I am a huge Gary Hall Jr fan and have been from the beginning. What cracks me up is the whole "team" idiology. Swimming might be the least team sport of the team sports. It's as much an indivudual sport as it is a team sport. Your team wins or loses a meet but the individual wins or loses medals, state or national qualifiers, All American honors. What is there for your "team" after the Olympics? ZERO! Are there any "team" endorsements? No! Any "team" photo gracing the front of a Wheaties box? Gary know's that he will never be the darling of swimming like Phelp's(nothing against Phelps at all) but Gary know's that he has to go it alone, smart man. I think that there are many people that are jealous of him to be honest.
Athlete's in other sports have the ability to market themselves and draw attention to themselves as long as it doesn;t detract from the game. If they break the rules they willingly pay the fine, i.e. Terrel Owens. Gary wasn;t a disgrace nor was he disrespectful to the U.S. or the team. In fact, I thought the rest of the team should have been wearing what he was wearing. I mean let's look at the track athletes, have you seen their shoe's? Pretty nice, pretty flashy, pretty individualistic, not to mention their antics at times. Then if they win they jog along with their countries flag waving over their heads. As a matter of fact all winning runners do this, regardless of their country of origin.
I applaud Gary for breaking out of the prehistoric box that swimming has kept itself in for decade after decade. I am more opposed to the body suits than I am at a warm up! What if he wore a stars and stripes body suit? As long as he wasn;t disrespectfull to the U.S. or the team, then it's all good in my humble opinion.
One more thing. If he was truly a self promoting maverick then why didn;t he ever mention his business venture's like The Race Club? I saw all of his interviews including the Today show and he never mentioned it once.
I am a huge Gary Hall Jr fan and have been from the beginning. What cracks me up is the whole "team" idiology. Swimming might be the least team sport of the team sports. It's as much an indivudual sport as it is a team sport. Your team wins or loses a meet but the individual wins or loses medals, state or national qualifiers, All American honors. What is there for your "team" after the Olympics? ZERO! Are there any "team" endorsements? No! Any "team" photo gracing the front of a Wheaties box? Gary know's that he will never be the darling of swimming like Phelp's(nothing against Phelps at all) but Gary know's that he has to go it alone, smart man. I think that there are many people that are jealous of him to be honest.
Athlete's in other sports have the ability to market themselves and draw attention to themselves as long as it doesn;t detract from the game. If they break the rules they willingly pay the fine, i.e. Terrel Owens. Gary wasn;t a disgrace nor was he disrespectful to the U.S. or the team. In fact, I thought the rest of the team should have been wearing what he was wearing. I mean let's look at the track athletes, have you seen their shoe's? Pretty nice, pretty flashy, pretty individualistic, not to mention their antics at times. Then if they win they jog along with their countries flag waving over their heads. As a matter of fact all winning runners do this, regardless of their country of origin.
I applaud Gary for breaking out of the prehistoric box that swimming has kept itself in for decade after decade. I am more opposed to the body suits than I am at a warm up! What if he wore a stars and stripes body suit? As long as he wasn;t disrespectfull to the U.S. or the team, then it's all good in my humble opinion.
One more thing. If he was truly a self promoting maverick then why didn;t he ever mention his business venture's like The Race Club? I saw all of his interviews including the Today show and he never mentioned it once.
