Russians never change

• Glory Days

  

  I was looking up the tv ratings for the US/Canada hockey game and came across this part of the article that i thought was interesting:
  

  President Dmitry Medvedev demanded that Russian sports officials step down over the country's dismal performance. A traditional winter-sports powerhouse, Russia won 15 medals - with three golds - in one of its worst performances. Officials said before the games that 30 medals and a top-three finish in the medal standings was the target.
  
  Russia placed 11th for golds and sixth in the overall medal count.
  
  In televised comments, Medvedev said if those responsible for preparing the athletes don't resign, the decision will be made for them. He did not mention anyone by name.
  
  "Those who bear the responsibility for Olympic preparations should carry that responsibility. It's totally clear," he said. "I think that the individuals responsible, or several of them, who answer for these preparations, should take the courageous decision to hand in their notice. If we don't see such decisiveness, we will help them."
  
  In post-Soviet history, Russia had not finished outside the top five in the medal standings and won fewer medals only once before, in 2002 at Salt Lake City.

  I can only imagine what is going to happen if they dont finish better in 2014.
  
  http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/03/02/SPEH1C98MQ.DTL
• Swamp Fox

  Thank God you and I live where we do. I have to admit, however, that I have observed parents who sit behind the bench in basketball and yell at coaches with this same attitude. We can be comforted in the fact that our idiots have little power to oust coaches, and in other places the idiots are at the highest levels of government. ( I should alter my statement slightly. The parents I refer to have little or no power where administrators have the courage to tell those parents to butt out.) I suppose I should also add that occasionally, we observe actions by our government that aren't particularly intelligent, but not as harsh as the Russian example.
• Mr. 300

  

  Off to the tundra for those coaches.
• tk421

  

  I suppose the athletes have no blame for doing so "poorly"?
• Fab4Runner

  

  tk421 wrote: I suppose the athletes have no blame for doing so "poorly"?

  My thought as well.
• cbus4life

  How is this any different than a coach here in the United States being fired for a team performing poorly?
  
  They didn't perform as well as they should have, according to those in charge, so the "coaches" are being asked to step down.
  
  I guess i just don't get what the big deal is.
  
  Yea, it is worded rather harshly, and seems ridiculous that the President is commenting on this...but i still don't get the big deal, for the most part.
• Heretic

  

  cbus4life wrote: How is this any different than a coach here in the United States being fired for a team performing poorly?
  
  They didn't perform as well as they should have, according to those in charge, so the "coaches" are being asked to step down.
  
  I guess i just don't get what the big deal is.
  
  Yea, it is worded rather harshly, and seems ridiculous that the President is commenting on this...but i still don't get the big deal, all in all.

  Yeah. Look at us and our teams. Regularly going 9-3 or so as Ohio State's football coach means you suck and need to get canned. Hell, for some people, Tressel's yearly Big 10 title and win over Michigan isn't good enough because his bowl game record is a bit lacking.
  
  Now I will we don't always have big-government people getting crazy like this about sports...well except for that one guy in (I think) the Illinois house who, a few years ago, commented that a poor official deserved getting assaulted.
  
  Come to think of it, the Russians have a ways to go before they reach our level of getting psychotic about sports. USA! USA! USA!
• raiderbuck

  I guess the main difference is the fact that it's the schools/teams that fire coaches in America...not the Government.
• End of Line

  

  I ahd no idea that the USSR got back together
• ytownfootball

  

  I think the Olympics are held in a much higher regard in the old Soviet block than they are anywhere else. They certainly don't have the collegiate/professional sports attraction we enjoy here in the states. So, by default, the emphasis lands on the coaches. I'm not so sure that were I not a rooskie I'd feel any differently.
• FatHobbit

  

  Heretic wrote: Yeah. Look at us and our teams. Regularly going 9-3 or so as Ohio State's football coach means you suck and need to get canned. Hell, for some people, Tressel's yearly Big 10 title and win over Michigan isn't good enough because his bowl game record is a bit lacking.

  True, but Ohio State football is actually life or death. Nobody cares about the olympics.
• Fab1b

  

  Are you surprised by the Russians in this? Thing about it (even though not the Olympics), after Drago lost to Rocky, did we ever see Drago fight again??? Wonder where they buried his body?
• Glory Days

  

  Fab1b wrote: Are you surprised by the Russians in this? Thing about it (even though not the Olympics), after Drago lost to Rocky, did we ever see Drago fight again??? Wonder where they buried his body?

  haha good point.
  
  
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  Fab1b wrote: Are you surprised by the Russians in this? Thing about it (even though not the Olympics), after Drago lost to Rocky, did we ever see Drago fight again??? Wonder where they buried his body?

  
  Sadly, this is the answer Fab:
  
  
• Fab1b

  

  BigAppleBuckeye wrote:

  Fab1b wrote: Are you surprised by the Russians in this? Thing about it (even though not the Olympics), after Drago lost to Rocky, did we ever see Drago fight again??? Wonder where they buried his body?

  
  Sadly, this is the answer Fab:
  
  

  Ha ha what the hell was that about!!
• BigAppleBuckeye

  

  Fab1b wrote:

  BigAppleBuckeye wrote:

  Fab1b wrote: Are you surprised by the Russians in this? Thing about it (even though not the Olympics), after Drago lost to Rocky, did we ever see Drago fight again??? Wonder where they buried his body?

  
  Sadly, this is the answer Fab:
  
  

  Ha ha what the hell was that about!!

  No idea!! hahaha, I saw it on "The Soup" recently. The best is right around the 1:40 mark where he randomly starts doing karate and breaking boards haha, WTF???!!!
• Fab1b

  

  Good stuff indeed, yeah when he started smashing those I too was like WTF??
• Tiernan

  You can be sure comrade next time moose and squirrel meet Ivan in Sofia, mother Ruska vill vin much gold medals.
• mattinctown

  I MUST BREAK YOU
• Big_Mirg_ZHS

  

  BigAppleBuckeye wrote:

  Fab1b wrote: Are you surprised by the Russians in this? Thing about it (even though not the Olympics), after Drago lost to Rocky, did we ever see Drago fight again??? Wonder where they buried his body?

  
  Sadly, this is the answer Fab:
  
  

  WHAT THE FUCK did i just watch.