heywoodu 13,503 Posted September 14, 2020 #191 Share Posted September 14, 2020 8 minutes ago, dcro said: Thiem is at whole another level. Almost all of the other top players do take part at the Olympics, after all. For a player of such rank and wealth as Thiem, there is simply no valid excuse for skipping the Olympic tournament... Whether or not his reason is valid really is just a matter of opinion. "Austria doesn't have many other medal chances" certainly doesn't seem like a valid reason to go to the Olympics (after all, he'd go for himself, not the country), although that's of course also just an opinion. thiago_simoes 1 If you'd like to help our fellow Totallympics member Bruna Moura get to the 2026 Winter Olympics, after her car crash on the way to the 2022 Olympics, every tiny bit of help would be greatly appreciated! Full story and how to help can be found here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlympicsFan 776 Posted September 14, 2020 #192 Share Posted September 14, 2020 5 hours ago, dcro said: And yet Thiem still plans to enter some B-tournament over the Olympics...? Ugh, I could never care about his titles then. It's not like Austria has many medal chance (at all). I think they have a bunch of medal chances in sports like athletics, sailing or Mountainbike. I also don’t see why he shouldn’t skip the Olympics if he can earn more money/ranking points somewhere else. Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be obtained only by someone who is detached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcro 10,172 Posted September 14, 2020 #193 Share Posted September 14, 2020 5 minutes ago, heywoodu said: Whether or not his reason is valid really is just a matter of opinion. "Austria doesn't have many other medal chances" certainly doesn't seem like a valid reason to go to the Olympics (after all, he'd go for himself, not the country), although that's of course also just an opinion. Oh come on... It takes a village to make a world-class sportsperson. Everyone knows that. Thiem did not became US Open champion by himself. Therefore skipping the Olympics for some selfish reasons definitely qualifies as disrespectful behaviour towards his country and home fans. Because, mark my words, he never would have won the US Open had he been born in Eswatini or Uruguay. #banbestmen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlympicsFan 776 Posted September 14, 2020 #194 Share Posted September 14, 2020 7 hours ago, Vic Liu said: The 5th set is a tragedy. Totally not watchable for audience. I really like Thiem and I know he will win the GS sooner or later but I couldn't congrats him based on the poor quality of this match. It was a very low quality match, but very entertaining/unpredictable for me. Thiem choked away the first two sets and Zverev choked away the fifth set. The pressure of being the Favorit obviously got to Thiem, but I think in the future he will be more relaxed in slam finals. Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be obtained only by someone who is detached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OlympicsFan 776 Posted September 14, 2020 #195 Share Posted September 14, 2020 3 minutes ago, dcro said: Oh come on... It takes a village to make a world-class sportsperson. Everyone knows that. Thiem did not became US Open champion by himself. Therefore skipping the Olympics for some selfish reasons definitely qualifies as disrespectful behaviour towards his country and home fans. Because, mark my words, he never would have won the US Open had he been born in Eswatini or Uruguay. I understand your reasoning, but then you should also criticize players like Zverev or Djokovic. Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be obtained only by someone who is detached. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcro 10,172 Posted September 14, 2020 #196 Share Posted September 14, 2020 And not just that. I hate it when golfers and to a lesser extent tennis players pretend to be above other athletes with their typical statements like "Olympics is athletics and swimming. I'd rather watch it on TV than take part." #banbestmen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heywoodu 13,503 Posted September 14, 2020 #197 Share Posted September 14, 2020 23 minutes ago, dcro said: Oh come on... It takes a village to make a world-class sportsperson. Everyone knows that. Thiem did not became US Open champion by himself. Well yes, his coaches and so on, but I mean there's no need for him to change plans to chase the biggest prizes in his sport just because the big masses think the Olympics is the main thing in every sport - which it simply isn't. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a fan of these players skipping the Olympics, but don't have that much of a problem with it neither. If you'd like to help our fellow Totallympics member Bruna Moura get to the 2026 Winter Olympics, after her car crash on the way to the 2022 Olympics, every tiny bit of help would be greatly appreciated! Full story and how to help can be found here! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LDOG 2,181 Posted September 14, 2020 #198 Share Posted September 14, 2020 The "big masses" don't actually think that (at least not the ones that follow tennis, they mostly care about GSs and nothing else). Also I don't think austrians are particularly nationalistic to care much about it. Maybe in another more nationalistic country an athlete doing that would get a lot of shit. Thiem is on his right to skip the olympics. Sadly money talks and for these super professional sports like tennis, golf, cycling, basketball or football there is not much the NOC can do to enforce athlete participation other than hope for their good will to represent the country. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monzanator 3,569 Posted September 14, 2020 #199 Share Posted September 14, 2020 Maybe if tennis was played at Winter OG then Thiem wouldn't be so quick to ignore it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dcro 10,172 Posted September 14, 2020 #200 Share Posted September 14, 2020 33 minutes ago, LDOG said: Sadly money talks But that's like the whole point. Olympics are one tournament and Thiem is rich as it is. And to reiterate... Despite all this big talk about tennis players being above the Olympics, in the end very few of them choose to skip it. Nadal, Federer, Djokovic, Murray never missed it as far as I know. So, yes, I can see only selfish reasons behind such decision. In particular since Austria is consistently at risk of finishing with 0 medals. #banbestmen Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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