"because Ms. Sey's article hurt your wittle feelings because it put your largely mediocre and mostly leisure time or past athletic pursuits in perspective. Yeah, yeah you played baseball in Little League, swan in HS, did gymnastics when you were little, played basketball in the Y leagues, shuffled along and did a couple of marathons or a Corporate Challeneges, yadda, yadda, so you foolishly flatter yourselves and think you can compare yourselves to the elite in those sports because, after all, you are/were a baseball/basketball player, gymnast, runner, etc., too and you know how it is."

NO. That's NOT what people are offended by.

One thing that has stirred up so much resentment is Ms. Sey's statements that those activities weren't athletic pursuits at all, because they weren't done at a high-enough level. That nobody who did those things at less than the "elite" level can call themselves a gymnast, a swimmer, a runner, etc. That's simply wrong, and people are calling her on it.

"The level they are doing it at is so far removed and so fundamentally different from what you did/do, that any comparison is laughable."

I don't see any of us in the non-elite unwashed masses here comparing ourselves to Olympians or athletes of higher level. We all know there's a universe of difference between, say, the two-and-a-half-hour marathoner and the three-and-a-half-hour one.

Nor do I see any of us saying "we know how it is" to train and compete at the level needed to even approach being in national or international competition.

"though it is amsuing that a lot of the "outrage" is some version of "Just because I sucked, doesn't mean I didn't do it". Okay. That's true I suppose but besides Sey's cheerfully rude point."

NO. It's the point exactly. Sey denies that we even did it. That's the problem.

The other thing that bothers many respondents here is that Sey does not acknowledge how much others did to make it possible for her to train and compete. Her article comes across as if she did it all by herself, and that nobody other than elite athletes face such challenges and take such risks.

Sorry, I don't buy that for a second. She was a gymnast because she wanted to be a gymnast, was willing to do what it took, and had the resources to make it possible.

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There is one other dynamic that is also operating here.

Most of us in the developed world have grown up being bombarded by words and images from "the media" without any way of responding. (This is what makes "talk radio" so popular, but it's strictly controlled by the staff at the stations).

But in online venues like Salon, we can respond right away and in detail. We don't have to just sit and take it when somebody denigrates what we've done.

Being an elite athlete does not give Sey (or anyone else) the right to be a condescending jerk online and not be taken to task for it.

Then again, she may not be reading any of this.

"There are cheetahs that can outrun you and apes that can outlift you and dolphins that can outswim you."

There are machines that go faster than any animal, lift far more than any animal, and swim faster and farther than any animal. And when it comes to flying...

Those machines were all designed and built by humans.

"But there are no mere animals that can outperform a philosopher at philosophy or a mathematician at mathematics etc. etc."

There are machines that can do calculations (not theoretical math) far faster than any human. But those machines were designed and built by humans.

There are machines that are better at playing chess than all but the very best humans. There may soon exist chess-playing machines that no humans can beat - if they don't exist already.

Shoot, of all the animals on this planet, only humans use fire. A few animals use very basic tools but they're the exception that proves the rule.

"No, the distinctively superior human qualities have to do with intelligence, not athletics."

I would not say "superior human qualities" but rather "uniquely human qualities".

Intelligence alone achieves little; it has to be matched with action. Which is what humans do.

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I find it interesting that so many people place so much emphasis on sports and entertainment figures, yet are so ignorant of those who made modern society possible through technology. Imagine the Olympics without TV....