U.S. pole vaulting coach Rick Suhr is kind of a dick
Last night, NBC aired the finals of the pole vault competition and American Jenn Stuczynski, who has only been vaulting for four years, captured the silver medal. She lost to Russian pole vaulting phenom (and world record holder) Yelena Isinbayeva.
The fact that Stuczynski won the silver after only having pole vaulted for four years is amazing. But what is even more amazing is the post-competition speech delivered by her (ponderously) mic’ed up coach, Rick Suhr. Here’s the transcription (update: video link below):
It’s the same old same old, you’re losing takeoff at the big heights. (shrugs) Whaddaya gonna do? (shrugs, looks away) Gotta learn to keep takeoff. You got caught at that meat grinder. I did not – and I told 10 people – I didn’t wanna be caught in a meat grinder between 65 and 80. You had to, though. You weren’t on, your warmup didn’t go well. You were at 55. You got caught up in that meat grinder. Whaddaya gonna do? (shrugs, looks away) Whaddaya gonna do? (shrugs, looks away) Didn’t have the legs. Her legs are fresh. Hey, it’s a silver medal. Not bad for someone that’s been pole vaulting for four years. (looks down at his blackberry)
As you can see from the picture, it appears Stuczynski walked away from the interchange dejected that she only won a silver.
Regular readers know I played basketball for current Wisconsin head coach Bo Ryan, so I’ve been on the wrong end of my fair share of tongue-lashings. But one thing Ryan always did – once the season/milestone was over, he was always positive.
Coach Suhr, your athlete just won the silver medal. That means that, after just four years of training, she is the second best pole vaulter in the world. Sure, Isinbayeva is kind of annoying and I’m sure you really wanted to beat her, but she’s probably the best pole vaulter ever and in the grand scheme of things, Stuczynski’s accomplishment is amazing. She doesn’t need to be lectured about what she did wrong on national television. Let her enjoy her Olympic moment for a minute. She deserves your support and a pat on the back. Don’t be such a dick.
Thanks to Steve Rudniki who provided this link to the video. You have to watch a commercial first, but it’s worth it.
8/22 Update: I think we’re dealing with two sets of extremes here. One side wants to hang the coach (or at least wants her to fire him) while the other says that clip was taken totally out of context and that Suhr is not at fault for any of this.
The truth is somewhere in between. You can’t take his body language out of context and you can’t take the fact that he was not encouraging or congratulatory (at all) out of context either.
The right thing to do there – even if she asked (or says she asked) him what she did wrong – is to give a brief overview (if that) tell her that she did a good job and to enjoy her silver medal moment. Then, when the dust settles and you get back to the States, you break the competition tape out and go through everything that kept her from winning the gold.
That’s my $0.02 and I’m sticking to it.
9/7 Update: Here is an interview that ESPN did with Jenn Stuczynski where responds to the controversy. In short, she says that she asked Suhr what she did wrong, that he was texting someone to tell them that she got the silver, and that she wasn’t looking down in dejection when she walked away. (She was trying not to trip.)
Follow the Scores Report editors on Twitter @clevelandteams and @bullzeyedotcom.
Posted in: The Olympics, Video
Tags: Jenn Stuczynski, olympic pole vault, pole vault, pole vaulting, Rick Suhr, Rick Surd, stupid comment
Great post – this guys is such an ass. You would think after someone wins a medal the criticism would stop and the congratulations should begin.
Un-real. Hey coach – how about you get out there and show her how it’s done since you’re apparently the greatest pole vaulter in the world.
A-hole.
Here’s the video:
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/stuczynski-hears-harsh-words-from
-coach/820636648/?icid=VIDLRVSPR05
That link only works if you are in the U.S.. Has anyone seen it somewhere else like on youtube?
My guess is that Rick Suhr is regretting his tongue lashing today. I also wonder what kind of harsh words he has to give when one of his vaulters actually loses? A silver is an amazing accomplishment and he acted like she just bottomed out!
Bad form!
With the mic on! Stuczynski should have shoved him through a meat grinder.
I know we can’t hear nor understand what most of the coaches say to their players, but in watching many other competitions, most notably the gymnastics and swimming, the coaches have been supportive and encouraging. Seriously Coach, best not to look at your Fantasy League update on your Blackberry when your athlete just won the silver.
