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British Cycler Admits to Deliberately Crashing to Win Gold Medal (2012 Olympics)

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K

Korey

Member
hines_reuters2_2298095b.jpg


http://www.reuters.com/london-olymp...8/02/i-crashed-purpose-says-victorious-briton

I crashed on purpose, says victorious Briton

German-born Philip Hindes said he deliberately crashed after making a poor start in the heats of the Olympic track cycling team sprint, an event in which he and fellow Britons Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny went on to win gold.

"We were saying if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart," Hindes was quoted as saying by British newspapers on Thursday.

"I just crashed. I did it on purpose to get a restart... it was all planned really."

British Cycling said his comments were "lost in translation", adding the rider only started to learn English in October 2010, while the International Cycling Union (UCI) confirmed the result was not in question.

However, the incident follows closely on the heels of the women's badminton doubles scandal that erupted earlier this week.

Eight players -- four from South Korea and two from China and Indonesia -- were expelled from the Olympics for throwing matches in a bid to secure more favourable draws in the knockout stages later in the tournament.

On Thursday, Britain retained the men's track cycling team sprint title, beating France in the final to give Hoy his fifth Games gold medal.

But the champions had started the day embarrassingly in the qualifying session.

First man Hindes seemed to have trouble with his front wheel and crashed after a quarter of a lap in the match against Germany.

After Britain were allowed to restart, in accordance with UCI rules, Hindes made a cannonball opening to perfectly launch Kenny with Hoy finishing off in style.
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http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/201...id-team-gb-philip-hindes-crash_n_1736088.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ol...eam-GB-their-track-cycling-gold-says-IOC.html

He said: "We were saying if we have a bad start we need to crash to get a restart. I just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. I did it. So it was all planned, really."

France coach Florian Rousseau said cycling's international governing body must now re-examine its regulations to prevent future controversy blighting the sport.

Rousseau accepted the final outcome but said Hindes' ploy was a poor example of Olympic spirit.

He said: "There was no cheating. The British team was much stronger than the French team and I congratulate them on their success. However, I do think the rules need to be more precise so we don't find ourselves in an identical situation at another Olympic Games."The fact that he [Hindes] did it on purpose is not very good for the image of cycling. We must reflect on how we can adapt the rules so that does not happen again in future."

Rousseau said he would be speaking to the UCI to discuss the matter and suggested there was a "strong chance" the regulations could be modified in the wake of last night's furore.
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gerg said:
He didn't "fake an injury". He crashed on purpose. There is a difference.
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Tactical cycling crash compared to doping

Australian Olympic track bronze medallist Kaarle McCulloch says deliberately crashing out of a cycling event to secure a re-start is on par with doping.

The 24-year old who won bronze in the women's team sprint on Thursday with teammate Anna Meares says the action of British cyclist Philip Hindes - who admitted deliberately crashing for tactical reasons during qualifying for the men's team sprint - was unethical.

"Of course it is," she said during an Australian team media conference on Friday.

"You don't want to see anybody gain an advantage over doing something like that. It's like doping. You assume everybody that you go up against is fair and they wouldn't go to those extremes."

Despite German-born Hindes' admission trackside post race that "I did it on purpose to get a restart", British cycling say the cyclist was misunderstood - because English is his second language.

With teammates Chris Hoy and Jason Kenny, the 19-year old went on to secure gold in the event ahead of France.

"I can't imagine that Phillip would have done that on purpose," McCulloch said of the crash which she witnessed at the Olympic velodrome.

...

Afterwards he told reporters: "We were saying if we had a bad start we need to crash to get a restart. I just crashed, I did it on purpose to get a restart, just to have the fastest ride. I did it. So it was all planned, really."

The International Cycling Union (ICU) confirmed the result was legitimate, and French coach Florian Rousseau accepted the result but said Hindes' ploy was a poor example of Olympic spirit.

"There was no cheating. The British team was much stronger than the French team and I congratulate them on their success," he said.

"However, I do think the rules need to be more precise so we don't find ourselves in an identical situation at another Olympic Games. The fact that he (Hindes) did it on purpose is not very good for the image of cycling. We must reflect on how we can adapt the rules so that does not happen again in future."
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Basically, the guy gave a very detailed and specific statement saying that he crashed on purpose, and now they're trying to downplay the statement by saying his english is bad (his English is NOT bad, view an interview with him backtracking here), and he himself has taken back his comments and said he did it on accident.


