Article by Larry O'Connor in Townhall
Blame Nike
If you're unhappy with the third place American hammer thrower creating a 48 to 72-hour news cycle out of her petulant and selfish behavior on the medal podium this week, I have bad news for you. Get used to it, because the summer Olympics in Tokyo will be full of moments just like this one.
And you are right to be angry at the athlete who is disrespecting the flag and the nation that has provided her the opportunity to have a platform at all.
And you are right to be angry at the media that spends countless hours on the story amplifying this person's voice and her ungrateful temper tantrum.
And you are right to be angry at the political Left in this country that celebrates and makes heroes of these individuals because it feeds its insatiable political appetite for division and dragging our country down.
But don't lose sight of the entity that may be most responsible for this sad and pathetic display of ingratitude.
If you really want to point the finger of blame, point it at Nike.
Let's face it; nobody's going to get rich from competitive hammer throwing in the United States of America. Nobody's going to earn huge money in professional hammer throwing competitions, and nobody is going to make giant endorsement deals for being the best damn hammer thrower in the land of the free and the home of the brave.
But the third place qualifier for the Olympic team in women's hammer throwing has a real shot at making millions from a Nike endorsement because she went out of her way to crap on America.
If you haven't noticed already, I've gone out of my way not to name this person in this article because that would feed the beast. It would give the third place finisher in the women's hammer throwing competition exactly what she was aiming for: publicity and notoriety.
But not naming her actually proves another important point in this entire episode. Can any of you at all name the third place women's hammer thrower from the last Olympics or the one before that or maybe even in Olympic history? How about the second place women's hammer thrower or the first place women's hammer thrower?
You see? This person has enjoyed days and days of television coverage and interviews and social media endorphins not for performing her sport at a level that provided her an entree to the women's Olympic track and field team.
She's covered and talked about and photographed and discussed and debated and praised and vilified because she threw a temper tantrum when our national anthem was played.
And it's probably a brilliant move.
Nike is not going to reward her for being the third best woman to throw a hammer at Olympic trials. But it could very well reward her with millions of dollars in endorsements for dividing our country along racial lines.
Former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has made more money from Nike since disrespecting the national anthem and the American flag by taking a knee several years ago than he has for playing football at a mediocre level.
He doesn't have to endure the workouts and the stress and the team meetings and the homework and the endless hours of game film and the pressure and the responsibilities of being a quarterback at the highest level of his chosen sport. No, he can make millions just by being Colin Kaepernick as long as Colin Kaepernick is a divisive, petulant and ungrateful man.
That's the lesson athletes have learned and clearly understand at this point. You can get rich from Nike as long as you piss off enough people in this country and call us racist.
So you can be angry at this athlete, and you can be angry at the Democrats, and you can be angry at CNN, and you can be angry at Instagram, and you can be angry at our school system, and you can be angry at the 1619 Project. And you'd be right to be angry at all of them.
But if you follow the money, you'll actually see who's at the root of all of this – Nike, which cares more about pleasing the Communist Party in China than unifying the United States of America.
https://townhall.com/columnists/larryoconnor/2021/06/30/blame-nike-n2591824
