Little know Olympic fact, S'pore robbed Canada of Silver medal

[Papsmearer]

Re: Little known Olympic fact, S'pore robbed Canada of Silver medal

I always hold local sailing in high esteem as a sport that we always excel in and with true blue Singaporean sportsmen.
For me Siew Shaw Her ranks alongside Dr Ben Tan in this sport in the local context. Now I hear of this incident and has lost all respect and admiration for this person and local sailing as a whole....his accomplishments has been discounted.

I came across this short para on the IOC website. Apparently, one of the sinkie sailor was under the capsized boat, and the other was in the water waving his hand for help. That's when Lemieux left the course to rescue them. I wonder if it was Siew waving and Joe Chan under the boat.

Fair Play on the High Seas
It was Saturday, 24 September, 1988.
Lawrence Lemieux, a Canadian, was in
second place in his small yacht during the
Olympic competitions of the Seoul Olympic
Games. The race was taking place in
confusing high winds and rough waves off
the coast of Korea. These were conditions
that Larry knew well. He was an
experienced rough water sailor. He was
almost in a position to challenge the
leader for the gold medal.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye
he saw an empty boat in the waves. A
man was in the cold waters near the
empty boat and waving his arms. An
unexpected wave had flipped him out of
his boat.
Without hesitation, Lemieux veered
from the course to come up beside the
drowning sailor. He pulled the man from
the water. Then he headed his yacht
toward shore to get help. After the rescue,
Lawrence re-entered the race, but he
finished well behind the leaders. In the
true spirit of Olympic competition,
Lawrence gave up his chance to win the
race in order to assist a fellow competitor.
In recognition of his action, the
International Olympic Committee
presented Lawrence with a special
Olympic award. Lemieux was both happy
and surprised when the media fussed over
what he says any sailor would have done.
Said Lemieux, “The first rule of sailing is,
if you see somebody in trouble, you
help him.”

 

[Papsmearer]

You're the idiot if you think we only listen to one side of the story. Whether he will reply depends on how you ask him. If you use the same tone as you're using here, only an idiot will bother to reply you.

Ok fucktard, here is an article from the FInancial Times magazine from June this year. Its the most detailed description I can find of the rescue. It says in this article that one of the sinkie sailors cut his hand and was bleeding badly. Why don't you ask Siew to show u his hands, than afterwards his lancheow. U dumb fuck. Is it painfully obvious to you by now that I am not telling any side of the story? I am telling an actual event, u moron.

Last updated: June 9, 2012 12:11 am

Lawrence Lemieux, CanadaBy Hester Lacey
‘Twenty-five years after that rescue, we’re still talking about it’
©Gareth Phillips
‘Twenty-five years after that rescue, we’re still talking about it’

Seoul, 1988

Sailing

When sailor Lawrence Lemieux represented Canada in Seoul, he had high hopes of returning with a medal. But he did not expect to come home with the Pierre de Coubertin medal for athletes who have shown an exceptional spirit of sportsmanship – or as the hero of a dramatic rescue at sea.

Lemieux was sailing for Canada in a one-man Finn dinghy, which was sharing its course with two other races: the men’s and women’s 470 two-person boats. The conditions were unexpectedly challenging, with strong winds and currents causing exceptionally steep waves. Lemieux was winning his race until he dropped to second place because he missed a marker – the fluorescent buoys that signalled the course were eight feet high but the waves were so large that he simply didn’t see it. “I’d raced in that much wind, but the steepness of the waves, that’s a whole different thing,” he recalls.

A number of competitors were running into difficulty in the heavy seas, including the Singaporean two-man team. Lemieux spotted their upturned dinghy – one man had made it onto the hull but the other was drifting helplessly. “The distance between him and his boat was quite a way and the boat was drifting faster than he could swim. And if I couldn’t see those big orange markers, who was going to see a little head bobbing in the water? He’d have been lost at sea. I had to make a decision and once I realised the dynamics of the problem there was no question.”