This embarrassing incident for the host country of this year's Olympics highlights three things:

1) The double standard towards countries like China in similar incidents of unsportsmanlike conduct. Comments from the HuffPo article:

It's already decided that the team will keep it's gold medals. It pays to be chinese. First they changed the rules to exclude the chinese from dominating in badminton and table tennis, then they dq'd the chinese female cycling team, then the badminton team, accused their swimmer of doping, and now an admitted cheat will keep his gold because he's not chinese. Spirit of the game. Sure.
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Don't like throwing water on a GB medal win, BUT...we DID disqualify several teams for not playing "to the best of their ability" and broaching the "spirit of the Olympics" by not trying hard enough ..and I'm not sure there were ANY written rules against what the Teams who were disqualified did except those that were implicit..like maybe here as well? Just saying...
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2) The British Olympic team trying to cover this up. Instead of admitting that he did crash his bike on purpose (within the rules), they've tried to downplay it by blaming it on his language skills and he himself completely contradicting his earlier statement. His english is not even bad. Shady.


3) People's willingness to rationalize unsportsmanlike behavior for their team. What happened here was completely un-American. If this guy were American we'd be the first to apologize for and be angry about his behavior representing his country. It's also why Americans look down on flopping/diving in things like international soccer matches. Not all English people have defended what happened here, but it's interesting what happens when the shoe is on the other foot


-----


Update:

Video of the crash

Video of Hindes giving an interview backtracking about his previous comment <-- Notice that his english is nowhere as bad as the British team were implying.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Korey said:
1) The double standard towards countries like China in similar incidents of unsportsmanlike conduct:
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Where are these quotes from?

Incidentally, I don't really have a problem with the badminton stuff. Should've set up their tournament better.
 
U

ultron87

Member
Something like this shouldn't be in the rules if they don't want it to happen. Just like there shouldn't be a situation in Badminton where it is advantageous to lose.

Competitors shouldn't be punished for trying their best to put themselves in the most advantageous position to win the overall event.


whitehawk said:
Btw, does anyone have a video of the chinese players throwing the match? I can't find any.
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This might only work in USA: http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/badminton/highlights-badminton-players-try-to-throw-match.html
 
N

Nevasleep

Member
Darth Pinche said:
How is he cycling for Britain but is from Germany and only started speaking English 2 years ago? This is very fishy.
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Probably a family connection to the UK, happens in football, Rugby and Cricket quite often.

Well Team GB's version is that they didn't stop on purpose, but was just a translation mistake.
They should keep the medal if it can't be proved, but still leaves a bit of a sour taste.
 
D

Deified Data

Banned
Don't know why there'd be a rule about this sort of thing - it's nearly impossible to regulate as far as I can tell. It's unsportsmanlike, but what's to be done? You're really at the mercy of people like him who are willing to come clean.
 
B

Big-E

Member
ultron87 said:
Something like this shouldn't be in the rules if they don't want it to happen. Just like there shouldn't be a situation in Badminton where it is advantageous to lose.

Competitors shouldn't be punished for trying their best to put themselves in the most advantageous position to win the overall event
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Yep. All that needs to said given the weight people place on winning in these games.
 
A

Air Zombie Meat

Member
Badminton situation was much worse than this. Just sayin'

re the pro us trolling stuff: publicly accusing someone of doping with zero evidence is pretty damn unsporting.
 
B

Bumhead

Banned
Korey said:
3) People's willingness to rationalize unsportsmanlike behavior for their team. What happened here was completely un-American. If this guy were American we'd be the first to apologize for and be angry about his behavior representing his country. It's also why Americans look down on flopping/diving in things like international soccer matches. Not all English people have defended what happened here, but it's interesting what happens when the shoe is on the other foot
Click to expand...

Diving is incredibly frowned upon in football (that's football, not soccer) in Britain, but don't let those Stars and Stripes blur your opinion too much.
 
Joel Was Right

Joel Was Right

Member
I heard about this last night, but the presenters said the actual incident didn't impact the result either way. Perhaps thats why the media haven't latched onto this
 
H

HamPster PamPster

Member
I remember being told to do this in high school track. In distance events where everyone lines up if you get pushed or something you were supposed to take a fall to get the false start

I remember in the finals one year I was pushed but caught myself (by instinct) from the fall but ended up behind everyone by a few feet
 
M

mantidor

Member
While not exactly admirable, he played by the rules. I would say that the rules are the ones needed revision, I don't know much about false starts business but scenarios like this just shouldn't happen.
 
Indrid Cold1

Indrid Cold1

Member
What happened here was completely un-American. If this guy were American we'd be the first to apologize for and be angry about his behavior representing his country.
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Couldn't agree more, it was completely un-American. You yanks are shit at cycling* and won fuck all, while we won the gold medal and broke the WR :)




*inb4 discredited and disgraceful drugs cheats like Landis and Armstrong are mentioned.
 
C

Cyan

Banned
Cozzy said:
Couldn't agree more, it was completely un-American. You yanks are shit at cycling* and won fuck all, while we won the gold medal and broke the WR :)
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Whoa, what about awesome total straight-arrows like Landis and Armstrong?
 
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