athletes

Friday August 28, 2020

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday August 28, 2020

As Young Black Athletes Call for Racial Awakening, Some N.F.L. Retirees Declare Fealty to ‘Winner’ Trump

On one of the most consequential nights in recent sports history — when a player-led boycott forced the N.B.A. to postpone playoff games — the Republican National Convention offered pro-Trump testimonials from a retired Notre Dame coach and a former N.F.L. player facing insider-trading charges.

Sketches from the 2020 RNC

“It is a pleasure, a blessing, and an honor for me to explain why I believe that President Trump is a consistent winner,” said Lou Holtz, 83, who coached college and pro teams during a successful four-decade career.

“I am here as a servant to god, a servant to the people of our nation, and a servant to our president,” said the former Minnesota Vikings safety Jack Brewer, 41.

Mr. Trump has plenty of support among athletes, especially white ones, across a range of sports. And he has hobnobbed with many Black sports figures, most from previous generations, like Mike Tyson, Herschel Walker and Jim Brown. Some, like Mr. Walker, have appeared at the Republican National Convention, and delivered a message that the party wants to project — that the president is not racist.

June 3, 2020

But members of the current generation of Black athletes in the N.B.A. and in other sports leagues have not personalized their protest in the same way — their movement is a broader call for social justice — and they certainly do not view themselves as Mr. Trump’s “servant.”

And the shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black father who was partially paralyzed after a white officer fired seven shots into his back on Sunday in Kenosha, Wis., has revived the sense of urgency stirred by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by the police.

Many see the Trump era less as an exceptional moment in American history than as the resurgence of chronic patterns of oppression, discrimination and racial violence.

But the president’s gleeful culture-war attack on the former N.F.L. quarterback Colin Kaepernick — who took a knee during the national anthem four years ago Wednesday to protest racism and police shootings — and his response to the current uprising over systemic racism seems to have steeled the determination of Black athletes across many sports.

June 15, 2019

By late Wednesday, the N.B.A. stoppage had spread to the W.N.B.A., Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball. Games between the Cincinnati Reds and Milwaukee Brewers, the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres, and the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Francisco Giants were called off just before they were scheduled to start.

“For me, I think no matter what, I wasn’t going to play tonight,” said Mookie Betts, the star Dodgers outfielder, who is Black.

The N.B.A. players are withholding their labor, it is not clear for how long, to promote an as-yet undefined campaign for systemic change that includes, but also transcends, ousting the current president.

“BOYCOTTED, NOT *POSTPONED,” the Lakers star LeBron James, who supports Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee, wrote on his Instagram feed late Wednesday.

Even before the Milwaukee Bucks players announced their boycott of Wednesday’s playoff game, Black athletes and their coaches had been offering yearning expressions of anguish as resonant as anything uttered at either political convention. (New York Times) 

 

Wednesday February 12, 2014

Wednesday February 12, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday February 12, 2014

Quebec carrying the Olympic ball for Canada in Sochi

SOCHI, RUSSIA – Every Winter Olympics, some Quebec journalists keep track of the medals won by athletes from La Belle Province compared to the rest of Canada. Usually it’s just for fun, but the truth of the matter is Quebec usually kicks ass at Winter Games, and is doing so again. Of the nine medals won by Canadians as of Tuesday, six were won by athletes from Quebec, compared to three from TROC — and that’s giving the team figure skating medal to The Rest Of Canada.

Medal drought days of Olympics past

There are certain teams within the Canadian team that are dominated by French Canadians — especially the short-track speed skating team and moguls. Tradition and geography come into play. Moguls skier Mikael Kingsbury, who won a silver medal behind another Quebecois, Alex Bilodeau, on Monday, grew up idolizing moguls skiers in his native province. For the 21-year-old Kingsbury, his hero was 1994 Olympic freestyle champion Jean-Luc Brassard.

“For me it was an inspiration, wanting to be like him,” said Kingsbury.

As for the geography, Kingsbury said: “We’re not from the west of Canada. We don’t have the big mountains, the nice powder snow. We have smaller mountains, ice-snow, so it’s harder conditions, so we work harder, the bumps are harder, and we learn faster.” (Source: Toronto Sun)

SOCIAL MEDIA

This cartoon made a bit of a splash on a French language Facebook Page called L’Expérience lol78.

Post by L’Expérience lol78.

August 14, 2008

Letters to the Editor:

I was totally offended by the tasteless cartoon in Thursday’s Spectator regarding our great Canadian athletes.

My wife and I have watched a lot of the television coverage and have been proud to see our athletes try their best and give it their all, against other athletes who are supported by their governments with large sums of money.

Maybe the cartoonist and some of our politicians should get out and support our athletes, or maybe even volunteer to coach or assist some of these fine examples of Canadian youth, instead of poking fun at them.

Good luck to all our athletes.

