A lot of you don't seem to realized that there is only ONE match ... it is held every four years ... and it's called the Olympics. Everything else is just practice ... :-)
Unless you are really hurting financially ... and certainly some of us are during these times ... you should thankfully do what you can to help send our athletes to represent YOU at the Olympics.
O.K. maybe it's not the coolest thing to be an American these days overseas ... but we should proudly support our representatives when it comes to sporting events like the Olympics. The fact that a few days ago, the U.S. failed to qualify a baseball team for the Olympics next year ... is verging on unbelievable ... but it happened because too many Americans don't support international sporting events.
The way for us to support our internatinal shooters ... is to support USA Shooting. One of the ways you do that is by gladly paying USA Shooting PTO fees.
Not supporting USA Shooting and international shooting is like believing that the World Series produces the best baseball team in the world ... when only Canada and the U.S. take part in that event. Remember ... we didn't even qualify for baseball in the Olympics.
We also don't have a qualifing Free Pistol shooter in the next Olympics ... because some of our best shooters can't afford to practice enough nor attend all of the necessary matches.
Do you realize that tiny Thailand pays it's top air rifle shooter $50,000/year ... a fortune in that country ... so that he can properly train to represent them in international events. Even an air pistol shooter who has placed no higher then 2nd at a World Cup in air pistol, gets $20,000/year in support.
Our best free pistol shooter (at the time) had to take time off without pay (from Boeing, a huge defense contractor) to represent us at the last Olympics. Truly shameful ...
Yes, I think the U.S. Olympic Commitee/USA Shooting needs to do more to help instill the type of pride and understanding that will cause U.S. shooters to support International style U.S. shooters ... the other type of U.S. shooter working overseas ...
makofoto-at-earthlink.net.45648.0
I don't get it ... PTO's, etc ...
Moderators: rexifelis, pilkguns
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Mark P.
Re: I don't get it ... PTO's, etc ...
If that's the case, perhaps we should petition Congress to fund support for our shooting team. Heck, if they're going to spend billions on junk we don't need, I wouldn't mind them spending $300,000 (or at least my $0.001) on our Olympic team.
Even then, I don't think USA Shooting should be a "support the Olympic team and to heck with everyone else" sort of organization, which I think is the image many people have of them (rightly or wrongly). Even if it were, judging by some of the stories regarding the lack of support our athletes are getting, it would seem like they're kinda falling down on the job.
If that's the purpose of USA Shooting and it came down to it, I'd feel better just donating the money directly to the athletes or a fund that was dedicated to that purpose rather than paying a bureaucracy to handle it.
I thought our baseball team didn't make it because all of the MLB players were feeling lazy and didn't want to play on the national team?
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Even then, I don't think USA Shooting should be a "support the Olympic team and to heck with everyone else" sort of organization, which I think is the image many people have of them (rightly or wrongly). Even if it were, judging by some of the stories regarding the lack of support our athletes are getting, it would seem like they're kinda falling down on the job.
If that's the purpose of USA Shooting and it came down to it, I'd feel better just donating the money directly to the athletes or a fund that was dedicated to that purpose rather than paying a bureaucracy to handle it.
I thought our baseball team didn't make it because all of the MLB players were feeling lazy and didn't want to play on the national team?
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Dave H
Re: I don't get it ... PTO's, etc ...
: O.K. maybe it's not the coolest thing to be an American these days overseas ... but we should proudly support our representatives when it comes to sporting events like the Olympics. The fact that a few days ago, the U.S. failed to qualify a baseball team for the Olympics next year ... is verging on unbelievable ... but it happened because too many Americans don't support international sporting events.
No...a major reason the U.S. didn't make it is because the Summer Games and the major leagues occur simultaneously and Bud Selig doesn't want to stop the season for the big-leaguers to play for their respective countries (as the NHL does for the Winter Olympics).
This failure of baseball to enable its stars to compete in the Olympics is a factor in why the IOC is thinking about cutting baseball from the Olympics.
It has nothing to do w/ Americans' disinterest in supporting "Olympic" events more than once every four years (unlike track and field, for example - just read Track & Field News editorials and letters).
Now if Major League Baseball halted play so its stars could compete in the Olympics, you'd better get used to the Dominican Republic's national anthem...
dherman-at-earthlink.net.45654.45648
No...a major reason the U.S. didn't make it is because the Summer Games and the major leagues occur simultaneously and Bud Selig doesn't want to stop the season for the big-leaguers to play for their respective countries (as the NHL does for the Winter Olympics).
This failure of baseball to enable its stars to compete in the Olympics is a factor in why the IOC is thinking about cutting baseball from the Olympics.
It has nothing to do w/ Americans' disinterest in supporting "Olympic" events more than once every four years (unlike track and field, for example - just read Track & Field News editorials and letters).
Now if Major League Baseball halted play so its stars could compete in the Olympics, you'd better get used to the Dominican Republic's national anthem...
dherman-at-earthlink.net.45654.45648