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Post by schlager7 on Jul 19, 2004 12:09:33 GMT -6
You have to love the respect fencing commands. Here are the words of a self-proclaimed "proud sports couch potato" quoted on the Fox News site and talking about fencing: [glow=red,2,300]While Kennedy said he'll tune in to fencing, he questions how difficult it is to be the best in such a sport. "Are these esoteric events showcasing a collection of the world’s best athletes or are they just the best of a very small group of people who have taken up the sport in the first place?'" he asked "Hell, maybe I could have been a great fencer ... What does it mean to be the best in a sport that 99.999 percent of the population has never competed in?" [/glow] The url to the complete story is here: www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,126130,00.html
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Post by Maupin on Jul 19, 2004 22:36:27 GMT -6
When I thought about the type of person who would say this, one phrase came to mind: "You might be a redneck if..."
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Post by LongBlade on Jul 19, 2004 23:14:53 GMT -6
All we can hope is that for every Slope Head like Kennedy, there is a guy like Tom Dennis writing for the Grand Forks Herald! He writes: "One of the highlights of the Olympics is watching lesser-known sports such as fencing and archery. It's fun to see how the athletes' years of training can bring out the beauty and artistry of these exotic activities." Here's the rest of the article Dennis wrote about their local Prairie Rose Games: www.grandforks.com/mld/grandforksherald/news/opinion/9112419.htmKyle
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Post by captain jon on Jul 19, 2004 23:26:04 GMT -6
whenever I catch someone sneering at my knickers or making limp-wristed sways of the hand, I tell them the same thing my first coach Gary Murray told me on our first telephone intro..."The first lesson's free." (I don't say it as nice as he did) Then I stare at them so they know I'm not joking or particularly concerened what they think of me, and that I meant the statement. Most turn away muttering about what a nerd I am, but sometimes, just sometimes, I get a possible new addict to our sport interested in "swordfighting". It happened two weeks ago at a YMCA when a young man told me his little brother attended a "fencing Birthday Party". Both young men and Momi talked with the coach for awhile, and we may have two new students!
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Post by Flamberge on Jul 20, 2004 7:18:51 GMT -6
To steer the American Sports Couch Potato towards a more positive attitude to the sport of fencing a few medals will do miracles. They will get the juices (and ink, and airtime) flowing and generate a more wide appeal to coach potatoes and real aficionados, young and old.
I remember when Tara Lipinski of Sugarland got her medal at the Olympics. The following Saturday at the Galleria ice skating rink the line of kids and parents wanting to register in the new classes was 4 times longer than usual. The same for sale of bicycles and cycling paraphernalia after the phenomenal successes of Lance Armstrong at the Tour de France (past and current).
Success breeds success ... so let's wish good luck to our Olympians going to Athens and help ALL local clubs and the hard working coaches to spread the word in the market instead of going to court and try to prevent others to do their best in bringing this sport to the public at large (this is an obviuos hint to Maher "Mauro" Hamza and his modus operandi).
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Post by Dan Gorman on Jul 20, 2004 7:37:23 GMT -6
There was an article that ran during the 2000 Olympic Games with a reporter talking about going to some of the more obscure sports and watching for a bit, then he'd make a little fun of the event he saw and move on. Fencing of course was one of the events -- he mocked it a bit but said he enjoyed watching (with no explanations, but that's a different rant). Eventually he found himself in the ping pong venue and he observed that this was a sport he'd played and could see how much better these guys were than he'd ever been. A completely different level. And then he said he realized that the same was true of the rest of the sports he'd been watching, he just didn't know enough about the sports to understand that until he'd seen the ping pong.
Good article, but I'd have no clue were to find it anymore.
Dan
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Post by Prudence on Jul 28, 2004 20:21:51 GMT -6
When I thought about the type of person who would say this, one phrase came to mind: "You might be a redneck if..." LOL I was thinking the same thing! That's too funny.
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