Vive Americans!

Vive Americans!

Posted on August 11th, 2008 by Glenn Giangrande

For some casual sports fans, the Beijing Olympics can be hard to get into. Sure, we’re down with the mainstream sports like basketball and softball, but swimming, rowing and the like? Yes, it’s easy for some people to get up for them every four years, but not all. In those cases, it takes a little extra to pique the interest of the masses … like the good ol’ patriotism that can only be engineered by some foreigner talking smack about Americans. Leave it to a French swimmer to shoot his mouth off.

“The Americans? We’re going to smash them,” said Alain Bernard before being fed a steaming pile of crow by the United States 4×100 relay team, specifically comeback kid Jason Lezak, who earned every bit of that nickname on the last leg of the race despite being 32 years old. Bernard and his teammates can act like losing by a “fingertip” wasn’t a big deal, and really, a silver medal isn’t anything to sneeze at. But when you’re thisclose to victory … that kind of pain translates into any language.

The loss wasn’t for naught though — it motivated at least one bar full of karaoke singing, beer drinking patrons to stop their activities to cheer for the U.S. in unison. I never thought I’d say this, but thank goodness for the French.