<
According to a NY Times article, US track racers Mike Friedman, Sarah Hammer, Bobby Lea and Jennie Reed stepped off their plane in Beijing wearing breathing masks. The Chinese air quality is a touchy subject for locals, some of whom were offended by the site of the masked Americans. The Olympics are already mired in controversy, so the additional bad publicity is seen as insult to injury. The American cyclists apologized for any embarrassment they may have caused the Chinese people, explaining that they were only concerned with protecting their chances at Olympic gold.
Being tactfull has obviously become a lost art.
yea, but what is more offensive…protecting one’s ability to breath or destroying the air quality in the first place?
ESPN ran a shocking video on Beijing’s air quality and the government’s attempts to cover up the statistics that prove how bad it is.
In short – Beijing’s air quality on it’s AVERAGE days, is worse than Los Angeles’s air quality on it’s WORST days.
So yea, don’t knock the masks too much.
They are going to have to breathe the air at some stage, the poor delicate flowers. Odd how every other of the 15,000 athletes here for the Games seems to be coping ok without masks.
I find the whole thing quite amusing and two faced. Here we have the U.S., the biggest consumer market in the world. The home of Walmart!! The vast majority of the products they sell comes from China. If people in the west really are actually concerned about the air quality in China they would stop being part of the problem. Makes me laugh at how as a society we always look for others to blame instead of looking inward and start becoming accountable for our actions.