Surprising-Lochte

Al Roker gets into heated argument on 'Today' show over Ryan Lochte

http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/rio-2016/2016/08/24/ryan-lochte-dancing-with-the-stars-dwts-cast/89306932/

This Ryan Lochte story continues to fascinate me. It very much was an international incident, and the legs that it has and continues to have is remarkable.

There are so many facets and angles that have emerged from this story that have expanded well beyond the second day. We are now into the celebrity and outside source part of it, from Al Roker garnering praise and then admonishment from the public and his bosses respectively to Ryan Lochte now, for lack of a better word, capitalizing on his spotlight by joining Dancing With the Stars.

This was by far the biggest non-athletic story to come out of Rio, and the fact that it is still something that is being talked about and debated a week later is wild. It has down likely irreparable damage to Lochte’s reputation and but a scab on an otherwise extremely successful Olympics for USA Swimming.

The Gabby Douglas Controversy

One thing I found quite shocking as I’ve been keeping up with the Olympics, was the negative attention that Gabby Douglas has gotten as the competitions panned out.

I figured the whole “nappy hair” would be old and dead this year at the Olympics. Four years ago Douglas got a lot of heat about not her hair not being neat. It took the audience and the media a while to truly realize how absurd and petty it was picking on a 16 year old girl whose literally flipping herself in the air over and over.

This year I felt the media and spectators at home would be easier on her because of the shame we all felt four years ago at the London Olympics. Unfortunately this was not the case, and history repeated itself.

Even the camera man played a hand in this nonsense as they zoomed in on Douglas just about as close as they can get, at every chance they could get. They would put the camera on her if they noticed she wasn’t cheering for her teammates or if she did not go hug a teammate, etc. The media portrayed her as this unsportsmanslike, badly groomed prick, as far as I saw it. There were headlines and national articles that only focused on Douglas and the way she looked and how she was portrayed as bitter of Simone Biles.

Biles played a big whole in this whole thing, even though she didn’t try to. She took Douglas’ spotlight, plain and simple. And people expected Douglas to be bitter about it so at any moment that she was smiling and jumping for joy, she was made out to be a monster.

I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact that professional journalists and media personnel would pay so much attention to something as minute and irrelevant as a gymnast’s “edges.” Douglas did an interview with the Associated Press where she broke down in tears about the accusations of being a bad teammate, a “sorry American,” and an ungroomed young lady.

People on social media are driving Gabby Douglas to tears with their constant attacks

Gabby Douglas calls social media critics ‘hurtful’ after ending Olympic career

Surprising – Age Regulations

For anyone who pays attention to sports, this may sound like beating a dead horse. But, I have always been fascinated with the age regulations for professional leagues, namely the NFL and NBA.

For basketball, the rules for the draft stating that players must be 19 years old and have at least one season between high school and NBA play have created the notorious “one and done” phenomenon. As a college basketball fan, this is a point of contention for me. On one hand, I root for these athletes and respect their decision to move on to professional play, but at the same time it is frustrating to see so many players leaving programs and not graduating. This story discusses the continuous back and forth on this rule.

For the NFL, college football is more of a necessity because of the three years out of high school rule. Still, many athletes choose to declare for the draft before graduation. I can vividly recall the national reaction when Johnny Manziel declared for the draft as soon as possible. And look how that turned out… I don’t know the best solution or if these regulations do their job, but it is a big sacrifice of education and athletes foregoing a college degree to pursue a professional career.

NBA Last 2-Minute reports

Over the summer, The National Basketball Referees Association asked the NBA to stop releasing its Last Two Minute Reports. The Last Two-Minute Reports which tell everyone accurate and inaccurate calls and non-calls in all games within five points in the final two minutes of regulation and during overtime. The fact that the NBA tried out at all is surprising.

I bring this up for 2 reasons. First, as we all know, nothing will change retroactively, and I think the playoffs have shown that the refs aren’t exactly improving because of it. We don’t need a report to tell us a call was wrong (most of the time the 6-10 angles and slow-mo replays tell us that) and most of the calls they review are either innocuous or things that are never called (travels, illegal screens) anyway.

