August 29, 2004
Paula Radcliffe
I can't help but feel very sad for Paula Radcliffe and what happened to her during the Marathon and the 10K races at the Athens Games.
However what's even poorer are some of the comments coming from both press and people on the street and classifying her as a loser. Watching someone such as her having to pull out of two races for which she must have prepared a very long time is agonising. However she doesn't deserve some of the critiscism or even being classified as an underachiever. It was obvious that she gave her best and she worked very hard in both races - I hope she'll come around quick.
I think the way how we deal with these sort of personal tragedies says a lot about the world we live in.
Posted by Michael at August 29, 2004 01:20 AMThat's right. In Germany it's even worse. If somebody win it's okay (and worth 5 lines in the papers), but if somebody (like Jan Ullrich or Franziska van Almsick) loses the hole papers are full of articles... That's really a mess.
Posted by: Stefan Jansen at August 31, 2004 01:23 PM