You Want Some Cheese With That Whine?

That sour grapes whine you're drinking?

Sounds like sour grapes to me, anyway. Here is the article:

Spitz, once the star, upset over Beijing snub
by Polly Hui

US swim legend Mark Spitz won't be on hand in Beijing if Michael Phelps breaks his record of seven gold medals at a single Olympics—because, he says, no one bothered to invite him.

Spitz said the International Olympic Committee, a US television network or FINA—the international body that governs world swimming—should have brought him to the Games this year, with Phelps making a go at his record.

"I never got invited. You don't go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go. Especially because of who I am," Spitz told AFP in Hong Kong.

"I am going to sit there and watch Michael Phelps break my record
anonymously? That's almost demeaning to me. It is not almost—it is."

Spitz became one of the most famous athletes in the world at the 1972
Munich Olympics, winning seven gold medals—with seven world records—in what many consider to be one of the greatest achievements in all of sport.

Phelps is aiming to better that mark in Beijing, hoping to bring home eight golds. And Spitz, now 58 and grey and without his trademark moustache, cannot understand why he wasn't asked along to see the show.

"They voted me one of the top five Olympians in all time. Some of them are dead. But they invited the other ones to go to the Olympics, but not me," he said. "Yes, I am a bit upset about it."

Now a stockbroker and motivational speaker, Spitz also thinks he could have won eight golds himself in Munich if only he had had the chance.

"I won seven events. If they had the 50m freestyle back then, which they do now, I probably would have won that too," he said.

Spitz, whose brief stint in show business in the 1970s never quite matched his success in the pool, said he attended the Athens Olympics four years ago—when Phelps also tried to break the record.

"They did not once put my face on television," he recalled. "But as soon as the swimming was over, and Michael Phelps didn't break my record, every time I went to beach volley, they put my face on the volleyballs."

Spitz said it would have been a great idea if he could be the one presenting the gold medals to Phelps, who has for years been candid about his ambition to eclipse the mark of seven golds.

And Spitz thinks Phelps will succeed—for one very good reason.

"He's almost identical to me. He's a world-record holder in all these events, so he is dominating the events just like I did," Spitz said. "He reminds me of myself."

This is very disappointing, because I used to really admire the guy. Now my admiration will be limited to his swimming prowess...not to him in general.

Look, maybe he felt he should have been invited, but I can see where this would be a touchy subject for the organizations he called out. Not everyone would be excited about their legendary accomplishment being eclipsed, and if Spitz was one of those people, he would be in an awkward position if he had been formally invited, and didn't want to go. Perhaps to spare him this awkwardness, they didn't formally invite him, figuring if he wanted to go, surely he would let it be known, or assuming that maybe he would just show up on his own. I assume he can figure out how to get to Beijing on his own.

Oh, wait, I forgot.

"You don't go to the Olympics just to say, I am going to go. Especially because of who I am,"

Excuse me, your highness? Because of who you are? Is that off-putting to anyone else?

Dude, millions of people go to the Olympics just to say they are going to go, but obviously they are just regular folks. God forbid you should be associated with the regular folks.

And yes, it would have been a nice touch if "Spitz...could be the one presenting the gold medals to Phelps," but could you imagine asking him to? I can't imagine anyone would ever cross that line. If Spitz was so selfless that he wanted to do that, he should have been the one to bring it up. It wouldn't have been proper for anyone else to ask him to do it.

And he goes on to complain about his face not being on television enough. Uhm, egotistical much? This isn't as much about you as you seem to think, Dude.

But my favorite part..."I won seven events. If they had the 50m freestyle back then, which they do now, I probably would have won that too. He's almost identical to me. He's a world-record holder in all these events, so he is dominating the events just like I did. He reminds me of myself."

I see. Well let's hope he's not entirely like you. Let's hope that if he succeeds, and lives to see someone eventually surpass him, that Michael Phelps demonstrates some class and sportsmanship, instead of hurt feelings and whinniness. Let's hope he can man up and concede that someone bested him without all the pouting "poor me" bullshit. After all, isn't that the whole point of being an athlete? To be better, faster, stronger than those who came before you? To try and be the best? Shouldn't Mark Spitz, of all people, know this?

Guess not.

And this guy is a motivational speaker?

Well I guess he did motivate me...to cheer for Michael Phelps even harder than I had already planned to.