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发帖数: 557 | 1 Fair play not to all as French blast 'cheating' British
by: Adam Sage
From:The Australian
August 08, 201212:00AM
FRANCE has slipped down the medals table, but it can still claim supremacy
in the traditional sport of bashing les Rosbifs.
Riled by the outstanding performance of Team GB, Gallic sports stars and
commentators have been seeking to depict the British as incorrigible cheats.
Indeed, critics suggest that British gold-medal winners are perpetuating
the spirit of Agincourt, which the French have always believed was
determined by underhand tactics.
Le Figaro, the right-wing daily, led the charge yesterday with an article
headlined: "When the British reinvent fair play". The newspaper highlighted
Philip Hindes's apparent confession that he had crashed for tactical reasons
in the cycling team sprint.
A similar incident occurred in the double sculls rowing, when the British
pair of Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter won silver in a race that was restarted
after a seat in their boat came loose. Pascal Berrest, the French rowing
director, suggested that Purchase might have deliberately removed his seat
to get a second chance. Thierry de Cabarrus, a political commentator, summed
up opinion on the website of Le Nouvel Observateur. "In Great Britain ...
dishonest athletes who win gold are treated like national heroes by a
population that puts patriotism ahead of fair play," he wrote.
Claims that Team GB are being favoured by Games officials have also been
circulating on Twitter under the hashtag #GBJOfacts. But in a blog on Le
Monde's website, sports reporter Francois Thomazeau, called on the French to
lay off. "Our promptness to defend our little French men and women unjustly
bullied by the evil English stems from our certainty that we are the best,
and that if we lose, the others must have cheated," Thomazeau wrote.
THE TIMES |
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