Letters: Let the complaints begin about Sochi Olympics coverage

Snowboarder Shaun White is one of a handful of favored Americans who failed to medal at the Sochi Olympics. Conversely, several unheralded competitors, including some from the U.S. have prevailed.

L.A. Times Archives

Feb. 14, 2014 12 AM PT

Bill Plaschke’s Feb. 13 article about disappointing Olympic performances should never have been printed. Has he ever competed for or received an Olympic medal? Our fabulous, hard-working athletes have spent their lives achieving a spot on the US Olympic Team. They deserve better than Plaschke’s ridicule. After putting so much effort in their events, we know their hearts are broken, which happens by mere fractions of a second. They are our heroes and should be lauded as such!

Joann Duray

Playa del Rey

I find it disgusting that Bill Plaschke called Shaun White “the biggest loser of all” in his Olympics rant. All great champions win some and, yes, lose some. Shaun has always represented the USA very well at the Olympics and only a real loser would take a cheap shot at him now.

James D. Regan

Carlsbad

Dear Mr. Plaschke;

The 20th century called. It says you’re welcome to go there and watch the Olympics of the last century.

Welcome to globalization. The U.S no longer has a lock on about anything besides early-onset diabetes and pseudo-celebrities.

Jeff Heister

Chatsworth

I am not a conspiracy theorist, but given the dismal showing of U.S. winter sports stars Bode Miller, Shaun White, Shani Davis, et al, and the long history of the Russians poisoning their enemies and opponents, and Vladimir Putin’s increasingly iron grip on all things Russian, is it possible that the Russians are slipping some poison in the American athletes’ food or drink?

Or is it just that the competition is stiff and the stars are getting old?

Daniel Fink

Beverly Hills

Following his eighth-place finish, Shani Davis commented, “This is terrible because as an American, this is where I ‘bank.’”

Mr. Davis may have banked on the Olympics for his payday, but the American public expects more from those representing our country than a self-centered display of personal greed.

Barry Resnick

Orange

Well, I guess we can add Chris Dufresne to the list of those taken in by the Bode Miller mystique. Nobody but a football writer would possibly buy into the endless rationalizations for why Miller failed in the downhill. According to Dufresne, if only clouds had not appeared; the temperature not risen; the race not been postponed 15 minutes — if only the race was run on Thursday, Friday or Saturday, surely Bode would have won the gold.

If the conditions were so bad when Bode ran, why did Italy’s Christof Innerhofer, who raced eight positions later, wind up with the silver medal?

Mario Valvo

Rancho Mirage

I’d like to add another reason for the loss of interest in figure skating by the U.S. audience. It is no longer ballet on ice, with artistic skill replaced by athletic skill. Skaters are no longer judged by the beauty and grace of their performance but by how many quadruple jumps they do. It makes it easier for judges to count the number of jumps and not have the skill to judge beautiful performances. Fire whoever came up with the new standards of judging and go back to the days of Debi Thomas and Katarina Witt.

Walter Keller

Malibu

So I settle in with friends to watch the opening ceremony of the Sochi Games, scheduled via tape delay, to start at 7:30 p.m. And what do I get but 40 minutes of posturing, and spin, and no ceremony. Nothing like being dishonest with the viewers.

And then we get the president talking about Americans winning medals, at the same time we are told that Americans shouldn’t even wear their uniforms because of the low opinion and potential threats against them.

What strange and mixed messages being sent by NBC.

Barry Levy

Hawthorne

American journalists need to stop pointing out the minor glitch during the opening ceremony. It is petty and embarrassing. Let’s give credit where credit is due. The opening ceremony was technically nothing less than awe-inspiring. To focus on a few seconds of a three-hour production set a poor tone for coverage of the Games.

Kate Pretorius

Redlands

The only name I remember hearing before the Olympics was Lindsey Vonn.

The only name I will remember hearing after the Olympics is Lindsey Vonn.

Mark Berglas

Huntington Beach

Sam comes out

Your first quote regarding the Michael Sam revelation is from a NFL executive, stating, “It is a non-issue.”

Good. We’re there now. No need to dwell on sexual orientation any more than we need articles on which hand a player shaves with, how many tattoos he/she has, or whether they’re allergic to oysters.

Can we move on?

Rick Wallace

Malibu

Memo to NFL management and players:

Come draft day, it will not be Michael Sam on trial but you. Overfed by the media, we all know how Missouri’s SEC defensive player of the year was ranked before he courageously announced that he is gay. And we have all heard “whispers” from unidentified GMs who don’t want the scrutiny/hassle/attention that an openly gay athlete would bring.

If Sam plummets in the draft, a lot of NFL fans are going to ask themselves and each other, “Just what kind of people are we rooting for?”

Tom Sloss

Fountain Valley

For those players in the NFL who are voicing a certain fear or discomfort about the idea of sharing a locker room with an openly gay player, I would suggest they watch the ESPN documentary on the 1951 University of San Francisco Dons. It would be of special benefit for African American players to see this story because it should be a reminder that it wasn’t so long ago when less-than-subtle discrimination and prejudice were the order of the day when it came to the black athlete.

And for those anonymous general managers who state that the time might be right 10 years from now but not today, I offer the shining example of one Jackie Robinson.

Rodney K. Boswell

Thousand Oaks

We want NFL?

Jack Wishard (Letters, Feb. 8) writes that Bill Plaschke “doesn’t speak for the average fan” when stating that Los Angeles fans don’t care if football returns to the city. Actually, it’s Mr. Wishard who doesn’t speak for the average fan. The local college teams have widespread support throughout the city. California led the country in high school football players taken in last year’s NFL draft. The Rams had some of the highest attendance records in the league when they played in Los Angeles. The city deserves a football team and it should be the return of our Rams.

Rich Hardt

Long Beach

Sorry, Steve

Jerry Buss was always against giving big contracts to players at the end of their careers, especially those who made their bones playing for other teams. Steve Nash is the reason he believed this.

I fully understand that Nash wants to keep playing. But then again, so do all of us. If he were 25 with this sort of injury, we would all be patient and allow him to heal. But the fact is he is 40 years old and his career is over. He had a nice birthday gift, but the NBA gods took over after that. As a Lakers fan, I don’t want to be subjected to watching him anymore. As a Steve Nash fan, I don’t want him subjected to this anymore. It’s time to pull the plug and call it a career.

Geno Apicella

Placentia

Tough call

I’m not sure which story was more surprising: the Missouri football player announcing he was gay, or Josh Beckett and Chad Billingsley still being in organized baseball. I had forgotten about both of them.

David Macaray

Rowland Heights

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prising: the Missouri football player announcing he was gay, or Josh Beckett and Chad Billingsley still being in organized baseball. I had forgotten about both of them.