Greek Athlete Kicked Off Olympic Team After Racist Tweets: Was It the Right Decision?

I don't think any reasonable person would deny her right to her private opinions. Her tweeting them is the issue.

In other words don't speak unless everyone else agrees with it, you people are a bunch of idiots.

She HAS freedom of speech. She said what she said and is free to roam. But EVERYTHING you do has consequences. The consequences of her speech were to be put off the team. It is NOT an all or nothing issue.

I personaly believe that we should be as FREE as humanly possible. Free does mean free to choose. To choose well or poorly. The reason we are not very free is that what MUST go hand in hand with freedom is personal responsibility, and that is out of fashion. Blame society at large or some specific thing is done from the whitehouse daily and is a great example of what I am talking about.

Free Speech comes without preconditions and without fear of persecution, anything less is tyranny.

You are mistaken. There are consequences to EVERYTHING you do. You have the right to get on line and say your boss is a prick and he has the right to fire you for it. The speech IS FREE. But life is all about choices and she chose poorly.

The OIC should ban these countries from Participating due to their racist and sexist ideas concerning women and Jews, lets make this equal to all and not just one.

1. Iran
2. Saudi Arabia
3. Egypt
4. Iraq
5. Syria



You get the idea.

And IMO you are right. But doesnt that negate the negative of kicking one woman off? The Greeks understand the spirit of the games better than anyone!

And now the Greeks are getting questioned for it.

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs...

LOL, so you are FOR whole teams being kicked out but not an individual? I am just checking....

No, what I am saying there is far more racism, sexism, bigotry in those countries I listed and if they are going kick out this individual for an off color joke, that had no legs until Greece decided to boot her (overreaction), then those countries need to go as well because what they do is a lot more serious than what this woman said.

aND WE AGREE THERE. bUT ONE GETTING AWAY WITH IT IS NOT A GOOD REASON TO ALLOW ANOTHER TO GET AWAY WITH IT. mY OPIGINAL POINT WAS SHE USED HER FREEDOM OF SPEECH AND IS NOW LIVING WITH THE CONSEQUENCES OF THAT ACTION.

Crap. I invoice in cap lock. Sorry....

But, it's like people are just waiting for something said to used against another. It was just a stupid mosquito joke. We have become so thin skinned as to not be able to laugh at ourselves and I believe we are suffering as a society for it. I wonder who was first to complain of this tweet and what their real end game was. I guess politics should be added to the list of Olympic games. There really are so many participants who practice politics in apparently every endeavor that we would have a hard time giving out the gold in it were it to become a sport.

I agree with much of your reply BUT it wasn't a mosquito joke.

I can take a joke about me with good humor. I don't find anything remotely humorous about racist remarks.

Their game, their rules...

I'm an African-American/Asian and, even I don't believe that was the right decision. Her job has nothing to do with her views.

Wrong. The Olympics has a strict code of conduct and ethics that she violated. It has everything to do with her job.

I never knew that. I still don't believe that she should've been kicked off. One racial slur and she's off. Does she get paid for this? I don't know anything about sports. They're boring to me.

The problem is that it's a strict code of conduct which upholds zero tolerance. She does not get paid but competing in the Olympics is a PRIVILAGE not a right.

Then why are the racist and Sexist countries like Iran who hate Jews and control women still in the Olympics, for Gods Sake the Olympics allowed Hitler to host the games.

It's as much a political event as a sporting event. Think of the political ramifications of simply banning a whole country! Already volatile countries or ones we don't have good political relationships with would become insulted and angry and that could spark conflicts. Those conflicts could lead to violence if a country is that insulted.

What rubbish. It's pick and choose, and if one is white, then they are behind the politically correct eight ball. Everything is geared toward pleasing the blacks and the muslims. Open your eyes.

No, it's not rubbish. The IOC has to let any country participate in the games that wishes to. You're just one of those people that thinks that you're going to stick it to the man by being against political correctness. News flash, that's dumb. It's less about political correctness and more about basic levels of respect for other people. And yes simply banning a country from the games would spark anger in countries that are already violent enough. Your solution is just short-sighted and illogical but you're too busy "sticking it to the man" because you're such a non-conformist that you don't notice.