Lemieux abandoned his course. “I sailed by [the crewman] and used the momentum to flip him up into the boat.” In a single-handed boat there’s no room for a second person so Lemieux headed back towards the upturned Singaporean boat. “The other crew member had cut his hand, he was bleeding all over, and they had lost their rudder, so they couldn’t right the boat.” Lemieux’s hopes of a medal vanished as soon as he changed course to head to the rescue; he eventually finished in 22nd place. Did he ever, even for a moment, regret that decision? “No. I wasn’t thinking about that when I was trying to help these guys.” (One suspects it’s not the first time he has been asked this question.) He still bumps into Joseph Chan and Shaw Her Siew at international sailing events.

The Canadian’s boating apprenticeship began courtesy of his five older brothers, enthusiastic sailors on Wabamun Lake near the family home in Alberta. Sailing ‘just clicked’, as he explains over coffee in Weymouth, where he is working with Guatemalan hopeful Juan Ignacio Maegli ahead of the 2012 Games. Today the laid-back Canadian with a ready smile, now 56, is an internationally sought-after coach. The motto on his baseball cap reads: Life is Good.

Lemieux began racing solo in the 1970s and found that it relies on individual tactics and strategy. “It’s you and the boat,” he says, “You’re in control of your destiny, you can develop a technique that works for you. It’s all you.” At his very first world championship, he finished eighth. “I didn’t expect that – these were the best sailors in the world.” At the time, the only single-handed Olympic-class boat was the Finn, which Lemieux duly took up. “We were a new breed back in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There was a group of us, I was the only guy from Canada, with maybe four and five Americans. We sailed full time and that’s all we did. We lived in vans, we ate in campgrounds, we had no money – but we excelled. We took the sport to a new level.”

The Pierre de Coubertin medal is an enormous honour. Since it was launched in 1964, only 11 have been awarded. Would Lemieux rather, however, be sitting in the Dorset sunshine talking about the silver or gold he could have won? Sailing, says Lemieux a little ruefully, is not the most popular sport in terms of media coverage. “You spend your life working really hard internationally and you get very few accolades. So that’s the ironic thing; 25 years after this rescue, we’re still talking about it

 

[Papsmearer]

Re: Little known Olympic fact, S'pore robbed Canada of Silver medal

I always hold local sailing in high esteem as a sport that we always excel in and with true blue Singaporean sportsmen.
For me Siew Shaw Her ranks alongside Dr Ben Tan in this sport in the local context. Now I hear of this incident and has lost all respect and admiration for this person and local sailing as a whole....his accomplishments has been discounted.

In order to salvage any respect, Siew and Joe Chan should have come back after the Olympics and said "Look, we tried our best. But the wave and wind was too strong, and our boat capsized and one of us was injured and under the boat. We did not come back with a medal, but we met a true canadian hero. He is the man that came to our rescue, Larry Lemiuex". If they said something like that, no one would fault them. But cover up until like that is just fucking cowardly.

 

[looneytan]

If you use the same tone as you're using here, only an idiot will bother to reply you.

oopps...

 

[halsey02]

Typical Singapore mindset.

Half of those who go trekking into Bukit Timah Nature reserve and have to be rescued claim that they decided to wait for daylight to come out. Too embarrassed to admit they fucked up and were indeed lost. Every now and then can see a comical sight where the lost soul will be waving frantically to SICC golfers on the other side of the drink. When help reached them, they will claim that they merely looking for shortcut and were not lost.

I just couldn't understand this?, in SINgapore? how deep are our jungle? I have trekked them when I was young, from the Pierce ( lower) to Upper Pierce, from MacRitchie to Kampung Chantek ( hope I got this right) to Dairy Farm..Ulu Sembawang..parts of Mandai, before it became restricted!.

I know how easy it is to get disorientated in the jungle, for every tree look the same after a while, won't go into depth on methods of ensuring that one get back to where one came from. In SINgapore, the road, the lights, the traffic isn't that far away....lost!, head towards the sound of traffic...