P. Knapp, Hamilton

* * * * *

The editorial cartoon depicts a Canadian swimmer running along the edge of the pool and still finishing well behind the pack. I find this cartoon totally offensive.

As the son of a man who competed in the first British Empire Games in Hamilton and later in the Los Angeles Olympics in 1932, I am aware of the dedication, hard work and many sacrifices made by athletes. There is also heartbreak endured by many along the journey.

I would have expected a major urban newspaper to show understanding and compassion in its coverage be it print or “humour.” I challenge The Spectator to take a more constructive role in promoting future Olympic podium successes.

J. Ravensdale, Puslinch

* * * * *

I would like to congratulate your witty and talented cartoonist Graeme MacKay. I read the criticism of his cartoon about the failure of the Canadian athletes the first week of the Olympic Games. Cartoon is satire and the one who doesn’t accept it lacks a sense of humour.

Panos Andronidis, Hamilton

Saturday September 9, 2000

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Saturday September 9 2000 The race against cheaters The International Olympic Committee has devoted more resources in its war against performance-enhancing drugs. Two Canadian athletes tested positive this week, and Olympic officials don't believe Olympians will begin taking the high moral ground and turn away from drug use.Some of the world's doping cops may point to the glut of recent positive drug tests -- two involving Canadians bound for the Olympics -- to claim the war on performance-enhancing drugs is working. People on the inside know better. This is a rearguard action at best. "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has finally devoted a lot of resources and tools to detection through the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), " says Hamilton-born Richard McLaren, but "it will never catch up" with all those trying to escape detection. McLaren is the only Canadian on the IOC's Court of Arbitration, a body that rules on disputes involving the Olympics. He is a London, Ont., law professor connected with the University of Western Ontario's International Centre for Olympic Studies. He says the caseload involving doping that the Court of Arbitration has heard this year indicates more drug use and more detection -- but no evidence that global athletes are seeking high moral ground by turning away from steroids, stimulants, blood doping and human growth hormone. "We have heard as many cases in eight months as we heard all last year.Ó McLaren, who grew up in Westdale, says policing is only a Band-Aid. "The root of the problem is in cheating, and in the long-term it will take a widespread program of education about ethics in sport.Ó He says there is just too much information available for anyone who has decided to cheat. "In a half day on the Internet, you can get a good start on a regimen of drugs to improve performance.Ó The bigger war to be fought, reasons McLaren, is the one for minds and souls

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 9 2000

The race against cheaters

The International Olympic Committee has devoted more resources in its war against performance-enhancing drugs. Two Canadian athletes tested positive this week, and Olympic officials don’t believe Olympians will begin taking the high moral ground and turn away from drug use.Some of the world’s doping cops may point to the glut of recent positive drug tests — two involving Canadians bound for the Olympics — to claim the war on performance-enhancing drugs is working.

People on the inside know better. This is a rearguard action at best.

“The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has finally devoted a lot of resources and tools to detection through the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), ” says Hamilton-born Richard McLaren, but “it will never catch up” with all those trying to escape detection.

McLaren is the only Canadian on the IOC’s Court of Arbitration, a body that rules on disputes involving the Olympics. He is a London, Ont., law professor connected with the University of Western Ontario’s International Centre for Olympic Studies.

He says the caseload involving doping that the Court of Arbitration has heard this year indicates more drug use and more detection — but no evidence that global athletes are seeking high moral ground by turning away from steroids, stimulants, blood doping and human growth hormone.

“We have heard as many cases in eight months as we heard all last year.”

McLaren, who grew up in Westdale, says policing is only a Band-Aid.

“The root of the problem is in cheating, and in the long-term it will take a widespread program of education about ethics in sport.”

He says there is just too much information available for anyone who has decided to cheat.

“In a half day on the Internet, you can get a good start on a regimen of drugs to improve performance.”

The bigger war to be fought, reasons McLaren, is the one for minds and souls, the one that stops aspiring athletes from doing that Internet search.

Others, like the chairman of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, say millions more must be spent on testing to stamp out drug-cheating.

Frank Shorter, a one-time gold-medal marathoner, believes every endurance athlet e competing in Sydney will be suspect because IOC testing is not extensive enough.

“Things have to change or we’re going under, ” he said. “The Olympics will be a freak show.”

Even more blunt is Penn State professor Charles Yesalis who has studied drug use by athletes.

“If this was a football game, the cheaters would be leading 84 to 3.”

Even Denis Coderre, Canada’s secretary of state for sport and the WADA delegate for the Americas, sends out a warning.

“If WADA doesn’t work, I believe the Olympics are finished. This is our last hope.”

The current Games will likely have a strain of cynicism that runs deeper than any other, given recent events such as the positive tests this week of Canadian hammer-thrower Robin Lyons for steroids and equestrian Eric Lamaze for cocaine. Both athletes are appealing. (Source: Hamilton Spectator)