Olympic Cyclists Apologize For Wearing Smog Masks

Four US Olympic cyclists who caused an outcry when they arrived at Beijing airport wearing smog masks have today apologised to Games organisers.

The four - Mike Friedman, Bobby Lee, Sarah Hammer and Jennie Reed - said that they were wearing the masks because of pollution fears, a touchy subject for the Chinese authorities.

Comments

[JeanPaulSatire]

Ukraine, after seeing how the world has flocked to Beijing despite its near worst-in-the-world air quality, has decided to put in a bid to host the 2016 summer Olympic games.

Ministry of Sports spokesman Vassily Feodorovich Pavlovsky put it this way, "Look, by then 30 years will have passed since that little problem with reactor #4. A whole new generation will have come of age and we can count on the world's short memory. Besides, if people are willing to go to Beijing where they can SEE how bad the problems are, they should feel far more comfortable going where the problems are invisible."

He went on to add, "Also, we have some very attractive real estate opportunities."

[realityczech4u]

Keep your day job, Mr. Satire. You do have the market cornered on xenophobia, however.

[JeanPaulSatire]

You conflate satire and extreme health/environmental concerns with xenophobia? Puuhleeeease!

Perhaps you shouldn't use words you don't understand. It only makes you come across as looking completely uninformed and oddly petulant.

[HutchBev]

You can do a simple google image search and find plenty of photos of daily Chinese folk commuting to work, etc. on their bikes or foot WEARING MASKS!!! It's common practice there, by their own citizens! For both air quality and personal health issues. I even see people wearing them on a semi-daily basis here in NYC. Why is this being taken to such a higher level? And why is this the era of apology? Seriously, 2008 will always be remembered in my mind as the year of "I'm sorry". Everyone is forced to apologize now for ridiculous things. It makes no sense.

Why should any of these people be sorry for protecting their health? If you went to another country and their national dish had ingredients that you were seriously allergic to would you just go ahead and eat it and suffer the consequences, just so you didn't "hurt" someone's feelings? Are you serious?

[diatribe_tx]

just poor sportsmanship.... towards your host. Amazing. Most of us will never see China, the oldest civalization on earth.. and yet these cavalier punks, who represent us, decide to be cute.... funny ha ha. Ignorant.

[JeanPaulSatire]

How ironic that you weigh in on this and accuse others of ignorance. (Insert something about "the kettle" and "coal" here.)

Why don't you use The Google and search on "Beijing smog mask" in the images section?

Meanwhile, here are a few facts to mull over:

According to the BBC, "Chinese cities are among the most polluted in the world - the World Bank says 16 of the planet's 20 most polluted cities are found in China." (http://tinyurl.com/2cn4jq)

eMedicineHealth reports that "The European Space Agency, utilizing satellite imagery, has found that Beijing and its surrounding areas have the world's highest levels of nitrogen dioxide, a substance poisonous to the lungs." (http://tinyurl.com/5ppmn2)

A gracious and good host would provide sanitized air for the athletes and spectators, not to mention its own citizens. Instead, they provide sanitized news.

[diatribe_tx]

Looks like censure is alive and well in the good ole US as well... my previous post highlighting China's tribulations for the past 150 years didn't seem to make the cut. Good job Huffington... let freedom ring and all the horsesh*t we get fed by all those that pose. Could that be you?

[diatribe_tx]

And another thing... 50% of electricity production in the U.S is by oh let me guess... could it be COAL? Before you start pointing a finger at someone else... look where the three other fingers are pointing at... US. Really pisses me off.

[copesthetics]

why doesnt �" show up?

[copesthetics]

很 �" 谦

[copesthetics]

很 �"
歉

[copesthetics]

很 �" �" 歉

[copesthetics]

no praying in public!

[copesthetics]

on another note. why do we have to keep apologizing to china for hurting their feelings? for crying out loud! oh, wait. that's why we keep apologizing: they keep crying. victimhood has its perks, it appears.

[elcojonu]

Don't like the Air, Food, Customs, Country, Etc., don't go there, no one is forcing anyone to go there.
Stay home and watch it on TV.
Oh, by the way, wait until the stories about how they have to squat to do No.2 when they go to a bathroom outside the Olympic Village start coming back; these first world pampered individuals
haven't been exposed to how the large majority of peoples in the second and third world go about their lives day in, day out.
They have to start loosing their Provinciality sometime, somewhere; China is one hell of a place to
begin their education.

[copesthetics]

i like the squat stizzy. good way to clear it all out in just one ... sitting. eh-hem.

[NABNYC]

If anything, the Olympics should apologize to the athletes for forcing them to perform in an unhealthy environment. Everyone knows China's smog is deadly. China should have been told to clean things up then they would be considered.

People in China themselves wear masks sometimes to try to protect against the suffocating ash -- yellow/black clouds -- that form over their nation due to pollution and other environmental factors. Of course the reason there is so much pollution is that they've taken all the U.S. jobs to China where they are done without any environmental controls.

I actually don't think anyone should be protesting about monks. Why not protest about the loss of American jobs? Why not protest on behalf of our people for the poisonous toys and food made in China with slave, child, and prison labor, then sold to the U.S. elite and dumped into this country to kill our people and animals.

If any banners are unfurled on the medal stand this year, I hope it says "Remember Fido and Fluffy," because China killed a lot of our pets. I hardly think a smog mask worn by an athlete is too harsh under the circumstances.

[5150]

If I wore a mask to an American airport I'd be encircled by TSA gunmen. If I wore a mask out in public in America, there would be a public panic of onlookers frantically punching 911 on speed dial on their cell phones. You have no perspective.

[Mahkno]

Feels like 1936

[DarthVector]

Ja, das stimmt.