Since she's supposed to be one of the best in her nation, she was chosen to represent said nation. Therefore, if they let that slide, then other folks will think "Well, they knew she thought like that about other people, so I guess her government may think the same about others"

The Olympics is a series of games that brings together many from all walks of life to compete not only to do their best and win, but to show that we should be able to enjoy games and get along and not treat one another as inferior to each other.

How about Iran and other Middle east countries that hate and want Jews dead plus control their Women population, should they be allowed to participate.

In divine honesty, no one should be participating in the Olympics for a long time. Not until everyone matures up and get responsible. The world is in a financial crisis; I believe first and foremost, that if a nation has time and money to use on an ancient sporting-battle royale event, then they should take that money and use it towards their own nation's bettering

The Olympics doesn't have any code of conduct with regard to harmless jokes. Looks like ahart is just playing the race card. Good on you Cherish. :-)

Voicing your own opinion is okay, but using racist comments and insults...that's never okay.
I'm not a huge fan of the Olympics, but I do know that it's supposed to be about friendly competition, a chance for countries to come together.
Would you want someone writing racist tweets to represent your country?
I wouldn't :\

Why don't you ask the OIC why it is allowing Iran, Saudi Arabia to compete.

Is there a Large number of African Immigrant in Greece and if their is then the statement is true. I tend to look at Racism as to be Hate filled and in this case I think it was just a Poor and ill advised attemp at Humor that in Greece among most greeks would not have been seen as just a joke. She work a long time to acheive this goal and to have it taken from her for poorly choosen words, shows us what a New world Order veiw on free speech will be.

Again, look at the Olympic committee's code of ethics and conduct that she agreed to upon entering the games. She can't violate that without consequence.

No country wants to back an athlete that makes racist remarks. They used her to set an example of what not to do. I feel that the ban was warranted and next time hopefully she will learn to keep her big mouth shut. Sometimes you have to treat these athletes like small children so they learn to know where the boundaries lie.

Hypocrisy and political correctness oh what a fine brew you have there.
Why is North Korea there and allowed to compete. Get all offended because they dared to put a South Korean flag near their soccer team throw a fit and threaten to go home. Sod them they are pissing on their own people and the world.
And nobody says a thing about them and the way they treat their people.
Welcome all the maniacs gangsters thugs and psycho's with open arms.
Somebody cant even make a joke and they get all huffy what a load of bollocks.

Did you read the actual article? Go back and read it.

The observation was meant to point out the Hypocrisy of it all.

I don't think Greece can afford more bad PR. Athletes, celebrites and professionals should take heed to what they post on a public forum. Your entitled to have your own opinion but you must prepare to face the consequence when you make an ass of yourself. She violated strict Olympic guidelines. If running was so important to her she should have layed of the twitter.

No argument there. a stupid thing to do granted.

The Olympics is as much a political event as a sporting event. Do you know what banning a whole country from the Olympics would do to political relations, especially already tense ones? That is a short-sighted argument that does not consider any of the true consequences of such actions.

Actually you're the only one crying like a baby. Every person should show certain levels f respect or others, people just try to label it as political correctness now you read carefully, I am Vietnamese and my families village was destroyed during the Vetnam war. Luckily my family was moved to America. Yes, we could sit there and blame the "white man" as you like to term it, but we don't. Blame is stupid and gets you no where. You clearly know nothing about politics or the Olympics. Each country has their own Olympic party to monitor the athletes to make sure that during their participation in the games they do not violate the code of ethics, as this athlete did. But they cannot ban the whole country. If the athletes don't break the code of ethics they must be allowed to compete. After the games the country itself can do whatever. Since the games are about international unity, as you seem to forget, any country can compete. Exclusion isn't unity.

Then answer this one why was South Africa excluded for all those years get the point, I smell a hypocrite somewhere.