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Wednesday, August 13, 2008 12:00 AM

The beast

As a former elite athlete, I turn into a horrible, condescending jerk when I watch the Olympics with armchair fans like you.
Jennifer Sey

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  • Wednesday, August 13, 2008 02:03 AM

    Whoops!

    Amusing, considering it's in an otherwise excellent article about being a "jerk" around know-nothing amateurs, is this line:

    She swam back and forth in the pool, performing the stroke called freestyle.

    Nuh-uh. "Freestyle" is the name of the race. The stroke most people perform in that race is called the front crawl (aka the Australian crawl).

    Maybe someday some swimmer will invent a faster stroke -- and then suffer the indignity of having people call it "freestyle" -- turning them into a "jerk" around people watching swimming races...

    —shannonr Read shannonr's other letters

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