Bill Plaschke

Bill Plaschke is an L.A. Times sports columnist and panelist on ESPN's "Around the Horn." He has been named Associated Press National Sports Columnist of the Year four times, and has also been nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. This is his seventh Olympics, with his favorite moment occurring in 2002 in Salt Lake City when, while crossing a busy street, his unfamiliar and oversized snow pants dropped to his ankles.

Comments

[ron perez]

Did Mr. Plaschke called the opening ceremony lacking in heart and do not comparre with other openings. Gee what does this guy know about the depth of ancient culture being performed magnificiently, about sheer pure artistry, about the not so melodramatic Chinese style that he as a western know it all interprets as cold and lacking in heart. How can he compare this to parading Elle McP in shallow Sydney, or things that transpired in SLC, Torino, Nagano, that I can no longer remember at all and found it - the Bejing opening - inferior. You're a funny guy. Do us a favor and stick to merely counting scores.

[tom]

Hi Bill,

I was curious you seem like a cheeseburger and fries type of guy, what are you doing for nutrients?? Are most countries bringing over food/chefs?? What event are you most looking forward to? What events are the local chinese people enjoying? Are most of the crowds asian or european? Are any less fortunate fans (kids) allowed to see the games in person?

warm regards,
Tom

[porondos]

Commentary the illustrious columnist Bill Plaschke, since you can call the racist Spanish, when you themselves are those who discriminate against the people of other races, not to powerful gente and with buying power, but if to these people that every day gets up with the intention of being able to go allgo of eating to his(her,your) families and a work denies them for the simple fact of being of a different race, persons who have the right to any other one be treated like and nevertheless they are not attended of the same way; you look in his(her,your) own(proper) navel and leave the calm Spanish in his(her,your) ¨pequeño ¨ a country that acoje to persons of any race and religion and them integrates(repays) like any other one, giving him(her) same rights or even more than to any Spanish.

[Spanish boy]

Spain didn´t invade Irak

[david]

Bill, you know nothing about cultures. In Spain peculiarities/differences are welcome (we have 4 different languages in the same country and there have been muslims, jews and catholics for many many years).
If you think the photo is offensive is because you believe having slanted eyes is something wrong; many americans believe they can judge others cultures. Political correctness is wide spread in UK and USA but not in Europe, we have nothing to hide so nothing to offend for.
And please, inform yourself, you must love being called journalist but if you were one you would know Pau is catalan so he knows a lot about peculiarities/differences and respect.

[Álvaro]

How can you called us racists? USA is the most racist country in the world. You don't respect human rights, you invade other countries without permision like Irak...This is indignant.

Now Mr. Plaschk called us racists because the spanish basketball team did a spot wich isn't racist. You can't say that when USA invaded Vietnam and killed a lot of people.

Now who are the racists?

[spanish way of life]

MR Bill Plaschke ARE YOU ARE STUPID? SPAIN LITTLE COUNTRY? HAVE ANY IDEA OF THE SIZE OF MOST COUNTRYES .IS YOU OF SHOULD AN APOLOGY TO SPAIN ,AMERICAN INCULTURE¡¡ .YOU NO MANAGES TO BRING SPAIN ON A MAP .
WE HAVE A CULTURE THAT ITS PEOPLE NEVER TENDRA.

SORRY FOR MY NGLISH .. BYEE TIPICAL AMERICAN

[Ingo Dolleschel]

Bill, in my opinion the punishment for the protest of the Swedish Wrestler was correct. There is an approved protocol of protesting.Your coach files an official protest which will run its course up the ladder. Abrahamian dropping the metal on the map and leaving the podium is an open slap in the face of the Olympic Games. The action is that of a pompous "I am more importent then the Olympic games". The loss of his medal and dismissal from the Olympics was entirely done by the IOC and had nothing to do with China. With you disagreeing will give you an open invitation to the ACLU, if you are not already a member. Whenever "I am more importent then a noble institution", can be found only in the archives of the mostly wrong ACLU and cannot be supported by common sense.

[Thomas]

The article by Bill Plaschke about the Spain olympic basketball team being racist is ridiculous. And some of the letters from the people of Spain defending their basketball team are equally ridiculous.
People of Spain, you have a great argument and you are right about your basketball team not being racist. Where you lose all credibility is when you try to equate Bill Plasschke's comments as an American viewpoint. Calling the United States the most racist country in the world is laughable. No country has defended freedom around this world and spilled more of its own blood than America. I think we can argue this point without bringing in politics.
Here is what you have to understand about Plaschke. He is a very sensitive guy that really means well. But he has been brain washed by this ultra tolerent movement in our contry that is out of touch with reality. There is a movement in the United States to make sure nobody gets their feelings hurt, and noone gets offended. If one boy in a classroom is allergic to peanut butter, than we ban peanut butter for everyone because we don't want to offend the boy and hurt his feelings. There is a culture war in the United States with some belieiving that feelings trump standards. Plaschke is what we call in the United States, "a bleeding heart liberal". He isn't a bad guy. But he is wrong on so many issues that are culture related.

[Ed Wabals]

Hi Bill, I was wondering if anyone in the media had the balls to speak against the wonderful country of China. I feel that China has ruined the Olympic experience for athlete's who have trained hard their whole lives. No one wants to talk about the scoring and how it has gone the Chinese way about 98% of the time. When a Chinese girl falls and still gets a better score the her American counterpart it just shows people how fake the Olympics are. Boxing as of yesterday had six Chinese boxers left and lets just say the scoring has not bean fair in that. It is pretty pathetic that China cares more about Gold medals than they do HUMAN rights. What a shame the media is so afraid to point this out. China has cheated its way to gold medals and took the dream of gold against 16 year old girls in gymnastics. The government of China is corrupt and it has flowed into the judging of the Olympics. WHAT A SHAME. I would like someone to write about how the government of China takes these athletes from there parents at the age of 3 and only get to speak by phone to there parents once a year. I also want people to stop kissing the butt of China and tell the truth about that country, By not telling the truth only legitimizes that countries government. I wonder how many gold medals have been won by China when it actually came to a head to head competition where they did not get judged by others.

[Brian]

Hi Bil,

I was watching the US vs. China Baseball game the other day as it happened and saw the game from when Schierholtz ran over Yang Yang. It was probably a dirty play but thats debatable and I've been trying to find articles, clips or anything talking about what happened. ESPN appears to be avoiding this topic and has a very basic review of the game as do most other media outlets. I'm just wondering were is all the media hype for this if it happened between two MLB teams it would be all over the place or if this had happened in the states it would be an international incident.

[Marc McGinnes]

Can agreement be reached and adopted by those in charge of both summer and winter Olympic games on this simple proposition: Coming in first should count for more than coming in second and coming in second should count for more than coming in third?

If so, how about 3 points for a gold, 2 for silver and 1 for bronze?

At the moment I write this the US and Germany are in a tie, each with 51 medal points, even though the US is listed as having the highest total number of medals.

What do you think, Mr. Plaschke?