Sadly, despite writing this piece last week, the racist, xenophobic crap has continued.
Today during the “women’s” competition for the balance beam, Catalin Ponor (of ROMANIA, yes I get it!) originally came in third and everyone thought she won the bronze medal. Then the Americans appealed (as is their right) and the judges changed the score based on perfectly legitimate reasons and an American (Aly Raisman) was bumped up to third, won the bronze, and Catalin Ponor went down to fourth place, and thus no medal.
Immediately the racist comments flooded Twitter and Facebook in all directions, saying things I won’t repeat here but just out of control on every level. Outrage? Of course. Disappointment? Obviously. Catalina Ponor is a tremendous athlete and did a great job. But the Olympics are the Olympics and the rules are the rules. I salute Ponor for her performance today as well as all of her performances throughout the last eight years. She has won a handful of medals through hard work and good effort.
But shit like this continued, the tweet above saying “Hey let’s burn an American flag” and much more like it.
Quite frankly, I’m sick of it. I’m sorry for the disappointment and obviously nobody likes to lose. But sports are about winning sometimes and sometimes about losing. Everyone seems to forget the gold and silver medals for balance beam went to two Chinese athletes, who had scores far above everyone else’s. Instead of fighting over crumbs, both the United States and Romania could’ve done a lot better and skipped all this nonsense.
To say I am disgusted is an understatement. And I REALLY do not want to hear a bunch of excuses as to why Romanians are behaving this way. It’s disgusting and shameful and that’s all there is to say about it.
UPDATE – I completely forgot that Raisman (the American who ended up taking the bronze) has a Romanian coach and it was he who made the appeal to the judges. Turns out EVZ had an interview with this guy (in Romanian) about a lot of things, including this appeal that cost Ponor the bronze:
Sunteţi, probabil, cel mai hulit român la ora actuală de la Olimpiadă. Cum comentaţi incredibila situaţie care s-a iscat, ca un român să conteste medalia altui român?
Se mai întâmplă!
Bam! If you don’t speak Romanian it says “What do you have to say about the incredible situation where a Romanian challenged the winning of a medal of another Romanian? Answer: So it goes!”
All Things Romania 
The hint for sarcasm in that tweet is “Mno…” Sam, how come you missed it, being in Cluj you know “ca_cand” (get it?) un ardelean are ceva “adinc” de zis baga un “Mno..”
So instead of using :) or ;) or JJ (jost joking?) ardelenii zic “Mno..”…i guess.
Hope it helps. And don’t worry, I hate US too….LOL did u get this last one?
US=USA, or US=NOI…TOTALLY involuntary !
Sometimes I totally HATE the schnitzel out of “NOI”. Check out my personal rant on “NOI”: http://www.facebook.com/politiadefrontieraromana/posts/421029177943269
Now this was TOTALY xenophobic and rasist, the policeman was obviously thinking that there is money to be made out of a “rich american family”, ..which we totally are… I don’t even know why am I crying after 70$ since I have in my backyard 2 trees: one gives a crop of Benjamins in summer and the other one Grants in winter. All I have to do is rack’em quickly in a bag and put them in the bank, otherwise the squirrels eat them. LOL
We love you!
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To add something to your point of view. The “burning of the flag” is taken VERY serious here in US of A. You don’t fuck with that shit, even in a joke, so I see your point too but relax, you didn’t use the best example. I do know that there are Romanian USA haters. But hey, fuck’em! Who’s flag is on the friggin MOON? Now Respect!
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I started to write a long reply to this, but as far as I like reading your articles, I ended up to the conclusion you have your own flaws Mr. Sam. You are not always seeing the whole picture. And as someone above mentioned… you are not a person from the Balkans.
A bit of thought about why our sarcasm doesn’t reach you and why people feel we got robbed and might help on the long run to actually understand more of the country you say you love.
PS: that tweet was/is poorly chosen!
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I guess the people above didn’t “get” the part about the bunch of excuses.
There’s no excuse for the “language” used in the matter, especially considering the spirit of the Olimpycs. Hopefully, in a hundred years or so, Romanians won’t be such big a-holes anymore.
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it’s not excuses, just pointing out the obvious.
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IMHO, that tweet was a sarcastic one and he didn’t really intend to burn the flag.
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it’s a mere sarcastic comment, directed to effervescent souls. really. no need to make a big deal out of it because of a cultural misinterpretations.
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It happened to others, too! Romanians like to take things personally…
In prima faza, Marea Britanie a fost anuntata oficial pe locul 2, dar Japonia a contestat ultima nota primita, la cal cu manere (Uchimura-13.466), care a fost acceptata, nota fiind modificata in 14.166, astfel ca Marea Britanie, care s-a bucurat pentru argintul olimpic, s-a trezit cu medalia de bronz. In sala au inceput huiduielile, dar marea perdanta nu a fost Marea Britanie, ci Ucraina, care a coborat de pe podium, pe 4.
http://sport.hotnews.ro/stiri-jo2012_london-12919127-2012-china-medalie-aur-concursul-masculin-gimnastica-echipe-decizie-incredibila-arbitrilor-japonie-adusa-podiumin-urma-unei-contestatii-huiduieli-prelungite-pentru-arbitri.htm
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I think that tweet was a joke, as a reaction to other mean tweets that you describe in you article. But furthermore, if I remember correctly, that tweet came after the second performance, the women\’s floor exercise, when everybody thought that Ponor did a better job than Raisman. I\’m not saying you don\’t have a point, I too was often disappointed by ridiculous reactions, but I don\’t think you choose the best tweet to ilustrate that.
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I find it sarcastic, too.
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The “burning flag” post was clearly sarcastic…
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indeed it is, but that’s Balkania for you.. if it “helps”, we hate each other just as much.
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I am sure that the tweet above was an irony or a mere joke. Where’s your sense of humor?
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