Calling him a DICK is being nice. That guy is a complete A -Hole. It wasn’t just the comments, it was the body language and the blackberry thing. She walked away looking like an abused child and it was heartbreaking. She has enormous talent and needs to get rid of him. She should sue for mental anguish!!! That guy needs to good A** kicking!!
DOes anyone have video of this?
I just heard about it and want to see it?
If someone can point me to it I would appreciate it very much…
There was nothing to be gained from that exchange. Competition was completed and Stuczynski had a very admirable silver medal won, so nothing Suhr could say at that point could help. Instead of congratulating, Suhr chose to humiliate. That’s just a big ego not being able to handle not having the gold medalist. If I were, Stuczynski, at the moment Suhr turned back to his Blackberry, he would not have had the silver medalist either.
I”m so glad that someone finally posted something about this. I was outraged when I saw this event take place “live” on TV and was hoping for a place to vent. Rick Suhr is an absolute prick for the way he acted in scolding our American athlete like that after she won the silver. And then the Russian went on to break the OR and WR heights, so winning the gold is Outstanding and I for one am very proud of Jenn…Way to go. Hey Rick, let’s see your Olympic medals! Goes to show that those who can, do, and those who can’t, coach. I think that this was one of the worst things I’ve ever witnessed in sports and I’m glad it was caught on tape so the entire world can see what an A-Hole Rick Suhr truly is. I hope this doesn’t stop here and I hope that the US Olympic Committee can take some type of disciplinary action against him. I plan on writing them ASAP so that this issue doesn’t die.
Dal Wolf – The link to the video is at the bottom of the post.
Jenn S. looks absolutely broken after “his” comments. No exchange, no congratulations, just acting like a bully for the whole world to see. Congratulations Jen – best of luck to you in the future!
Apart from the poor timing of his comments, what amazes me is that he KNEW he was mic’ed!
Suhr is a total wannabe horese’s petunia living through Stuczynki. This is where the USOC needs to have a marshall immediately step in a spank the felcher down………..
Suhr….., you are a FELCHER!!!!
A FELCHER!!!!!!!!
Right on; Usually I don’t get easily surprised by A*holes. In my corporate career I’d seen more than my fair share. But when I saw that interaction live (well.. NBC-live) my jaw just dropped.
Thank god for the commentator’s contemporaneous voice over, at least I knew I wasn’t alone. Then I found this website searching for the a*holes name and “stuczynski” and it gives me even more hope in humanity.
What really surprised me was Jen’s interview soon after that. When the interviewer asked what she was going to do now, she said she was just so happy and wanted to go back to her coach and family. This was *AFTER* the coach’s despicable performance. “Coach and Family” — in that order!!!
What a gal!
you guys are retarded, and have no idea what he is talking about. he was just giving her the facts. please, one of you guys explain what he was talking about (65 to 80) and then maybe you can comment. until you pole vault keep your mouth shut. it’s a sport sensitive sally. you guys are the same people that live in the suburbs and say “oh baby that mean coach shouldn’t talk like that” waaaa maybe someone should talk to your kids and you that way. maybe then you would bow up, and grow some nuts, then you and your fat little broods of failure might accomplish something athletically. everyone gets a trophy! everyone’s a winner! stop your child worship!
My son and I were APPALLED by this emotionally abusive jerk’s rotten nasty behavior, and are glad we weren’t the only ones who noticed! I hope his vicious remarks come back to bite him in the butt someday! I also hope this lovely young woman wakes up and smells the coffee enough to realize that she is under the thumb of an abusive asshole, and removes herself from his emotionally damaging presence!!! Where is the news media on this one? They are so quick to point out all kinds of silly irrelevant crap about celebrities, how about putting the spotlight on this nasty little “coach” who belittles his VERY SUCCESSFUL athlete on the eve of a great triumph? Hold your head up high, Jenn Stuczynski, you did a great job, earned a highly coveted OLYMPIC SILVER MEDAL, and many Americans (including my family) are PROUD of you!
Decajam,
she won a frickin’ SILVER MEDAL – second-best in the WORLD!!! “Everyone gets a trophy”?????
