Games hopeful: $5000 now or I quit and you all miss the Olympics

[chocchillimango]

Greco Roman Wrestling FTW

The Chair!!! Give him the Chair!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Neddysmith]

Yeah they definately need to show more of the shooting events

 

[Figjam Brah]

Callan, you reading this for when you represent Australian



As for what needs to be shown... female sprinters please...

 

[DKD]

and hey, DKD, nothing wrong with dressage ... great sport.

what the??????

tell your story walking viv lol....that aint no sport my friend...that's foreplay for a frontal lobotomy!!

 

[chocchillimango]

what the??????

tell your story walking viv lol....that aint no sport my friend...that's foreplay for a frontal lobotomy!!

*blows raspberry* it's horse dancing and that's beautiful.

 

[PowerBuilder]

.

 

[Bella]

But it was stated in the news tonight that the 'high up' in AWF confirmed that the wrestler did indeed ask for money and the money was given to him as a personal loan, not as professional payment for anything.

Maybe he was in a bind and needed to borrow money? Or needed help?

My staff have often come to me for financial assistance - for anywhere from a $20 loan to $2000 and although they could always go to HR and ask for a 'forward' in their pay - I gave it to them as a personal loan, so it had nothing to do with work. It happens.

It'll be interesting to see how it pans out.

 

[PowerBuilder]

.

 

[Bella]

Agree, it would indeed be extortion. But I still don't think we have the whole story yet.
Regardless it'll be interesting to see how it pans out over the next few days....

 

[chocchillimango]

today's update:

Fallout widens on athlete's 'cash grab'

 

[PowerBuilder]

.

 

[wingman]

Bella, I think I speak on behalf of virtibrates (and some invertebrates) when encouraging you not to speak about stuff you don't know about. Take your hippie / homeootherapy somewhere else.

Qft

 

[Vinny]

Bella, I think I speak on behalf of virtibrates (and some invertebrates) when encouraging you not to speak about stuff you don't know about. Take your hippie / homeootherapy somewhere else.

Hey PB... I think you are selling yourself short.....you could easily be spokesperson for a much larger demographic...at least include pseudo intellectuals and semi literates as well.

 

[GHOSTrun]

<opinion reserved for later on when more details have come to light>

 

[Matty]

He should be kicked out of the sport!

 

[PowerBuilder]

The first Australian refugee in australia

 

[chocchillimango]

guys, I started this thread because I was dismayed at that sort of conduct in our olympic hopefuls.

it's great to debate it all but vilification and comments of a racist nature aren't really adding to the discussion, yeah?
Everyone is entitled to their opinion of course.

I think his conduct is reprehensible, whatever his financial situation, because he chose to hold his teammates to ransom, athletes who have worked hard to earn a place to represent their country on the world stage in their chosen sport.

What's more, he did so behind their backs, to officials, and put the officials in an extremely difficult position (i can understand them caving and giving him the money, given the circumstances and Australia's performance to date).

But this speaks about his character, not his country of origin, his status as a refugee/immigrant or whatever.

just sayin'

 

[Matty]

He was probably pushed through the citizenship process by being an athlete who was going to compete for Australia tho... kind of ironic that after getting citizenship to compete for Aus he then blackmails the team
I mean this comment to be in no way racist!

 

[oldcorollas]

reports were saying the AWF guy offered him money first out of his own pocket ($1000) to put in a bit more effort to reach the total the team needed to qualify....

The alleged incident happened at the championships, which double as an Olympic qualifying competition.


Audio: Listen to Ben Knight's report (AM)
Australia needed a high finish as a team in the event to win a quota spot for one weightlifter to compete in London.

"We were a little bit bothered about one of the attitudes of one of the athletes who, we felt, wasn't going to reach his potential within the total and so in order to give him a little bit of an incentive, I personally offered him an amount of money," Keelan said.

"In fact the amount was $1,000, to make sure he did a total that would place him as high as possible in the event so that we could score the maximum points in order to make sure that our team did exactly what we set out to do, which was to qualify one athlete in the male section."

"You think that everyone who's representing Australia does so with pride and with commitment and, unfortunately, we heard that that wasn't the case with Daniel Koum," he said.

"So I personally thought, well, the best way to negate any negatives out of all this would be to, by offering, sort of, some money, whereby he could actually compete and have some incentive to do the total that we asked of him which was 250 kilograms."

Keelan said that Koum originally agreed to the $1000 payment, shaking hands with the chief executive in front of witnesses.

and after that it got messy..

although the guy is farked for demanding $5K (if he did), he probably wouldn't have asked for it, if he had not been promised $1K by the offial (that he had not asked for)

not defending him for his poor behaviour, but i wonder if it would not have happened, if he had not been offered the 1K in the first place?

what kind of "official" offers cash incentives out of their own pocket??


now he's taking legal action and denies the allegations...
Aussie weightlifter to take legal action - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

remember he did make the lift to get 1 person to the olympics, and he won't be the one going...

 

[Darkoz]

It's one thing to be offered an incentive but quite another to blackmail or extort for money.