Whack-a-swimmer?!?

And I heard on the news this afternoon that she had LOST and not made finals and her dad went ballistic. donna

And I heard on the news this afternoon that she had LOST and not made finals and her dad went ballistic. There seems to be a lot of misinformation in the news. The incident occurred before the start of the evening events and the swimmer herself said that it was about her boyfriend. It seems to me that a lot of news reports are very quick to jump to conclusions without actually knowing the context. "He would never hurt me. He's a wonderful father. He loves me. He worries about me a lot." Swimmer, father beg to be reunited

Leonard. I admire your chivalry, or good sense. I've only ever gotten one "conflict caused" black eye in my life...from a Woman (no Bork, not for what you think). Fuming as I was I told my friends to get their stuff as we were leaving the party...and I was the driver...I was worried about my eye closing. The only reason, in a situation like the one you described with the booting, that would stop me from knocking her out cold, is that she would get sympathy from the Police, and you a night in the cells at minimum. Other than that she was no longer a woman in my eyes when she assailed you in such a fashion. However we're now entering a different realm from what was posted. I could not see punches; more like a tussle...and both slapping each oher...who knows what it was about, or what was going on. He should definitely not coach his daughter though. It was a family issue, and I know first hand that some eastern European families can get fired up quick. We seem to be a little defensive today eh Rich LOL! Hmmmm I can only guess as to what may have transpired there.....but then again, maybe she just didn't like Englishmen? And LBJ....Wow! Had to get dressed in the street eh? You've definitely had your bad luck there with some real psychos! I've had my fair share of bad dates, but nothing like that ....now I just follow orders like every good husband should I suppose LOL! To be on topic: Its too bad that had to happen....but I didn't see any actual hitting really....they tussled a bit, she certainly didn't look all that scared to me. Looked to me like an argument that got a little out of hand. He tried to console her shortly after the incedent and she pushed him away. I think IMO it would be best for the media to drop this story soon and get back to the WR swims. I wish the very best for the father and daughter ....sounds like they are ready to put it past them and move on....so hopefully so will the media. Newmastersswimmer

I clocked a guy once, and I've always regretted it. I was in grad school, at a party around 1am, and stone sober. This fellow took exception to my response to his offer, he slapped me hard, and without thinking about it, I made a fist and punched in in the nose/cheek enough to give him a nosebleed. I've always felt terrible that I lost control and in anger, hurt someone. I wasn't alone and in danger. My first instinct at feeling threatened was to strike back. Not a proud moment, but an important moment of self-revelation. The truly sad part about this is that even though many people witnessed the entire incident, no one made a big deal about this fellow slapping me. The big deal was that sweet, nice Barb W. took a piece out of this poor drunken guy. I walked the halls to the tune of "Rocky" for days after. Family business or not, hitting another person unless in true self-defense is uncalled for. For me, it's case closed.

From the video on YouTube it looks like she hit first after he grabbed her towel, and it just got out of hand from there. It looks like they both overreacted. Who knows why, but it's sad it went that far.

From the video on YouTube it looks like she hit first after he grabbed her towel, and it just got out of hand from there. It looks like they both overreacted. Who knows why, but it's sad it went that far. We have a understood rule in my family about children mouthing off or hitting their parents... It begins with... "I don't care how old or big you are..." That's what I see in this case. Now if you show me him closed fist hitting her then I'll say it's abuse...other than that it's familial conflict in an inappropriate venue--no hitting isn't good but kids running amok and doing what they like is worse for everyone else. The fact we're still discussing it highlights why the media jump on this nonsense to make news.

Well maybe we can all whack each other at the dinner...it might help get us psyched up for the next day's swimming! :rofl: :frustrated: "Faster!" "Faster!" "Faster!"

Blech. This is why I don't bother with the news anymore. I'm on a strictly Daily Show diet. It's sad that something like a family dispute overshadows the HUGE swims that have happened.

This is truly getting gossipy on my part, but I just had to share something else I thought I read. The swimmer's mother (coach's wife) apparently "found something out" about who the swimmer was dating back at home, and decided to call dad/coach at World's and let him know. One word, if you have any knowledge of the importance of the Worlds- DUH! Who in their right mind would cause that kind of disruption? Seems mom has some poor judgment as well...

I clocked a guy once, and I've always regretted it. I was in grad school, at a party around 1am, and stone sober. This fellow took exception to my response to his offer, he slapped me hard, and without thinking about it, I made a fist and punched in in the nose/cheek enough to give him a nosebleed. I've always felt terrible that I lost control and in anger, hurt someone. I wasn't alone and in danger. My first instinct at feeling threatened was to strike back. Not a proud moment, but an important moment of self-revelation. The truly sad part about this is that even though many people witnessed the entire incident, no one made a big deal about this fellow slapping me. The big deal was that sweet, nice Barb W. took a piece out of this poor drunken guy. I walked the halls to the tune of "Rocky" for days after. Family business or not, hitting another person unless in true self-defense is uncalled for. For me, it's case closed. The thing about the video Barb was that I never saw the dad actually "hit" his daughter. The daughter kind of flailed at the dad as if to make some attempt at hitting him....the dad looked to me as if he just grabbed her arms (maybe b/c she was flailing them at him??) and kind of tussled / wrestled a bit with her (but no throw downs or anything like that)...the girl broke free from her dad's grasps and flailed a bit more. Hardly a "hitting" brawl IMO. Certainly nothing like what you or LBJ described. It was difficult to see exactly what the father was doing though since his back was turned to the camera for most of the tussling....BUT looking at it several times, I couldn't see any hitting of any kind coming from the dad...The only thing I saw that resembled any hitting was these weak attemts made by the daughter by flailing her arms at her dad. Someone correct me if I saw this wrong??? Newmastersswimmer BTW If you want to get whacked so bad Rich, come on down to Tennessee and I will use you as my personal whacking bag for a while....Us Tennessee/Texas ruffians always enjoy dishing out a good whooping...especially when it involves an Englishman LOL! (Only j/k Rich! I will have to wait to Whack you a few times until after we race next season....hows that?...Does that work well enough for you? LOL!)