Go back to yelling at your kids wannabe.
Great article. As a former collegiate track athlete and fan of the sport I was shocked to wathc this. He made the sport look bad and a olympic spirit that he and fellow Americans should be ashamed of. Being the second best in the world is incredible and after a stressful meet such as the Olympics this is no way to speak to someone who has just accomplished her dreams!
decajam,
i think you’re missing the point. i understand he didn’t yell at her. he had a couple of valid points, however, those valid points are not being made at the right time. these points should be made later. it doesn’t help her to be told right after she finishes her event on the world’s largest stage. not to mention, his demeanor was a joke. this is the time an athlete needs her coach. he addressed her as if he was disgusted by her performance. he’s the one who needs to man up and correctly address his athlete.
ps. i’m still currently coaching college vault with my 6th all-american vaulter in the last 8yrs. my own personal vault experience is jumping over 15′ for the last 15yrs (with a peak jump over 17)
he’s just letting her know if her take off would have been there and she would have moved her standards back like he told her to previously she would have had the gold. she didn’t get to where she is being handled with kid gloves. my point is that she’s a tough girl. he knows what she can take. for most olympians second is a consolation prize. she only gets one chance every four years. for most pole vaulters they get one olympics, unless they’re a phenom like bubka. but i’m sure you knew that reg.
Ya know, I’ll cop to being a couch potato nobody, and I’ll cop to not understanding the pushing that goes into getting an athlete to the very highest level. Additionally, she’s no kid – at 26, if that’s the worst she’s ever heard, she’s been very lucky indeed.
Still, as an American, having that snide, little speech delivered at that exact moment was embarassing. The entire world was watching, and he treated his athlete like an errant teenager. Dismissed her completely there at the end. At the very least, the man’s tone, attitude and timing were crap.
Decajam,
Apparently you were hatched out of the same primordial soup that Suhr came from. Are you being paid to make such amazing remarks?
I have truly enjoyed these olympic games and certainly can appreciate the degree of competitive spirit shared by all athelets and coaching staff….. however, I was in total shock by the attitude and display of disregard by the coach Rick Suhr. To treat the accomplishment of a Silver Medal by any olympic athelete with such contempt and disregard is a total shame. When the coach plays back the film showing his poor attitude, perhaps he will resign his position.
Decajam,
What is more effective coaching?:
1. Do what he did, or
2. Greet her with some praise for the silver and maybe some consolation for not winning, and then LATER, go over some film with her privately and constructively point out where improvements could be made.
Admit it: that whole show was Suhr trying to show everyone who was watching (and the 10 people to whom he said “*I* didn’t want to be in the meat grinder”) that he was right. His ego needed to make it about him. At that exact moment, it should have been all about his athlete.
By the way, I know what he meant by the “meat grinder between 65 and 80.” He wanted her to be in sufficient form that she could pass on vaults in the range of 4.65-4.80m and start her vaults at greater heights with fresher legs, as the winner did. But, what do I know? I’m just a “sensitive sally”.
Not much different from Bobby Knight. If my kid could get on a good D-I hoops program with someone else, no way I send him to Knight. Stuczynski should look elsewhere.
One more thing, doesn’t SHE pay HIM?
Ass, idiot, or whatever term you used to describe an ego-maniac. Coaches of this nature are counter-productive in getting the best out of their players.
She should get a new coach tomorrow.
If Suhr is an A*hole, DecJam is the A*wipe.
Tries to polish off the hole and makes it presentable. But, too bad, one wipe can only help an A*hole for so long — he is probably on his next act already.
thanks for publishing this article! We were surprised too. “Leave Jenn Alone!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZgKSk7m1so
I have one….no two questions. Has Mr. Suhr (douche bag) ever made it to ANY Olympics? Where is his medal??????
The most telling point, as Stony pointed out, is the use of the pronoun *I*. He didn’t say *We* or most accurately *You*, he said *I* didn’t want to be in the meat grinder. What an ego-maniac.
A quick glance at his Wikipedia page shows he’s a very successful coach, but wow what an ass. If he has kids I feel really sorry for them because they’ll clearly never feel like they have daddy’s love.
