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Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Fired for WHAT!? - The Olympics Edition!

OK, these aren't so much "employees" who were "fired" as they are athletes who were not allowed to compete at the Olympics:
  • 4th Place is Not Top 24 - Poor Jordyn Wieber. If you click that link you will see the results of the women's gymnastics qualifying round. Jordyn is the reigning world champion and got the fourth highest score in the world in qualifying . . . which isn't good enough for the final round of 24. Each country can only send two athletes and two Americans finished ahead of Jordyn. To put this in perspective, the final person who qualified finished 28th and lost to Jordyn in every single event (by two full points on vault, and 5.8 points total). Jordyn did compete in the team finals and won a gold medal.
  • Intentionally Losing - Uh-oh, badminton scandal! Eight players were sent home for allegedly throwing matches to face easier opponents in later rounds. The funniest part of this (if I'm reading the story correctly) is that the South Korean team tried to lose . . . but couldn't!
  • Racist Tweets - Shocker: Racist tweets don't go over well at an international sporting event with people from around the world competing to foster good will. A female Greek triple jumper was booted for a tweet about West Nile Mosquitoes eating "homemade food" in reference to Africans. And a Swiss soccer player was sent home for a tweet about South Koreans . . . reports differ, but something about punching them, burning, and/or possibly a reference to "retards."
This is an employment law blog so I guess I should make at least some effort to tie this to employment law . . . so, here goes: the rules are the rules (even when they make little sense and lead to results we don't like), always try your best (unless you're trying to lose), and racist social media comments will not go over well at the Olympics or in the workplace.

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