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Child Item

Louis Smith: British Gymnastics bans four-time Olympic medallist over video.

A Little Pony

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/gymnastics/37832754

[font=Arial, Helvetica, freesans, sans-serif]The video, filmed by the 27-year-old Smith but leaked to the media in September, showed him laughing while retired gymnast Luke Carson mimicked Islamic prayer practices.[/font]

Didn't know British Athletics had a blasphemy law. Sounds utterly ludicrous to me.

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DEFTLEFTHAND

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

certainly not. if a man can be a pussy a woman can be a dick

Pussy is a sexist term also.

REM76

He's a dead man walking, poor sap. Athletics and intelligence haven't been together since Zola Budd.

ohnonotgmail

DEFTLEFTHAND wrote: »

Pussy is a sexist term also.

how so?

Bonaparted

He laughed at an unfunny joke. Big deal. A ban for that is absolutely ridiculous.

ohnonotgmail

Bonaparted wrote: »

He laughed at an unfunny joke. Big deal. A ban for that is absolutely ridiculous.

perhaps try to read the linked article

Bonaparted

He got reprimanded and then banned for laughing at an unfunny joke, did he not?

ohnonotgmail

Bonaparted wrote: »

He got reprimanded and then banned for laughing at an unfunny joke, did he not?

he was reprimanded for a previous incident. he was banned for being a cumulative dick. and banned for 2 months. 2 months he would not be competing anyway.

The King of Moo

Ferrari3600 wrote: »

So he did something really that a lot of red-blooded young males would be tempted to do in the circumstances, probably the more intelligent ones would rein themselves in. Athletes aren't necessarily candidates for Nobel Prizes in astrophysics. Some of them are, frankly, a bit thick. But it's not a hanging offence to be a bit thick.

This whole idea that athletes are supposed to be models of decorum, "ambassadors for Britain" or whatever, seems highly questionable to me. And I speak as not only a firm secularist but someone that has no great interest in sport.

It's not, which is why he's not being hanged. He's getting a two-month ban, which means he's going to miss:

West Midlands Rhythmic - Duets - Trios - Groups - Rhythmic Gymnastics
London TRA NDP Regional Series 1 (2017) - Trampoline Gymnastics
London DMT NDP Regional Series 1 (2017) - Double Mini Tramp (:-D)
West Midlands Acro Championships 2016

... and a few similar events. A complete loss to the British gymnastics world, and no doubt the end of his career, obviously.

As a man, I also take strong issue with your belief that a lot of "red-blooded" 27-year olds would take a picture of a 16-year old's arse, zoom in on it, and post it online with a creepy caption. Hardly a spur-of-the-moment crime of passion.

I'll tell you what though, it's a good thing hyperbole isn't a hanging offence, or some people in this thread would be done for!

Pherekydes

A Little Pony wrote: »

Didn't know British Athletics had a blasphemy law. Sounds utterly ludicrous to me.

British Gymnastics, not Athletics.

Bonaparted

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

he was reprimanded for a previous incident. he was banned for being a cumulative dick. and banned for 2 months. 2 months he would not be competing anyway.

Grand. So he was reprimanded and banned for laughing at an unfunny joke. Absolutely ridiculous.

Pherekydes

HellSquirrel wrote: »

They've hardly ended his career, just told him to bugger off for two months and think about how not to be a repeated bad example of British Athletics.

This has nothing to do with British Athletics.

ohnonotgmail

Bonaparted wrote: »

Grand. So he was reprimanded and banned for laughing at an unfunny joke. Absolutely ridiculous.

no. you need to read it again. he was reprimanded for a previous incident. he was banned this time because he already had an outstanding reprimand. its not that complicated.

Billy86

Bonaparted wrote: »

He got reprimanded and then banned for laughing at an unfunny joke, did he not?

He got repreminanded and then banned for a series of offences, as the article states.

Corruptedmorals

I'm curious if any of the people defending him have heard of him before. He's been around a long time and never learns. Not only does he pull stunts like this and the picture of Carly Patterson, but he's a total sore loser even with his own teammates and has publicly criticised them and other gymnasts who dared to legitimately beat him. This has been a long time coming and doesn't go far enough.

metaoblivia

Louis Smith has a reputation in gymnastics for being a sore loser and a general disgrace. And a two month ban during a period where there are absolutely no major competitions he would have been expected to take part in? Yeah, I'm not crying any tears for him. I wonder had this happened earlier, if British Gymnastics would have done this at a more inconvenient time, like say, last August.

Louis's ban was 100% the collective sum of his poor decisions. Luke Carson, his partner in crime here and a retired Irish gymnast and coach of Ireland's most promising gymnast, Rhys McClenaghen, only got a reprimand because this was his first incident.

Ferrari3600

The King of Moo wrote: »

As a man, I also take strong issue with your belief that a lot of "red-blooded" 27-year olds would take a picture of a 16-year old's arse, zoom in on it, and post it online with a creepy caption. Hardly a spur-of-the-moment crime of passion.

Except that this isn't what I said.

