“Are You Stupid?” Gets Asked Again

2010 WINTER OLYMPICS
2010 WINTER OLYMPICS


Update: YouTube claims the IOC lodged a copyright complaint and therefore the video was pulled from YouTube. I will leave the link in, but do not expect to watch Mr. Kramer’s jerkism on display.

Watch this video, at least the clip where the NBC reporter asks Mr. Kramer who he is and where he is from:

Yes, he asks the reporter Are you stupid?.

Well looky here (from Reuters):

Sven Kramer, the overwhelming favorite to win the men’s 10,000 meters, threw down his glasses in fury after a lane violation Tuesday cost him his second gold medal at the Vancouver Games.

Kramer’s disqualification for a violation with eight laps remaining in the race handed Lee Seung-hoon of South Korea the gold medal at the Richmond Olympic Oval.

Who is stupid now, Sven?

You know, normally I would be sympathetic and in fact I would also argue the coach is primarily at fault for urging the lane change upon him. But after his attitude to the NBC reporter I do not feel one bit bad for him.

Karma is always your friend rewarding you or teaching you. Sven Kramer was taught, did he learn?

Update, I want to expand on my thoughts here.
It seems the question the NBC reporter posed to Sven was not for the actual “interview” but for technical & production reasons. I am seeing a lot of chatter about “timestamping” the video. Now, I don’t have any notion as to what exactly is meant here (timestamp to me is a datatype in various database servers) but my impression of the question (from the tone of the reporter in question) was it was extremely routine and a part of the procedure and not background information gathering.

A little bit of patience goes a very very long way, and patience in that episode would have turned what is a huge laughter for us into a situation where we would be with Sven and feeling really bad for him. Being an elite performer does not give you license to turn into a snotty arrogant SOB.

Once I laughed it up at a guy who was pulled over for speeding and getting a ticket. Within one week, that same police officer was writing me a ticket.

Good Stuff!

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