If you want to compete in the elite world of Salon, you have to be ready to deal with the competition.

Ms. Sey wrote something, no doubt hoping to elicit a strong reaction.

Now if Ms. Sey and I were in a bar and she raised this issue, I doubt there would be much derision. I'd likely nod, or maybe even agree with her on principle, and likely change the subject since obviously she's got a bit of a chip on he shoulder with regard to the subject.

But instead she puts out an inflamatory statement in a public venue with the intended purpose of eliciting responses from readers. Now perhaps it hurst her feelings that everyone didn't immedeatly run to her defense.

But that's the internet. We all have to deal with people riping us new ones because of what we say. You dust yourself off, and go on expressing your own opinion. That's just what you do in the world of Amature Loud Mouthed Schnookery.

Of course, I'm sure Ms. Sey wouldn't count what we do as Loud Mouthed Schnookery, given all the efort she has put into being a loud mouthed schnook for Salon. I'll bet we don't even begin to understand what being a loud mouthed schnook really is.

It's hard to believe the level of intensity directed at Jennifer Sey--who is, after all, just expressing her opinion.

Why is it so difficult to just nod and say okay--that's her opinion, not mine.

Because her opinion is of a similar intensity to the responses. Her opinion is that she's better than we are and how dare we try to pretend we were ever athletes, especially if the best we did was a college team somewhere. It is arrogant, rude and nasty so why shouldn't the responses be the same? Especially when the article is from the point of view of someone who is a failure by her own standards.

What Ms. Sey claims is that she wrote a book, much like the women derides say they swam in competition or did gymnastics.

Ms. Sey claims they did not because it wasn't at an elite level.

In her own way Ms. Sey is building up the same sort of attitude that leads to the dismissing of nonmedalers at the olympics (I have yet to hear anyone say that a bronze medal athelete is not a great athelete).

By saying that only this level of Athelete is a real Athelete, well then the ones above that can draw the same line. Right now Mr. Phelps could be saying all the other Olympians are just posers. Could say those with only 1 gold medal to their name aren't really Atheletes, because they don't understand what it took to win 11, or even 5 in one game, let alone the 8 he may likely win.

Of course, what is differnt about Mr. Phelps from Ms. Sey is that Mr. Phelps isn't saying that. He's being humble in each victory aware of how close he comes to losing his race each time. And I can't imagine him looking down his nose at someone who honestly admires his skill when they say that they had olympic dreams too when they wore a younger man's clothes.

That is the difference between being a sportsperson and an athelete. Any asshole can be an athelete, but it takes someone truly special to be a sportsperson. And Sportspeople are the ones we honor, respect, and remember. An asshole who runs fast or swims fast or can do a back flip well, well they're just assholes, and who cares?

It's hard to believe the level of intensity directed at Jennifer Sey--who is, after all, just expressing her opinion.

Why is it so difficult to just nod and say okay--that's her opinion, not mine.

I also agree with the writers who are complaining about the NBC commentators--they were awful--picking on every little error (and continuously harping on the big ones) but not really addressing the elephant in the room--the fact that the Chinese girls are really little girls--that they train in the same arena where they won--and that when she was asked if she ever wanted to do anything else but practice--the captain of the Chinese team said "no, this is my job." It looked like Bob Costas was going to wrestle Bela Karoli to the ground when Bela kept mentioning the ages of the Chinese gymnasts.

Give Jennifer a break--read her book before you deign to know how she feels--she isn't saying you should feel like her--she is just telling you how she feels--get your own Salon blog if you want us to know how YOU feel.

I want to make a suggestion.

All of you who are so offended by Sey's article and have posted incredibly negative comments about her as a person, about how she must treat her children, etc., please re-read the blog post.

Because I know that at first, I took offense at what she said. Then, after perusing the 230-or so negative letters, I started getting irritated with the increasingly over the top attacks on Seys. That she wasn't an elite athelete at all. That she couldn't even manage to get a gold medal so who cares what she thinks. Basically, the sort of comments that prove her assertion that armchair fans suck. There are plenty of elite atheletes who never make it to the Olympics because of timing and injuries. And in gymnastics, its just cruel because the window of opportunity to compete in the Olympics is basically between 16 and 20. The folks who compete with each other on the elite level recognize and know each other and I'm sure that the ones Sey was competing with back in the 80s would put her in their class, even if the armchair fans here, who only watch these sports during the Olympics, don't know who she is.

I don't want to say I'm defending her; she starts out with this incredibly provocative and hurtful sentence and she does sound like a dick most of the time.

If Ms. Sey hates fans so much, why was she hired by Salon to write about the Olympics for an audience comprised of fans?

I really wish Salon would hire authors who actually like their audience.