me if I want to slide I'd say, 'Yes'. But I don't have to steer; I just get in the back and go down. I don't have the responsibility," said Beck.
But he also said he was upset that he'd come to his third Olympics and would not get a chance to compete.
"This was my last chance to do something special," said the 33-year-old, who competed in the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2004 Summer Olympics on the track team.
Jansma said he was frustrated because he wanted to show the world the progress the Netherlands has made in bobsled, but safety was paramount.
Arnold van Calker, the fourth member of the team, supported his brother's decision, pointing to the difference in the size of the two- and four-man sleds. The two-man sled is smaller and easier to control. Arnold van Calker, who had his doubts about the safety of the track, worried his brother had lost his nerve and wouldn't be able to steer the big sled through turns 11, 12 and 13.
Not even changes to the track on Tuesday could help reassure the brothers.
"It was a lot better, but for us it was maybe too late," Arnold van Calker said.
De la Hunty pinned some of the blame on Arnold's wife, saying that she had been worried about her husband's safety ever since Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili had crashed and died on the same track during the first day of the games.
"When Arnold is scared and upset, obviously it has influence," he said.
But Arnold van Calker said the death had no influence, and Edwin van Calker agreed that the track was not to blame for his decision.
"It's a challenging and exciting track. You have to deal with it as a pilot. That comes with the job. Sometimes you deal with it less good," he said. "It's nothing to do with the track, just my lack of confidence at the moment."

gribbzz · #2 02-25-2010, 02:35 PM

What a dumb ass, first of all for being a bobsledder but then chickening out of it.

robdog · #3 02-25-2010, 04:41 PM

Dam talk about all that training down the drain...

gribbzz · #4 02-25-2010, 09:49 PM

Originally Posted by robdog

Dam talk about all that training down the drain...

Same can be said about that lady who was killed by the killer whale at sea world.

Barreh · #5 02-25-2010, 11:37 PM

I don't think it is nice to ridicule this gentlemen for choosing not to bobsled

Lawdog · #6 02-26-2010, 05:16 AM

Originally Posted by Barreh

I don't think it is nice to ridicule this gentlemen for choosing not to bobsled

I do not think it is nice that this quitter cost 3 other team members, their coach and their country their collective bobsledding dreams. WTF? I find your defense of this individual entirely disgusting. His conduct is cowardice to its core and is indefensible by standard, whether sports related or not. He deserves shame, not praise.

He deserves the General Patton treatment, not coddling, defending or justifying.

DCDawg · #7 02-26-2010, 06:22 AM

Originally Posted by lawdog, the wise

I do not think it is nice that this quitter cost 3 other team members, their coach and their country their collective bobsledding dreams.

Not to mention the guy who finished just short of qualifying to represent the Netherlands in the Olympics.

Originally Posted by gribbzz

Same can be said about that lady who was killed by the killer whale at sea world.

Whoa, whoa, whoa there, gibb. Hers is more understandable. Many marine biologists grew up in surfer communities, where "killer" has an entirely different meaning. "Killer surfboard" means a really cool surfboard. "Killer song" means a really cool song. Maybe she thought "this must be a really killer whale to have been given that name. I bet he's so killer that he'll let me poke him with a sharp stick while I ride around on his nose. That would be killer!"

I think that her estate should sue Sea World and all of the people who taught and trained her for not teaching her that "killer" was literal here. I would shred the court with that killer argument.

Barreh · #8 02-26-2010, 09:08 AM

Originally Posted by Lawdog

I do not think it is nice that this quitter cost 3 other team members, their coach and their country their collective bobsledding dreams. WTF? I find your defense of this individual entirely disgusting. His conduct is cowardice to its core and is indefensible by standard, whether sports related or not. He deserves shame, not praise.

He deserves the General Patton treatment, not coddling, defending or justifying.

First of all I am not defending what he did. All I'm saying is that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Couldn't the Netherlands have replaced him?

Barreh · #9 02-26-2010, 09:10 AM

Originally Posted by gribbzz

Same can be said about that lady who was killed by the killer whale at sea world.

Not cool my friend.

robdog · #10 02-26-2010, 09:11 AM

Originally Posted by Barreh

First of all I am not defending what he did. All I'm saying is that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Couldn't the Netherlands have replaced him?

Analyzing someones actions is not being mean. It is the truth. The guy pretty much screwed his teammates. He had to of know he would have fears/doubts about his abilities to literal WALK-OFF the biggest stage for bobsledding.

gribbzz · #11 02-26-2010, 01:02 PM

Originally Posted by Barreh

Not cool my friend.

My stance on wild animals in captivity is not cool? I am not worried about if you think its cool or not. That lady and all of the other "trainers" of wild animals in captivity deserve whats coming to them.

Its precisely why I do not go to or support Zoos, sea world or aquariums although aquariums are not as bad as the first two.

gribbzz · #12 02-26-2010, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by Barreh

First of all I am not defending what he did. All I'm saying is that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Couldn't the Netherlands have replaced him?

So your vote for the new name must be "Sports rumor mill : come be nice or day nothing at all" right?

Barreh · #13 02-26-2010, 01:55 PM

Originally Posted by gribbzz

My stance on wild animals in captivity is not cool? I am not worried about if you think its cool or not. That lady and all of the other "trainers" of wild animals in captivity deserve whats coming to them.

Its precisely why I do not go to or support Zoos, sea world or aquariums although aquariums are not as bad as the first two.

I agree that Animal captivity is wrong. Making light of someones death is also wrong.

gribbzz · #14 02-26-2010, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by Barreh

I agree that Animal captivity is wrong. Making light of someones death is also wrong.

As a religious person would say...an eye for an eye...

Lawdog · #15 02-27-2010, 04:44 AM

Originally Posted by Barreh

First of all I am not defending what he did. All I'm saying is that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. Couldn't the Netherlands have replaced him?

No, they most certainly could not. Just like any national team cannot replace teammates or individuals once they qualify. They either go, or they do not. That is precisely what makes this quitting particularly onerous. All the other bobsledders, lugers, and folks who went ahead and competed on the Whistler faced the same situation and none of them quit on themselves, their trainers, their teammates or their country. Why is that?

If you want to defend cowardice, go ahead. If you want to admonish to remain silent when a coward's deed is exposed to light, fine. You are entitled to that opinion, as misguided and unfortunate as that may be. Otherwise I would politely suggest that someone saying this lilly livered piece of shit deserves to be deported from his country of origin to live his remaining years in shame on a leper island is way, way to merciful.