[thechat] Olympics...

[isaac]

> Did you see the group of people they assembled to carry in the
> Olympic flag?
> *Amazing*  Can you *imagine* being in the green room with those 8 people?
> Can you imagine John Glenn saying "Wow! You're Steven Spielberg." Or Cathy
> Freeman saying "My god, I'm talking to Desmond Tutu!" Wow.

I can't imagine any of those people saying "Wow, I'm talking to Cathy
Freeman..."

As good a runner as she might be, she cannot speak publically without
embarrassing herself. She had a trial as a commentator at a sports event
overseas and was dumped very quickly for being unable to progress beyond
"Ah, yeah. Ummm. Yeah."

--
Cathy's TV stint over in a flash
http://www.racingandsports.com.au/displaymessage.asp?mid=6744

"her obvious lack of televisual talent"
"her one and only appearance was described as 'laughable'."
"eccentric, monosyllabic and apparently without interesting opinions or
insights"
"a disappointment"
--

For her to be announced recently as a "global leader of the future" was
utterly ridiculous. Whenever I see the political parties in Australia
courting her as a future representative, I laugh.

Jason Yat Sen Li would be a far better representative of Australia in the
future: (http://www.saxton.com.au/speakers/Li.html). I saw him speak on a
republic/monarchy debate televised a year or so ago and was very impressed.

"Can run fast" should not be considered important in the selection process.

However, Australia regularly struggles to get beyond accolades only for
sports people. The recent award of Australian of the Year (3rd sportsperson
to win in 5 years) to Pat Rafter who, despite his huge efforts for charity,
doesn't even live in the country (rumoured to be moving -- hello, guilt?),
is particularly demonstrative of this.



i