Stuczynski need lose her coach. Today, if not sooner. It’s obvious that Shur is trying to live his dream through her, he was disappointed, and he’s taking it out on her. What a bozo. He sounded like a little league parent. A true bush league, low class coaching performance. There’s got to be several hundred pole vault coaches in the US that can do better than that.
You guys are missing his point. He believed she was capable of winning. He thought though, that she wasted unnecessary energy by attempting low heights instead of going directly to the higher ones like Isinbayeva did. This resulted in Isinbayeva having fresh legs at the higher attempts, while Sturczynski was lacking power in her takeoffs. He was not necessarily upset she lost, rather her play it safe strategy (jumps at 4.55, .70, .75, .80) which (perhaps) cost her the chance at gold. I think if she had lost but had gone more directly to 4.80, he would have been satisfied. Considering that Sturczynski said before the Olympics she was going to beat Isinbayeva, she should have been more aggressive in trying to actually win.
Suhr wins the gold for biggest douchbag! I don’t care if he is her professional coach. Any man who
talks down to a woman like that is a coward and a pussy. If the athlete was male and 6’3″, 200 pounds, I doubt he would have the balls to say that shit to his face. He treated her like a dog & slave, not as a world class athlete…..
She not going to leave him! I would bet anything on this. She has been with him for 4 years these comments are nothing that she hasn’t heard before. This is the way Rick Shur is. Don’t harass him because YOU cant handle his style or like him.
Kind of a dick? How about a complete prick?
Someone should beat him with a vaulting pole.
In today’s Rochester, NY paper(Thats where they are both from) it has an interesting spin on it…I guess they live together too-article attached
http://www.democratandchronicle.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/2008
0821/SPORTS/808210345/1007/SPORTS
2 silvers in 2 days she promised gold after last nights silver performance in b.d!!
Besides everything she still jumped higher than more than 3billion men!!!!
AN INTERVIEW WITH JENN STUCZYNSKI
[url]http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3548240[/url]
Jenn Stuczynski wants to set the record straight.
The American silver medalist in the pole vault is not a trash talker, as the Russians seem to believe. She’s not a bullied victim of an abusive coach, as a legion of Internet fans seem to believe. She’s more than happy with her performance.
But Stuczynski is upset that the joy of her medal, won just four years after she first started training for the event, has been swallowed by controversy.
In an emotional interview Friday, the 26-year-old from Fredonia, N.Y., told how words and images taken out of context in the coverage of her duel with gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia made the days after Monday’s event miserable.
“I was so depressed,” Stuczynski said. “It was awful. It’s so hard,” she continued, fighting back tears without much success. “You work so hard, and people take it away.”
The first controversy erupted over a quote Stuczynski gave during a press conference after she won the U.S. Olympic trials in Eugene in July. Asked how she thought the team would do in the Games, Stuczynski said, “I hope we do some damage, and, you know, kick some Russian butt.”
It was a rah-rah quote that was mostly forgotten after she said it. “It was me and my teammates, in an emotional moment,” Stuczynski said, noting that Russia has five of the top vaulters in the world, and finished 1-3-4 in Beijing. “It was a pep rally, one of those things that was, ‘Come on let’s go. We’re not going to go over there, roll over and die. We want to fight.’ ”
Stuczynski never meant it as a putdown. “It wasn’t intended to be malicious,” she said. “It would be pretty stupid of me to come out and say before my first Olympics that, you know what, I’m gonna beat the world record holder.”
But the Russian media seized on the quote as a personal insult to Isinbayeva, one of the most popular female athletes in the world who has dominated the event. Much of the rest of the press ran with the story line after Isinbayeva won convincingly, setting a new world record with a jump of 16 feet, 6 3/4 inches.
“I guess in translation it’s gotten messed up, and it becomes personal and I’m attacking her and I’m a trash talker,” Stuczynski said. “And that’s the part that’s hurts because that’s not it at all.”
Isinbayeva helped the narrative at her post-victory press conference. She said Stuczynski’s remark motivated her, adding, “She must respect me and know her position. Now she knows it.”
Stuczynski couldn’t answer her in the press conference, because she had to go through doping control.
