I'm a little angered at the boorish attitude of Americans fans in Greece

[LynneSin]

I was watching Men's Gymnastics last night, which was a real nailbitter of a competition coming down to the last round (high bars) with USA vs. Japan. USA had a great chance of winning a gold metal, but they needed a few poor performances from the Japanese in order to win.

You can hear the American fans in the crowd with their "USA, USA, USA" chants. But what they did when that first Japanese guy started on the highbars just disgusted me. I could hear booing from the crowd when he first started. Plus when the Japanese guy did his release I could hear the screams of "Miss, Miss' from the crowd.

Japanese were not fazed by this rude behavior and just outperformed the USA men on the highbars (and quit impressively I might ask).

Maybe it's me, but when you attend events like gymnastics - this isn't a freaking Eagles vs. Giants game where the fans are getting rude in your face attitude towards the competition. I thought it was boorish for Americans to boo the Japanese. No wonder people around the world think ill of us!

[GOPisEvil]

1. I think it's poor form to root against your opponent in that manner.

Idiots like this give us a bad name whenever we travel abroad.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. I have lived overseas.

You just CANNOT believe the behaviors I have seen from my fellow countrymen. No manner, no class, no understanding that the rest of the world ain't the USA.

[wtmusic]

5. A major reason why ethnocentric foreign policy is tolerated here

is lack of exposure to other cultures. Our attitudes are becoming inbred.

[Voltaire]

3. You saw that too eh?

It took awhile but I knew that good old Yankee BS would out itself eventually. On the other hand, the rendition of the Star Spangled Banner they are using is the best I have ever heard. Whomever the arranger is has managed to take the military and the jingo out of what I consider to be a perfectly hideous anthem.

[Lavender Brown]

4. It was really bad in 96 too

The fans in Atlanta were so merciless to the Russian women, they couldn't hear their own music. They should try to curtail the chanting. It must be hell on the athletes' nerves.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

6. Heavens, even Paul Hamm admitted that

the Japanese out-performed them last night.

I watched the Japanese news this morning on the International Channel, and of course, the gymnastics gold was a big story. They showed the main sponsors of the team gathered at 2AM Tokyo time to watch the meet, and going crazy when the last guy aced his routine.

The background story was about how the Japanese gymnastics association had decided that it needed to get kids started earlier back in the 1980s and that these efforts were finally paying off. There were videos of the current team members competing at the ages of 10 or 12. One of them started tumbling lessons at age 3!

[AngryAmish]

7. Typical ruthless gymnastics fans

"Among the Thugs II" should be about gymnastics fans. No more bloodthirsty lot in the world.

[HalfManHalfBiscuit]

11. Yes. Those Gymnastic Hooligans.

Cruel, but fair.

[mark11727]

8. Fans, hell... I wish the blamed COMMENTATORS would just STFU.

[Lavender Brown]

9. like when someone falls and they comment

"SHE JUST FELL! That's not good!!"

[arbusto_baboso]

10. If you just repeat your mantra loudly enough, over and over...

This seems to be the tactic of mindless US sports fans, as well as freepers/republicans.

Just becasue you chant "USA! USA!" doesn't make you a freakin' patriot. It makes you a rube and an asswipe.

You hit the nail on the head LynneSin; this is just one of many reasons why we have problems dealing with other countries. "They hate us for our sports fans."