Second, I am a firm believer that a foul call in the first quarter can have just as much of an impact as a foul call in the final minute. So rather than do a L2M report of every little thing (we don’t need a report telling us that an intentional foul to stop the clock was a foul), why not do a report of just the controversial or borderline calls in a game? 95-98% of the average game is not controversial, so just break down the remaining calls and non-calls and let us know if they were right.

#LochMess

Yes, I realize that probably everyone is writing about the same thing here, but I feel as if I offer a unique perspective to the situation, being so close to the UGA swim team and being at the Olympics.

We all know the story, Ryan Lochte and friends celebrate a little too much after the swimming portion of the Olympics conclude, Lochte rips down a poster at a gas station, lies about the situation….and here we are: http://edition.cnn.com/2016/08/20/sport/us-olympics-swimmers-reported-robbery-future/?sr=twnewday082216us-olympics-swimmers-reported-robbery-future1104AMVODtopLink&linkId=27902532.

I am by no means surprised by how this whole story spiraled out of control. Michael Phelps’ 23rd gold medal and retirement might as well have been a year ago and who is Lilly King again? The drunk actions of a few American swimmers absolutely took over all Olympic news feed. Everything.

Journalists were lacking anything juicy at the Olympic Games. Personally, I didn’t see a single mosquito during my time in Rio. Nobody really saw any mosquitoes. And what about the water? Yeah, that was fine too. The Lochte story was the first REAL thing that journalists had to cling to to prove themselves right about all the predictions they made about the Games. But that’s still not the surprising part.

What did shock me is how quiet nearly all media members became as the TRUE facts came out. Gunnar Bentz and Jack Conger both released statements giving their versions of the story, which have held up to be true. People who were calling for the swimmer’s heads all of a sudden fell silent. Christine Brennan led the charge for a lifetime Lochte suspension, but made NO mention of either of the swimmers statements once the truth came out.

To me, this just proves that journalism is moving more and more towards clicks. I worry that the profession is losing its integrity and journalists are spending more time presenting their own commentary, as either absurd or accurate as it may be, than chasing facts. And that’s what is surprising.

32 medals later and we’re still talking about Ryan Lochte

32 medals for the United States track and field team. That’s how many medals were earned by the various events. Thirty two is the most medals won by the U.S. Track and field team since 1984. But, no one seems to be hearing about that. No one is hearing about how the U.S. showed up in almost every race on the track. Races like the 5,000 meter and 1,500 meter that have belonged to other foreign countries for years. The U.S. proved to be more than the college development ground but show up at Rio ready to roll. On the women’s side, Emma Coburn and Jenny Simpson won the first U.S. medals in their respected events. The U.S. dominated track and field, but the news cycle has focused the attention elsewhere: one hazy night in Rio.

Although the way that scandal can take over the news cycle is not surprising, I am surprised by how little we’re hearing of anything else coming out of Rio. We’re hearing about how Jimmy Feigen has announced his statement that is similar to Gunnar Bentz and the uproar on who does and doesn’t want to be associated with Ryan Lochte now (Dancing With the Stars vs. Speedo). But we’ve also lost the voice of Katie Ledecky in the midst of all the drama. Ledecky who walks away from Rio with five medals has had little coverage since leaving the pool. With all the success from Rio, it is surprising that media coverage about Ryan Lochte’s comments have overshadowed the whole Rio experience.

Surprising

As y’all know I’m a huge Kentucky Wildcats Basketball fan, so what I find surprising is that Roy Williams wants to terminate the UNC/UK basketball games by 2018. How does one decide they want to stop a long coming rivalry? Is it a mutual agreement? do both of them have to agree on the subject or can one coach just say that enough is enough.