That media tempest was a mere squall before what was to come. On the NBC telecast, on tape delay some 12 hours later, the network miked Stuczynski’s coach, Rick Suhr, who discovered her on a basketball court four years ago and convinced her to try the pole vault. In the time since, training her and several other athletes in a makeshift facility in Churchville, N.Y., he’s coached her to an American record and silver medals in world championships and now the Olympics.
After Stuczynski missed her final attempt at 4.90 meters, the camera followed her to Suhr’s spot in the stands. NBC captured the following remarks from a surly sounding Suhr, who was talking to her while text-messaging:
“(It’s) the same old same old. You’re losing take-off at the big heights. What are you gonna do. You gotta learn to keep take-off. You got9you got caught at that meat grinder. I did not—and I told 10 people—I did not want to be caught in a meat grinder between 65 and 80. You had to, though.
You weren’t on, you know, your warm-up didn’t go well, you were 55, you got caught up in that meat grinder. What are you gonna do. What are you gonna do. You didn’t have the legs. Her legs are fresh. Hey, it’s a silver medal.
Not bad for someone who’s been pole vaulting for four years.”
As Stuczynski turned around, she had a hollow, downcast look, as if she’d been upbraided.
Back in America, people watched. People cringed. And then people sent angry, sometimes ugly e-mails to Suhr’s web site. Or they chimed in on Internet message boards, urging Stuczynski to fire “that jerk of a coach.” A lot of people. But Stuczynski says people got it all wrong. Terribly wrong.
What they didn’t see, she said, was what prompted Suhr’s monologue. “I went over and I asked, What did I do wrong?” Stuczynski said. “And he said what he said, and it’s the truth. And I didn’t have a mike, and they didn’t hear it and they didn’t play it.”
Moreover, she says, Suhr was texting his 13-year-old son in the States to inform him of the silver medal.
So what about the cold “meat-grinder” remarks? “When I started the meet, I was off, so I had to come in earlier, so I could get in a rhythm,” she says.
Those early jumps came in a part of the meet where the most competitors are jumping from 4.70 to 4.85. “It’s the part of the meet that takes the longest, and we call it the meat grinder because it wears you out because you have to jump so many times. Because I was off, I had to jump those heights to ensure a silver medal.”
But what about her reaction? Stuczynski explained that she’d had problems on takeoff at her previous meet in London. She suspected she’d repeated the same mistakes, and when Suhr confirmed it, she says, “I was discouraged with myself. It bothered me that I didn’t jump to my potential. It wasn’t anything he said. But people took that, and all of a sudden he’s a bad coach, and I need to find another coach.”
And the downcast glare? “There were all these things on the ground that I didn’t want to trip over,” she says, including the railway for NBC’s moving trackside camera.
Stuczynski says Suhr did only what she expects him to do. “What he said to me is nothing that made me sad,” she says. “I’m a 26-year-old professional athlete. I ask him to be fair coach. I don’t ask him to be a cheerleader. I want you to tell me when I jump good, and I want you to tell me when I jump bad` I think a lot of people don’t understand that this is my job. This is what I do for a living, and I have to be good at it, and I have to get better at it. And we celebrated it. But at that moment, I wanted to know why I didn’t make that bar.”
When the Internet storm erupted, Stuczynski felt powerless, and a little hopeless. She says Suhr has received countless angry emails from people who think they’re protecting her. Meanwhile, her family and her coach’s family have heard comments about whether the coach went too far, and wondering why Stuczynski is putting up with a guy who couldn’t even say congratulations.
But she, her coach and her parents went out to dinner after the competition and celebrated. “And people don’t hear the things he says leading up to the meet, or the texts he sent me all week saying, We can do this, you know? That’s what’s so frustrating.”
Stuczynski, who gave the interview at the Beijing airport as she readied to travel to her next meet in Zurich, admitted the days after the medal were some dark ones.
“After this all came out I just wanted to go home,” she says. “But you can’t let outside stuff affect you. They say you have to have tough skin, it comes with the business, so I guess you have to take the punches.”
She’s always enjoyed the media, she says, but this will take some time to sort out. “It reminds me of reality TV,” she says. “The clip wasn’t cut, but you only see parts of it9you don’t understand the whole thing. And it’s like how can you fix it? How can you make people see the truth?”
ab – That’s a great article that changes the landscape a little bit. I still think his body language was crappy and I still think he was way too negative, even if she did ask what she did wrong. That was the time to be congratulatory and tell her to just enjoy the moment. There’s time to break everything down later on, when you’re watching the tape of the competition.
