If you ask the coach for the Dutch speed skating team why the US failed to medal at the Winter Olympics in the sport, he’s got a very simple answer for you.
“You have a lot of attention on a foolish sport like American football and you waste a lot of talent, athletic talent, on a sport that is meant to kill each other, to injure each other. … You’re so narrow-minded, and then you want to compete against the world [in other sports] when you waste a lot of time, good talent on a sport that sucks,” he said.
It’s good to know I’m the narrow-minded one.
(h/t Smart Football)
Gee, and all along I thought that the reason US speedskaters didn’t medal was that Under Armor screwed up the design of the racing suit so that it trapped wind.
LikeLike
Jill left out the fact that the U.S. has more medals this year than the Dutch but who’s counting
LikeLike
Netherlands had 41 players on their roster/24 medals. The USA had 230 players on their roster/28 medals. Just sayin’
http://ftw.usatoday.com/2014/02/olympics-medal-count-russia-sochi-united-states-most/
LikeLike
Does the Olympics test for weed? I mean… we are talking about the Dutch here.
LikeLike
He also failed to mention that all their medals came from speed skating, while despite our football-obsessed foolishness, we won more medals than they did in a whole bunch more sports. Huh.
LikeLike
Who cares what the Dutch think? Speed skating is absolutely boring.
LikeLike
When I want to know how to wear skinny jeans or surrender to Germany, I’ll ask a Dutchman. When it comes to sports, they can shut their sucks, I’m not the least bit interested in their opinion.
Who gives a tinker’s damn about speed skating? They could have banned the sport outright 10 years ago and I would have never noticed it.
LikeLike
Yep, if it wasn’t for us capitalist arrogant ass-kicking Americans, Europe would have fallen under Nazi rule and later under Communist rule – then again they might have enjoyed that better than democratic freedom.
LikeLike
This, exactly this.
LikeLike
LikeLike
The truth is that the US could dominate the world in whatever sports we chose to focus on. It just happens to be that two of the three sports we focus on most the rest of the world doesn’t play.
LikeLike
What is the other sport that we focus on that the rest of the world doesn’t play? I hope you’re not thinking baseball or basketball b/c that would be wrong.
LikeLike
It’s golf isn’t it?
LikeLike
Yes, those. And yes, you are right, the rest of the world does play baseball and basketball. But historically soccer rules the day anywhere but the US and the big three rule here. Although, our hold on Baseball has slipped quite a bit.
LikeLike
There are pockets of countries where baseball is king (Central America, the Caribbean, Venezuela, and eastern Asia). Basketball isn’t really the king sport in any countries other than the US and Lithuania (and maybe the Philippines) but you could pretty easily make the case that it’s overall the 2nd most popular sport in the world behind soccer.
LikeLike
Not even close. Formula One is miles more popular than Basketball worldwide and is third only to Soccer and the Olympics in viewers.
LikeLike
The guy is a joke and every bit as narrow minded as those whom he criticizes. And he probably should avoid bringing up soccer since The Netherlands has replaced Spain as the all time World Cup chokers…zero world cup titles despite being favorites multiple times.
Having spent 6 tours with the Army in Germany, I like the Dutch. They are wonderful people. All one has to do is participate in the Nijmegen Marches and see their reaction to US Soldiers marching through their towns to understand how much they remember what we did for them, even with Monty’s failure in Market Garden.
I like speed skating and don’t find it in the least boring. That being said, I also don’t find it scintilating either. I suspect the coach got tired of the whining by the US team about their suits and for that I don’t blame him. They were a bunch of whiners and it was no one’s fault but their team management if they slowed the team down.
LikeLike
“Having spent 6 tours with the Army in Germany, I like the Dutch. They are wonderful people. All one has to do is participate in the Nijmegen Marches and see their reaction to US Soldiers marching through their towns to understand how much they remember what we did for them, even with Monty’s failure in Market Garden.”
Stop making sense
LikeLike
The Olympics isn’t a sport. It’s a once every four years event that contains competitions for a bunch of different sports.
And as far as you saying F1 is “miles more popular” than basketball in terms of television viewers…who cares? We’re talking participation here, not television. I’m not even sure how you’re comparing television ratings for the 19 events per year in a class (F1) of a sport (auto racing) against the television ratings for the entire sport of basketball…but it really doesn’t matter because, again, we’re talking participation and not watching tv.
LikeLike
Car racing isn’t a sport. Race car drivers are not athletes. .
LikeLike
Viewing from your Barcalounger in the living room, you may think so. Watch a race from Pit Row and then try to even comprehend the athletic skill it takes to race that close, that fast, with so much turbulence jumping the car around. Hand-eye coordination of a race car driver rivals any other sport.