As far back as I can remember, my dad would always let my twin brother and I fight over who got to sit with him at the UNC/ UK game whenever it was at Rupp Arena. The Cats don’t play the Tarheels every year and in the off year that they don’t play each other, the Cats will usually play Duke or another top 25 team who is not in the SEC. Every year when they release the non conference schedule, I’m always eager to see who the Cats are playing. For instance, the Wildcats normally play the Louisville Cardinals right after Christmas, either the following day or three days after, but this year the game has been moved to December 21st.

The whole scheduling process confuses me in sports. How do they decide who plays who each year. As mentioned above, UNC and UK don’t play each other in basketball every year but when they do they alternate home courts. Why not just play every year?

Here is an article I found about Roy Williams wanting the UK/UNC games come to an end by 2018. And here is a second article about scheduling that addresses why the UK/UofL game has changed dates for the first time in years.

The complexity of college football schedules

Something that continues to confuse me is the disconnect that surrounds FBS college football teams’ non-conference schedules.

The major issue lately has been the controversy surrounding playing FCS teams. On one side, you have the Big Ten Conference, which has banned playing FCS schools, while on the other is Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, who argues that playing these games leads to a trickle-down effect of money that keeps FCS schools and Division II programs afloat. I’m of the mindset that playing perhaps one team on the FCS level each year is acceptable, especially when there are local ties such as when Georgia played Georgia Southern when the Eagles were still in the Southern Conference.

An unusual story yet one that needs mentioning is the decision between Wake Forest and North Carolina to play each other in non-conference games in 2019 and 2021 despite the fact that, you know, they’re both members of the ACC. The FBS level of football now has 128 teams, which means there are 126 other teams in the top classification alone that these teams could have chosen. I think this could set a precedent that could keep marquee matchups from happening in favor of playing games against fairly common opponents.

If going so far between games is an issue, why not get rid of divisions, like what SB Nation writers Jason Kirk and Bill Connelly suggested this summer?

Ryan Lochte

One thing that surprised me about sports, as of late, was how “Lochte Gate” was handled.

Lochte first told USA Today about the incident on August 14. The USOC spokesperson, Patrick Sandusky, made a statement about the incident but then an IOC spokesperson denied the allegations.

The only other people quoted in that article about the incident were people who were not present for it. Lochte’s mother was quoted as was Michael Phelps. Two people who had nothing to do with the situation and we’re going off of here say. Neither of the other two swimmers with him were asked about the incident.

I feel like asking the two swimmers who were with him would have been the most logical thing to do.

Gunnar Bentz didn’t even release a statement about what happened until nearly a week after the accused situation occurred.

The way the handling of this incident surprised me because the reporters, and or media outlets, seemed to speak to Lochte and everyone else but neglected to speak to the two other swimmers.

I believe this could have been handled in a much more efficient way. Unfortunately, it was not and now Ryan Lochte has a long road a head of him.

Surprising decision: Clarkston chosen for refugee resettlement and sports teams arise in area

Something that surprised me that is tangentially related to sports is how Clarkston, Georgia, is a city essentially made up of refugees and people from other countries. It was interesting how it’s so close to Atlanta, yet many people who have lived in Georgia their entire lives do not know it exists. When I was reporting a story of multiplatform, I found out that the Clarkston High School cross country team is about 90 percent refugees, which surprised me quite a bit and allowed me to fully grasp the demographic makeup of the high school. Then, a week ago I did research on the Fugees Family soccer program also in that area. That sparked a couple questions that I’m curious about looking into: How do sports play a role in refugee resettlement? Are there similar teams in other parts of the United States? And a bigger question about the refugee crisis in general, why Clarkston? I’ve done some research on this in the past, but I’d like to look at this community as a whole and see what led to this decision. I’m also interested to see what the community’s outlook is on sports.

I read this story last week that solely focuses on the Fugees Family and the mission of the team. It also looked into the struggles and pasts of individual members of the team and how that lingers in their day-to-day life in the United States. This article gives a broader look at the city of Clarkston and offered a bit more background information about how this town became a hub for refugee resettlement.