Why must athletes put up with stupidity or misbehavior by officials?

Question

This is motivated by the apparent psych-out the chinese officials used to distract the american girl gymnast about to go on the balance beam. Whatever stupid thing officials do, eg they obviously made a wrong call against the cuban girls playing the american girls in beach volley ball, there's this attitude of "don't make excuses - you lost". People old enough will remember the crowd booing John MacEnroe at Wimbledon when he protested bad calls. A person works hard their whole life to get to a championship, and then an incompetent official wrecks if for them, or otherwise screws up, unfairly bringing to a bad end years of work by the athlete, Yet protesting such unforgivable stupidity or error by a judge or other official is considered bad form - WHY? Do people worship sports "authority"?

Answer 1

I like frix's answer!

Answer 2

The human element will always allow for mistakes.  The officials aren't biased and aren't crooked, they just make mistakes sometimes just like everyone else.

The attitude you speak of "don't make excuses - you lost" is valid.  If the player/team would have had a little more mental prep or been able to get the ball down just an inch earlier then there would be no call to consider 'bad'.  If a boxer loses a split decision against an underdog then it is his/her fault that the fight went to the judges in the first place.  If a football team loses a fumble that looked to be caused by the ground not a player, then the player should have just taken care of the ball better and he wouldn't have to worry with the refs.

It is the life they chose.  A life that is scrutinized and picked apart everyday.  Sorry, I don't really agree with you.

I'm not saying they can over come corrupt officials.  I'm saying there aren't as many corrupt officials as you seem to believe there are.  There are just human officials who sometimes make mistakes.

And you are right, if officials are corrupt and biased then there is, in most cases, a formal complaint that can be filed and no one looks at you as having 'bad form.'

Sports, in their core, are honorable and honest.  One team or player versus another to see who is best.  Most of the time the officials make just as many 'bad' calls on both sides of the field/court/gym...

Answer 3

I'm pretty sure even the US gymnasts didn't even say the officials did it on purpose. In gymnastic competitions there will always be delays due to slow judging and distractions since there are more than one event going on at once. All gymnasts expect it and more than one will experience a delay in a competition. Even the president of US gymnastics said it was an issue with the TV broadcasting that caused the delay. So blame NBC who insists on recording every second and then not playing everything for you so you think only the US got "cheated" with a delay.

edit: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/news?sl...

Yahoo's usually pretty biased for the US and it even said that the delay was not on purpose. If you haven't noticed, the coach is usually very biased. I'm just glad that the gymnasts all show better sportsmanship than their coach

Answer 4

i think its stupid and not fair to the atheletes!

Answer 5

This is the reason why Americans are generally viewed as ungrateful losers by foreigners.  Even your fellow American who I have no respect for has admitted it:

http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/beijing...

Go outside the U.S. and there is absolutely no discussion of this by neutral news articles.  There is no international controversy over this, and therefore no controversy whatsoever.