By SUZANNE DOWNING
Gwen Berry, a talented hammer thrower, stood on the medals stand and showed the world just how flawed our nation is. And she showed how bratty, petulant, and intolerant some of our citizens have become.
She turned away from our national anthem with a glower, put a protest shirt over her head, and scowled like the most miserable human ever; it was as if she had been beaten and dragged to the medals ceremony against her will.
You could not have scripted the storyline any better: America is full of spoiled, problem children. It’s a nation of lousy parents.
The band played on, and the “flag was still there,” with the Gold and Silver medalists standing tall, proud of their accomplishments, respectful of being able to represent the United States at the Olympic Games. Can you name them? No, most only know of Gwen Berry, not DeAnna Price or Brooke Andersen.
Berry, symbolic of our current national strife, stole the attention from Price and Anderson with her performative hatred. She blew the assignment, which was to compete, then stand in respect, just as one would do for the Pledge of Allegiance or for a prayer. She was not there to represent Antifa; she was there to represent the highest achievements of the United States.
There are a lot of Gwen Berrys making spectacles of themselves in the news these days. They burn down police stations, set cars on fire, deface monuments, terrorize people in their homes, and fray the fabric of civil society, egged on by the likes of Rep. Maxine Waters and even Vice President Kamala Harris.
It is almost as if our nation, over the past four years, has been so successful and her people so fortunate that some beneficiaries of our hard work, sacrifice, and tolerance had to manufacture problems to develop a sense of purpose. Peace and prosperity were not enough for them.
All the achievements of bringing minorities along in the American Dream over the past 50 years have been picked apart and declared inadequate by this set of society.
Now that their hatred for America has bled into our top athletic team, Americans have to ask, when is it too much?
If Berry will behave badly while at the U.S. Track and Field finals, how can the U.S. Olympic Team count on her to behave on the international stage?
The U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee has already decided that athletes who peacefully protest or demonstrate at the Tokyo Olympics will not be punished. And so we can expect more of this from Berry or those who will emulate her.
“I never said that I hated the country. All I said was I respect my people enough to not stand or acknowledge something that disrespects them. I love my people point blank, period,” Berry said.
Is Gwen Berry, displaying racism by declaring that there is a separate people she represents, fit to represent all of us in the United States at the Olympics?
No. Berry had a choice. She could have stood with her head simply bowed, and allowed her teammates to enjoy their moment of victory.
But she didn’t; she went full drama queen, disrespecting her teammates and, in many ways, robbing them of a time that should have been focused on their accomplishments.
Berry also set the poorest of examples for America’s youth. Like it or not, she is a role model, as all Olympic athletes have been.
What would it take for the Committee to disqualify her? Let’s say she spit, threw her bouquet of flowers, stuck her tongue out, or stomped her feet. All of those things would have caused the Olympic Committee to just say “No.” What she did is no different.
Berry stepped onto the podium so her country could glorify her achievements and look past her human faults. She just was not willing to return the respect. She deserves a gold, but not for her athletic performance.
The lesson for athletes? Behavior and decorum matter. It’s time we draw the line on respect; Berry clearly crossed the line.
The saying in sports is, “Go big or go home.” Gwen Berry went big with her bad behavior. Now she needs to stay home.
Suzanne Downing is publisher of Must Read Alaska and writes for Must Read America and NewsMax. This column was written for NewsMax.
Consequences. Progressives only understand consequences like a two year old and must be treated as such.
A very good comparison. They are hysterical temper tantrum children. Nothing more. Not a protester. A bratty child.
Blue lips is a petulant, pampered, spoiled attention hound. She’s not even close to worthy of representing this country. She’s a sore loser. Didn’t like coming in third. Waaaaa. Do better. Silly child.
Third place losers must somehow get their name recognized. The freedoms that are afforded all of us in these United States give her the “right” to do this. It also gives her the right to choose respect. Our freedom has allowed her to be a part of these games. She pissed on the pinnacle of sports. She pissed on freedom.
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I do hope that every person that surrounds her during these Olympic games exercises their right to completely ignore and turn their freedom-loving backs on this self-serving brat so that she may bask in the loneliness of her internal outrage.
I quit watching NFL football because of kapernick & his disrespectful idiocy. I support Gwen Berry’s free speech, and also support the U.S.O.C. right to leave her off the team – and I demand they exercise that right. I will NOT be watching the Olympics.
Watching a boorish post-adolescent throw hammers and tantrums and disrespect America isn’t our idea of a sporting event.
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Then there’s the “New York Post” article, July 1, 2021: “An old photo showing Olympic hammer thrower Gwen Berry beaming while holding the American flag has gone viral in the wake of her shunning the Stars and Stripes last week during the national anthem.”
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Enough already…
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Forget throwing stupid hammers, any carpenter, any blacksmith worth his salt can do that -and- still respect America.
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Want to have fun watching big, heavy things being thrown far away by people who seem to like America, check out Dayton Punkin Chunkin (punkinchunkin.com/).
On that podium she represents the country responsible for greater than 50% of global immigration and many of them are truly fleeing horrific conditions. A perfect example of that would be that the Anchorage School District is made up of kids that speak greater than 100 languages.
She however, takes the podium to complain about the conditions many in the rest of the world can only dream of. This is yet another subtle reminder that we should not expect someone who’s highest achievement is associated with throwing a rock or a stick to also be a paragon of intellect. She is the failed element of the GNU.
Systemic racism is an esoteric concept but the more of this kind of behavior I see the more I’m a fan of whatever it is that they don’t like. In some social circles certain athletes have been revered for their ability to carry a ball or run into other people on a grassy field. Ms. Gwen will fade into obscurity and in ten years will be scrubbing out a Motel 6 toilet for 6 bucks an hour and recalling her glory day, wishing she could take it back. She is walking shame.
The two women that led the competition – one of whom set a new American record – bested Ms. Berry on all of their throws. It is unlikely that Ms. Berry will be seen on an Olympic podium in the future.
Why did she even compete if she didn’t want to represent the USA? That is what this competition was for, righr?
Oath of the Olympic Athlete:
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“In the name of all the competitors, I promise that we shall take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams.”
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Take the Oath, or warm the bench.
Kapernek is making money from his protest. What opportunity does a 3rd place winner in a not well known sport have to make money………..or as a 1st place winner. But make a spectacle………..
I am surprised the Committee and Judges didn’t take away the bronze medal, escort her out for poor conduct, and dismiss her from all participation.
Sports was in the past largely separate from politics but media in general has made politics and social pressure disproportionate to reality. Cartoons are better for ones health.
Very well said. I agree, lousy parenting has put us all in a world of hurt.
I was shocked by the sheer immaturity of the whole thing. I try as much as possible not to get sucked into the whole racial thing… to me people are just people. And as for who is right or wrong, there’s too much blame to go around on both sides of that argument for me to get sucked into choosing a side. But when I watched the video of this young lady I couldn’t help but feel horribly embarrassed for her… someone in a previous comment called it a tantrum, and that’s exactly it was. Regardless of her beliefs, regardless of the “message” she hoped to convey, she acted like a 2-year-old, which is not a good look for an adult of any race. Look, I’m not advocating for her to be thrown off the team. I do think she “stole the show” from her new teammates who deserved to be acknowledged for their recent accomplishments… but from where I sit, she disrespected herself way more than she did them. @$$ clown was the term that popped into my head as I was watching.
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