Why Tweddle is a more worthy champion than Button

[FB]

Before everyone jumps down my throat and accuses me of anti Button bias, this thread is based on an article in the Guardian:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2009/oct/20/beth-tweddle-jenson-button

I have to say that comparing the relative merits and demerits of a champion in one sport compared with a champion in another is about as worthwhile as creating a list of the "50 best racing drivers, ever". Why does one have to be better or worse than the other? Why can't the British media offer similar levels of congratulations to two people who have achieved something amazing without trying to create some sort of conflict?

Button got a greater level of media coverage because F1 is more popular than gymnastics, a simple and unarguable fact. If England had won the Football World cup on the same day JB crossed the line at Interlagos Jenson would have been got a 150 word report on page 14 of the sports section.

I say congratulations to Beth Tweddle and Jenson Button, worthy champions both - bring on the Sports Personality of the year, that'll sort it out

 

[Brogan]

I have to say that comparing the relative merits and demerits of a champion in one sport compared with a champion in another is about as worthwhile as creating a list of the "50 best racing drivers, ever".

Quite.

I read that article earlier and just though to myself: "Why?"
Completely pointless piece just to drum up traffic.

The last few sentences are particularly ridiculous:
"...someone should invite Button to spend 30 seconds on a set of asymmetric bars.
By the time they have scraped him off the crash mat and called an ambulance, Tweddle will have gained the limitless respect she deserves."

How about inviting Beth Tweddle to first try and get an F1 car out of the garage and then attempt a few laps.
Let's see how far she can get in her career then with a permanently damaged neck

Or even ask Beth to join Jenson in one of his Triathlons.
I bet she couldn't keep up with him there either.

 

[Boyle]

How about inviting Beth Tweddle to first try and get an F1 car out of the garage and then attempt a few laps.
Let's see how far she can get in her career then with a permanently damaged neck

 

[Enja]

Thanks for posting this FB, it's an interesting subject and one that continually is brought up in varying forms with motor sport, and with F1 being the most widely known, the series itself is the one to suffer the tap-tap of an overzealous journalist's keyboard. Last year when Lewis Hamilton was nominated for BBC Sports Personality of The Year (SPoTY), several high profiles discredited his achievement when compared to the likes of Rebecca Adlington, the gold-medal winning swimmer (who herself got unnecessarily involved in some mud-slinging).

It could be argued that what Tweddle accomplished - and an accomplishment it was, given her mistake on the uneven bars, so good on her - was not the effective "pinnacle" of her sport.

In which case the "pinnacle" would be the Olympic gold, an accolade every athlete in such sports wants to achieve, whereas Jenson Button's achievement was at the "pinnacle" of motorsport.


Anyway, in reference to the article.. There are some quotes that grate a little bit here, and I sense they're designed to do so..

An exaggeration? Boxing, cycling and snooker will take up the cudgels but let's put the remarkable Beth Tweddle's triumph in the floor exercises at the world championships into some kind of perspective. Imagine the Maldives beating Brazil at football. Or the Falklands bowling out the Australians before tea.

Britain is hardly a neolithic country when it comes to sport, comparing it to the Falklands beating Australia at cricket is wide (no pun intended) of the mark. Neither is Tweddle an unknown quantity within the gymnastics world. Perhaps if she had been born parent-less in Sudan and had got this far, then yes, a meteoric climb it would have been and a story worthy of this journalist's melodrama.

But like Button her talent has always been there to see, but has never quite come to fruition (a quick bit of research shows she's won at the 2006 World Championship uneven bars competition, and a number of 4th places).

There are also some good points made in the comments section of the article, including how wrong the article is about Jessica Ennis has been the only track and field athlete worthy of praise (Denise Lewis, anyone?).

What a silly article. Congratulate them both.

 

[Brogan]

Well said Enja

 

[teabagyokel]

Couldn't have put it better, Enja, welcome to the site! (I hope with that pic you don't meet King_Alonso or EL_NANDO!)

 

[Brogan]

(I hope with that pic you don't meet King_Alonso or EL_NANDO!)

He already has and it went better than expected

 

[Speshal]

What a load of twaddle and has she landed on her face a few too many times?

 

[teabagyokel]

Right, two things srtike me having (god forbid) read the story:

1. Gymnastics hasn't had a single scandal in its history? I doubt it, we just live in ignorace of such!
2. I can't remember Maldivan football or Falklandish cricket getting the kind of support that Britain gives to all its Olympic athletes

It is impossible to compare. Impossible. All I know is they're both more worthy champions than a drug-cheat like Dwain Chambers or Diego Maradona (keep sucking it). So long as Brawn didn't cheat, they're the victims of Crashgate. Tainting Button's title because of that is like blaming the rape victim.

 

[fat jez]

Gymnastics hasn't had a single scandal in its history? I doubt it, we just live in ignorace of such!

can we mention the alleged underage Chinese gymnasts at the Olympics?