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

Kstone wrote: "NO. Here's what Sey said:"

Sey wrote: "Watching the women's 400-meter individual medley with some friends, one lesser-known acquaintance gently whispered to her daughter, "Mommy swam the 400-meter freestyle in high school."

No, you didn't.

See? I'm horrible. But she didn't. Technically, she stayed afloat. She swam back and forth in the pool. But her interpretation of this flywheel-type movement surely had nothing to do with what Britain's Rebecca Adlington brought to bear on that pool in Beijing."

Twice Sey says that the unnamed person DID NOT SWIM THE 400m FREESTYLE. Without any knowledge of that person's skill level in high school, who they swam against, awards won, etc.

KStone: "Sey mocked the person's attempt to "me too"."

NO. She said that the person didn't swim the 400 m freestyle without any other knowledge of the person.

KStone: "The mother told her kid that she swam the 400 free in HS while they were watching the 400 IM race. Sey's internal "No, you didn't" wasn't a denial that the person literally swam, it was a mocking of the me tooism. Whether you agree or like it is another matter but it wasn't a denial the person "even did it" as you say."

It was a denial that the person swam the 400 m freestyle, without any knowledge of the person's skill level in high school.

The unnamed person simply said that they swam the 400 meter freestyle in highschool. No mention of how well she did it, nor any comparison to the Olympians on the screen.

Is that wrong? Is it not allowed to mention one's own experiences, however modest, in the presence of superior beings?

Let me put it another way:

At what point is a person qualified to call themselves a swimmer, a runner, a gymnast, etc.?

If a person runs a marathon in under three hours, can s/he say "I ran a marathon", or is that "me tooism"? How about the four hour marathoner?

Where's the line? Who gets to draw that line?

I understand Sey's point that there's a universe of difference between those who compete at the top levels and those who do the same events at much lower levels. So does anyone with any experience in sports.

The problem is that she dismisses, denigrates and denies those lower level athletes because they didn't do what she did, at the level she did it.

That's not sporting.

It seems to me that in order to qualify as a runner, swimmer, gymnast, etc., Sey is saying that a person has to do it as their primary focus over and above everything else.

I say that's just not right.

I think you nailed it.

It's the difference between "knowing" a thing intellectually (a marathon is a footrace 26 miles 385 yards long) and knowing it from experience (how it feels and what it takes to train for and actually do one from start to finish).

The first can be learned easily in a few moments, the second takes a lot longer and a lot more effort.

There's also the fact that the only way to really know the limit of one's abilities is to try. But there aren't resources enough to try everything.

Perhaps the hardest thing to accept is that everyone doesn't get an equal cut of the pie. There are people for whom a lot of things - yes, even gymnastics - are a lot easier than for most. And those for whom a lot of things are more difficult or impossible.

Sorry, I don't buy it.

Almost anyone who does anything has to deal with the occasional opinionated-but-ignorant person. I run into it all the time:

The person who doesn't understand basic physics, thermodynamics or chemistry, let alone how an internal combustion engine really works, yet insists that the magical 200 mpg carburetor story is real.

The person who has all sorts of complaints about public education, yet never taught a class in their life, let alone tried to do it on limited resources for a whole school year.

The person with no kids who has all kinds of opinions on parenting, including how things like ADHD, autistic-spectrum disorders and other learning difficulties "aren't real", and proceeds to lecture struggling parents (who are having a rare couple of hours of adult time) who deal with real kids that have these problems.

The person who lectures a paleontologist and geologist that the earth is less than 7,000 years old.

The person who doesn't know a kilowatt-hour from a klystron, yet has all sorts of "facts" about the energy situation.

And lots more things that are much, much worse than "Mommy swam the 400 meter freestyle in high school."

Yet we non-elite types simply deal with it. In most situations we just smile and nod and change the subject. In others, we listen politely, then look the person straight in the eye and in a friendly, warm voice say: "No, that's just not true. You've got some bad info there. Here's how it really works..."

It's called real life.