And there’s no power steering or a/c.
LikeLike
This blowhard reinforces my suspicion that they are probably all doped. Domination in endurance events on that level is suspicious in and of itself.
LikeLike
They didn’t think we were dumb and stupid when we helped liberate their sorry open minded liberal asses in 1944-45 from the Germans.
LikeLike
Speaking of things that suck. Hmmmmm. But I will try to keep an open mind.
LikeLike
Nuff said…
LikeLike
Tell Geert VanDerDouche that if speed skating was being contested in my front yard, I’d close the curtains.
Instead of minding our sporting bidness, he should be thanking us that the Dutch aren’t singing Deutchland Uber Alles before they throw out the first skate at skating meets.
LikeLike
Preach…
LikeLike
There are only two things in this world that I can’t stand: people who are intolerant of other people’s culture and the Dutch.
LikeLike
That is outstanding right there.
LikeLike
Who knew a stoner could be so jealous…
LikeLike
If this idiot wants to criticize American football, that’s fine. I don’t really have a problem with that as long as he does it logically. Where I have a problem is that he made a horribly weak argument trying to link it to the reason we aren’t the best speed skating nation. First of all, we’re better than most nations at speed skating. Second, the most popular sport in the Netherlands is soccer, so does that mean soccer holds the Netherlands back from being even better than they are at speed skating? Or vice versa with speed skating holding them back from being better at soccer? Could the US be a better speed skating nation if we eliminated American football and all those athletes went into speed skating instead? Absolutely. But you could make that same case with most countries and their favorite sport.
LikeLike
Who gives a left-threaded fuck what a speed skater from the fucking Netherlands thinks about anything…really, speed skating?
LikeLike
On second thought, I am really upset the US ball room dancing team does not do better.
LikeLike
He should be glad that Apolo Ohno didn’t compete this time in the winter olympics. Just wonder if Ohno would have been a good football player.
LikeLike
Was he the one that tackled the South Korean back in 02?
LikeLike
If this is an a common view in Holland, then I’m glad Montgomery’s stupid Market Garden was a failure.
Served the cur krauts right!
LikeLike
Jim Delany annouced the big10 to start speed skating, thinking most of the SEC speed has never seen more ice than in a glass of iced tea, plus like the dutch they suck at football to.
LikeLike
I wish Herschel would have decided to speed skate. That would shut them up. And no one would think about flipping him off either!
LikeLike
The most popular spectator sport in America isn’t football, it’s NASCAR. There’s something uniquely American about that.
Back in the 70’s Cale Yarborough took a car with a big block V8 to LeMans. Imagine the noise and shock when he fired that mother up among all those European whinemobiles.
LikeLike
Unfortunately for Cale, the shock and awe was short
“They had run one hour out of 24—52:54.3 minutes, to be exact. Thirteen laps. The Camaro was the second car out of the race….
“Daddy!” she said. “What in the world happened?”
He shrugged. “Oh, I ran it under a guardrail,” he said.
“You…under a…what?”
http://si.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1124639/8/index.htm
LikeLike
NASCAR was #2 at its height. It is not number one or two anymore. CFB is #2 and the NFL is first by a mile.
LikeLike
Is it first by a mile in the South?
LikeLike
“That’s just racin'”
The Ford-Cosworth V8 engine showed up and showed off. 😉
LikeLike
Picky, Picky. C’mon guys. Think of Ole’ Cale turning the key on that Beeg Brutish Amiercain Thumper amid all those whiny European engines. I wish I was there.
LikeLike
Who wants us to compete with the world? Or even compete in the damned Olympics? Boring waste of time. I want them off the channel I watch Dateline on. Never saw one race, event, or heard one single anthem. Very happy about that too. Let the little Dutch boys grow up to wear tights and skate on ice.
LikeLike
Get off my channel!
LikeLike
Hey, I know, let’s go take a look in the Great Big Book of Dutch World Cup Victories…oh wait, it’s the same size as the American version. Idiot.
LikeLike
I like the Dutch. But this guy is just a big ole ding dong.
LikeLike
Hey give the guy credit. He likes his sport and he ain’t skeerd to say so. All of us would give him the same about speed skating. In fact, we just did. I’d rather read what he said than some pablum about how all sport is great, all sport is uplifting, all sport encourages us to learn to be team players and rise above our own petty desires and work for the greater good, etc., etc., etc.. We want that crap, we can listen to the average NFL post game interview.
LikeLike
The Dutch peaked as a nation in about 1655. It’s been all downhill ever since. This twit is just jealous. BTW- How smart do you have to be to skate around in a circle all day? Bet the play book is about 1 page, single sided.
LikeLike