Having said that for some reason I thought he was younger, 19 or 20. If he is 27 then, certainly, old enough to know better. But really it's no different to what the Daily Mail does every day of the week, inviting its readership to sleaze over photos of scantily clad females, in some cases females under the age of consent, while pretending to be the moral guardians of the nation. Does that excuse his actions, no, but its the prevailing media culture that's out there.

HellSquirrel

A Little Pony wrote: »

You should see how Islamic countries treat minorities. Saudi Arabia being just one. The fact you think it is wrong to mock Islam is rather concerning. It would be like saying mocking Christianity is wrong, it isn't wrong and people should be entitled to do so without facing internal persecution.

No issue with mocking Islam. I do have an issue with mocking Muslims just because. No issue with mocking Catholicism. I try not to mock Catholics though. Extremists of both sets are open for it, but of course, that's down to my subjective view on where the line of extremism is. Or your view for your own way of looking at it.

Oh, and "Well, Saudi Arabia do it" isn't a sane argument for doing it too. As someone's mother in here probably once said "If Saudi Arabia jumped off a cliff, would you do it too?"

Fr_Dougal

I wish people would stop mocking religion. It's not something to joke about.

SnakePlissken

The King of Moo wrote: »

As a man, I also take strong issue with your belief that a lot of "red-blooded" 27-year olds would take a picture of a 16-year old's arse, zoom in on it, and post it online with a creepy caption. Hardly a spur-of-the-moment crime of passion.

I'll tell you what though, it's a good thing hyperbole isn't a hanging offence, or some people in this thread would be done for!

The female gymnast you're referring to is Carly Patterson who is actually one year older than Louis Smith, the photo he tweeted was an old photo of her which he himself did not take as you seem to suggest, he did however come out and state he wasn't aware of when the photo was taken and fully believed it to be a more recent photo, it's hardly the crime of the century now is it, but to you this constitutes an act of absolute dickery.

I also find it amusing that a random poster would, as you describe, take great issue with this photo, when the gymnast herself publicly came out in support of Louis Smith and that she took no offence by his tweet, but you go ahead and continue getting morally outraged on the behalf of others if you wish.

osarusan

SnakePlissken wrote: »

he did however come out and state he wasn't aware of when the photo was taken and fully believed it to be a more recent photo,

Not to get into this debate but it's hard to believe that when the photo in question shows an athlete with the sticker for Athens 2004 Olympics on their back.

SnakePlissken

osarusan wrote: »

Not to get into this debate but it's hard to believe that when the photo in question shows an athlete with the sticker for Athens 2004 Olympics on their back.

I don't believe anyone's ever accused him of being the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Bonaparted

The National Secular Society in the UK have written an open letter to British Gymnastics.

The National Secular Society has written an open letter to British Gymnastics calling on the body to reverse the two month suspension given to athlete Louis Smith for mocking Islam.

The sporting body suspended Smith for two months and gave fellow athlete Luke Carson a reprimand over a video in which the two mocked Islamic prayer.

President of the National Secular Society Terry Sanderson wrote to British Gymnastics that's its own "censorious actions" had caused far more harm than Smith and Carson's mockery of Islam.

In an open letter Mr Sanderson said that British Gymnastics "has contributed to a climate of censorship brought on by the unreasonable and reactionary views" of religious extremists.

"Rather than defending free expression, one of the most precious pillars of our liberal democratic society, you have chosen instead to side with extremists and patronise British Muslims by assuming they will take offence at the trivial actions of these two athletes.

"British Gymnastics' condemnation and punishment of Louis Smith and Luke Carson will only serve to embolden the religious extremists who reject free speech and religious tolerance by demanding that Islam must not be mocked."

Smith said that he has received many death threats following the publication of the video.
Mr Sanderson added: "We urge you to consider whether by taking the actions it has, British Gymnastics has further endangered the safety of these two athletes by giving succour to those who seek to silence all criticism and mockery of their religion."

British Gymnastics' Standards of Conduct prohibits athletes from making "offensive" jokes or remarks.
The National Secular Society has now called on British Gymnastics to revise its code of conduct to protect athletes' freedom of expression.

Matthew Syed wrote in the Times in October that the Louis Smith video would "become a test case" for the "illiberal contracts that British Olympians are required to sign".

Jane Allen, chief executive of British Gymnastics, said when the suspension and reprimand were announced: "As the custodians of the integrity and values of the sport, we have had no choice but to act responsibly.

"Whilst both individuals showed remorse following the incident, we hope in the future they use their profile to have a positive impact on sport and communities."

The National Secular Society's open letter to British Gymnastics.

HellSquirrel

They could butt out and not make it a fecking political thing.

Idiot does something idioty. Idiot gets reprimanded.*
Idiot does something idioty -again-. Idiot gets suspended.

This is just how things go and the British Gymnastics lot had every right to not want him representing them when he clearly has no concept of how his idiotry affects his teammates and anyone else in their colours.

*I think I recall there was a second round of idiot doing idioty thing and getting reprimanded as well. May be wrong on that.

Dr Jakub

He should have played it safe and mocked Christianity.

Hans Bricks

The real assholes here are the lifeless cretins who 'leak' this sort character defamation crap to the media.

Media are even worse knowing the repercussions this could have on the person central to this kind of non story. It's sleazy and petty **** stirring.