Fat Lazy Americans...

Is anyone else watching the Olympic games? The U.S.A. is ahead in gold medals.

results.beijing2008.cn...

1. Good job guys and gals. You make us proud.
2. This pretty much shatters the 'fat and lazy' American sterotype. Of course it doesen't mean that America as a whole is lacking overweight people, however as a sterotype its damning.

Yes but our women lacking the gold,only won 3
but A for effort

quaint reference
but i think that the success of a country's professional athletes has nothing to do with the overall rate of obesity and lethargy among the public at large.


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Where would we (USA) be without Michael Phelps though medal-wise? The guy is superhuman; He gets frustrated when he doesn't break his own records. We're still lazy and fat though.

Originally posted by jprophet420
Is anyone else watching the Olympic games? The U.S.A. is ahead in gold medals.

results.beijing2008.cn...

1. Good job guys and gals. You make us proud.
2. This pretty much shatters the 'fat and lazy' American sterotype. Of course it doesen't mean that America as a whole is lacking overweight people, however as a sterotype its damning.

So you just basically killed your thread in one statement by saying "it shatters the fat and lazy stereotype" and "It doesnt mean that America as a whole is lacking overweight people"

Well done!

Originally posted by prevenge

quaint reference
but i think that the success of a country's professional athletes has nothing to do with the overall rate of obesity and lethargy among the public at large.


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exactly. say you have a country in which 99.9% of the people are overweight and lethargic. nevertheless that 0.1% could very well produce some champion athletes. in fact, seeing their fellow citizens so out of shape may very well press them to "achieve" above and beyond, whereas their competitors from more "fit" nations see a healthy lifestyle as a simple way of life and thus don't feel the need to go out of their way with diet, training, etc. to achieve their athletic goals.

that's not the greatest example but i hope you get what i mean...you can't judge a whole country by a few star winners.

reply to post by RenegadePsycho

You obviously do not understand what a sterotype is. Its when you say ALL blah blah blah. Thats why i denote the difference.

True that you can't judge a whole country by a few star winners. However to a lot of the general masses that is exactly what happens.

Remember the jokes and commentary about the Eastern German judges during the Olympics a number of years ago? It would go "10.0, 10.0, 10.0, 4.5 (East German Judge)"

It is truly unfortunate but a number of people DO judge a entire country (or at least form a strong opinion) because of it's athletes. For better or worse a few people can give a country a good name or a bad one.