 

[Narong Wongwan]

You got too much faith in sinkies.
Most are topo kings....now with talking GPS units some drivers can still get lost...that's why I got utmost respect for our taxi drivers.

I just couldn't understand this?, in SINgapore? how deep are our jungle? I have trekked them when I was young, from the Pierce ( lower) to Upper Pierce, from MacRitchie to Kampung Chantek ( hope I got this right) to Dairy Farm..Ulu Sembawang..parts of Mandai, before it became restricted!.

I know how easy it is to get disorientated in the jungle, for every tree look the same after a while, won't go into depth on methods of ensuring that one get back to where one came from. In SINgapore, the road, the lights, the traffic isn't that far away....lost!, head towards the sound of traffic...

 

[Narong Wongwan]

Re: Little known Olympic fact, S'pore robbed Canada of Silver medal

In order to salvage any respect, Siew and Joe Chan should have come back after the Olympics and said "Look, we tried our best. But the wave and wind was too strong, and our boat capsized and one of us was injured and under the boat. We did not come back with a medal, but we met a true canadian hero. He is the man that came to our rescue, Larry Lemiuex". If they said something like that, no one would fault them. But cover up until like that is just fucking cowardly.

Actually nothing shameful to admit they almost died and had to be rescued.
It could even have worked to their advantage....but by pretending it never happened and the MSM trying to blackout the news....it is disgraceful behavior....and speaks volume of these our so called champion sailors.
The truth coming back to haunt them now....one of them who became sailing chief shows they might have forgotten their actions....but their actions did not forget them.

 

[Reddog]

Re: Little known Olympic fact, S'pore robbed Canada of Silver medal

Do not trust or respect people who do not acknowledge nor express gratitude towards good deeds. More so if the deed was in saving ones' own lifes. Sad small people, who think they are leaders.

 

[yellowarse]

Re: Little known Olympic fact, S'pore robbed Canada of Silver medal

In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Canadian Lawrence Lemieux was competing in the Finn class sailing competition off Pusan.

Thanks for reminding us how fucked up Sinkies are. Even if we can't rise to that exemplary level of sportsmanship, at the very least we should acknowledge and honour the guy who epitomized the Olympian spirit by saving 2 Sinkies from ... well, sinking.

 

[looneytan]

I just couldn't understand this?, in SINgapore?....lost!, head towards the sound of traffic...

heck man, I got lost around Paterson road, Hoot Kiam road and Orchard boulevard

 

[Dreamer1]

It is bad that so many PAP ballslickers make life so difficult for Mr Shaw Her SIew who prefers to forget and move on with his successful life so far.PAP ballslickers are truly idiots.

 

[FIRSTSTATE]

Why don't you write to Siew in the tone that you think is right and prove to us that you are not an idiot. To save your ego why don't you fabricate a response and claim that Siew wrote it.

It's not about your or my ego, the bottom line is don't be an idiot and take sides without listening to both sides first. Even a person charged with a crime is given due process and all the rights entitled to him. There is no a such thing as guilty until proven innocent.

 

[Narong Wongwan]

It's not about your or my ego, the bottom line is don't be an idiot and take sides without listening to both sides first. Even a person charged with a crime is given due process and all the rights entitled to him. There is no a such thing as guilty until proven innocent.

I doubt there's one....plain to see we now know of this episode from overseas reports.
For 20 years we were in the dark....the report also never mentioned anything negative about the 2 sinkie sailors.
But from the news blackout and absence of any acknowledgment from our side says it all....that there was a coverup.

 

[Papsmearer]

Re: Little known Olympic fact, S'pore robbed Canada of Silver medal

Thanks for reminding us how fucked up Sinkies are. Even if we can't rise to that exemplary level of sportsmanship, at the very least we should acknowledge and honour the guy who epitomized the Olympian spirit by saving 2 Sinkies from ... well, sinking.

u will notice that when Siew and Chan return from the seoul Olympics, the Shit Times never interviewed them and asked them what happened in their event. They interview other returning Olympians, but not this 2 clowns. I could find no mention of anything they said. And if they were indeed interviewed, I also failed to see any mention of them being rescued by Lemieux. As far as I am concerned, there should be a statue to Lemieux in the office of the SIngapore Sailing Federation. An Olympic tragedy was narrowly averted by this Canadian.

