The American athletes who do say that they want things in imperial obviously do not understand what is needed to qualify for the Olympics, such as qualifying to a certain standard in their event, where those standards are measured in SI units, the only system that the whole world can use. No other country would ever consider adopting the UK imperial system, nor the US imperial system, as they differ so much from other countries' old imperial systems, which they abandoned years ago.
Melvin Lister should start his own Cry Baby Olympics for losers with pathetic excuses. He might actually win a gold medal at that.
David King
H. Maenen wrote:
When the BWMA finds out about this, it will probably make the demand that at all international sports event in the world ifp units must have at least equal status with metric units.
Han
======================================== Message date : 23-08-2004 02:42 From : "Euric" To : "U.S. Metric Association" Copy to : Subject : [USMA:30822] blaming metric for one's stupidity Olympic trials triple jump champion Melvin Lister was eliminated in the qualifying round after a top jump of only 16.64 meters, short of the 17.75 meters he leaped last month in Sacramento.
*Lister blamed his problems on trackside officials' refusal to allow him to use his measuring tape, which measures distances in feet and inches and serves as a guidepost for him. He said he was told the tape "might hurt somebody" because of a spiked attachment and was told to use a metric tape, but he didn't have one and couldn't work with the metric tape organizers supplied.
"Nobody told me I needed one," he said. "Coming down, I need my running speed and to trust in my approach."
Teammate Walter Davis, who advanced with a leap of 16.94 meters scoffed at Lister's excuse. "When you're coming overseas, you've got to have a metric tape," he said. "Mine is in feet and meters. You've got to come prepared." * Kenta Bell also advanced, with a top jump of 16.98 meters.
Tim Seaman of Chula Vista set a 20-kilometer race walk record for an
American at the Olympics by finishing in 1:25:17, ranking him 20th.
Compatriots Kevin Eastler and John Nunn were 21st and 26th,
respectively. Ivano Brugnetti of Italy won, in 1:19:40.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/olympics/trackandfield/la-sp-olytrack21aug21,1,7236945.story
Am I missing something here? How does one train for an Olympic
event and not know the event is metric? Why wouldn't such a person
be trained to judge his/her distance in metres. Here is another
example of how using imperial came at a cost.
This person really needs to be shamed before the whole world. Enough shaming and maybe Americans will realise how serious the
world is about metric. Three cheers to the Greek officials.