 

[Papsmearer]

heck man, I got lost around Paterson road, Hoot Kiam road and Orchard boulevard

haha, I get lost around Seletar estate. LOL.

 

[scroobal]

The "bottom line" is that a medalmhas been awared for the incident, there is enough literature available online about and it comes from various sources, the guy has given interviews about the incident and what happenned.

The Singaporeans have never denied the story despite it ocurring 2 decades ago.

What we are trying to tell you is that you will not get an email reply no matter what your tone is for such things. Family members of suicide victims will seldom say to what actually happened. Its quite understandable. There is a guy from ACS who does not even know his father killed himself at home when he was a toddler. He goes around telling people that the father died in a traffic accident and Howard Cashin was the family lawyer to get danages but lost. The guy became a laywer and he still does not know.

If you killed yourself while scaling Mt Everest, the story will have legs and a life of its own even with your family. If you killed yourself bungee jumpimg, where the rope gave way or the scaffolding collapsed, your family will keep it real quiet and may even pretend that you did not exist.

It's not about your or my ego, the bottom line is don't be an idiot and take sides without listening to both sides first. Even a person charged with a crime is given due process and all the rights entitled to him. There is no a such thing as guilty until proven innocent.

 

[scroobal]

It became so bad that MOE had to stop schools doing it in the late 80s. There is whole new generation that grew up with a bus-stop and MRT station quite close by.

I just couldn't understand this?, in SINgapore? how deep are our jungle? I have trekked them when I was young, from the Pierce ( lower) to Upper Pierce, from MacRitchie to Kampung Chantek ( hope I got this right) to Dairy Farm..Ulu Sembawang..parts of Mandai, before it became restricted!.

I know how easy it is to get disorientated in the jungle, for every tree look the same after a while, won't go into depth on methods of ensuring that one get back to where one came from. In SINgapore, the road, the lights, the traffic isn't that far away....lost!, head towards the sound of traffic...

 

[Papsmearer]

It's not about your or my ego, the bottom line is don't be an idiot and take sides without listening to both sides first. Even a person charged with a crime is given due process and all the rights entitled to him. There is no a such thing as guilty until proven innocent.

So by your logic, if I said the japanese invaded singapore and committed atrocities u will not believe this. Why? Because you will not take sides, and claim there is another side of the story that says the Japanese never invaded singapore and did not commit atrocities. AM I reading u right? Were u dropped on your head as a baby and got mental retardation?

No one here is charging SIew and Chan with a crime. There is no court here, no crime, andhence no due process. The whole business is about ethical behaviour, doing what's right, and gratitude to some one who saved your life. If you can't understand this, I can only guess your surname is Chan or Siew.

 

[FIRSTSTATE]

Well, the bottom line is no one should dwell on misfortunes. For this case, Canada can go ahead give honors and accolades to the rescuer. No one can stop Canada. It does not mean that the Sinkie sailor is trying to cover up. What does Canada or that Canadian want this Siew guy to do? Give him a blowjob? IOC already gave him a medal for sportsmanship. It's not like he's denied recognition. I also don't think the Canadian is complaining or saying the Siew guy is ungrateful.

So, just email nicely to him and you may get him to tell you his side of the story. Sentencing someone before due process is the same as detention without trial.

 

[Papsmearer]

If you killed yourself while scaling Mt Everest, the story will have legs and a life of its own even with your family. If you killed yourself bungee jumpimg, where the rope gave way or the scaffolding collapsed, your family will keep it real quiet and may even pretend that you did not exist.

In his case, his family already pretending that he does not exist. This is a perfect example of the 60% sheep, they cannot discern the real facts and truth when its staring them in the face.