How appropriate his 1st name is rick because I’m sure they call him DICK for short. I’ve officiated football & baseball for 30 years at the college level and I’ve never seen a college coach on the winning side ever, ever talk to a player like this. Suhr is a bully. Someone needs to go up to him, cold cock him, kick him and then stand over him and say, “it’s the same ol’, same ol’.”Then they need to laugh at him, piss on him and watch him cower like a cryin’ child in Wal-Mart. What a bully, prick and piece of —- animal.Now do you really want to know how I feel!
What is it with you folks who won’t even believe an explanation FROM THE ATHLETE. She set it straight in the ESPN article, NBC sensationalized a 30 second blip and gained viewers, yay NBC, but come on, if you really don’t believe the ESPN article then you don’t understand athletics and you’re sticking to critical just for the sake of being critical. The article redeemed Rick Suhr in my eyes and its too bad that isn’t clear to everyone. You have know idea what precedes and follows these 30 second blips, you’re building yourself a fantasy context.
Her explanation seems like classic stockholm syndrome. That guy has a nervous tick like a violent mad man.
Even if she did want to know what she did wrong, what’s that got to do with him telling 10 people that he didn’t want to get caught in the meat grinder?! And even that he claims to have said that even before she “screwed up”.
If they are shacking up as some articles seem to suggest, this is not just a coach-charge power play — it is an abusive relationship in many levels.
What part of this statement by Stuczynski can’t people comprehend?
“I’m a 26-year-old professional athlete. I ask him to be fair coach. I don’t ask him to be a cheerleader. I want you to tell me when I jump good, and I want you to tell me when I jump bad` I think a lot of people don’t understand that this is my job. This is what I do for a living, and I have to be good at it, and I have to get better at it. And we celebrated it. But at that moment, I wanted to know why I didn’t make that bar.”
Also, why isn’t anybody asking why NBC had to air this video 12 hours after it happened? Did they bother to ask Jenn what happened or for an explanation? What they did was cause extreme heartache and hurt to Jenn and her coach. That’s how they treated our American Champion and most people are just sucking it up.
gmg, really ? you’ve never heard a coach say worse than that? you haven’t done many football and baseball games. i’ve heard way worse from college coaches football baseball and track. krish, you need to bow up and quit looking for an internet fight. you talk trash to make you feel good. the athlete said what she said call it what you want, but you’ve obviously never been a college athlete. so your perception is way below your level of experience. and don’t come back with some bull about you being a div 3 athlete, because that doesn’t count! krish, i hope you get the internet” feel good” you want. you know none of us can come and kick your ass in a real sport, so i hope it feels great! make you feel like an athlete? commenting on things the espn crowd talks about. now it’s your turn to tell everyone how many crowds you pleased as jr high, high school, or div 3 athlete. did you run fast or jump high? no! your a sad man reliving the childhood that was stolen from you by some mean coach that told you the truth…..you’re too slow you’re too short, and you’re too much of a pussy to play for me!
hey kids. can’t we all just get along? i would say that the article with jenn does soften the incident. one question i would have is, have any of you seen rick coach before? i’ve seen him at the dartmouth relays, and haven’t been all that impressed with his disposition. unfortunately, i let this influence or add to my displeasure with his “information” for jenn. in the end, it’s jenn’s prerogative on whether he’s too big of a dick or not. personally, i would go with earl bell instead. anyway,
take care all
What we witnessed is an abusive relationship. She even defended his behaviour.
i’ve seen him. and in the pole vault community he is not that highly thought of. he does things his way. he and jenn are both kinda standoffish, and don’t hang much with anyone else. as to his methods, he is who he is and he’s an ex wrestler. a very good one at that. some coaches yell to get things done and some can motivate just by asking nicely. i’ve known coaches who can get the biggest jerks to run through walls for them. i guess it all depends on what kind of person you are. joan…check out the story.uggggh! earl bell’s good kurt.
this is a little late, but i think john paulson is the dick here. people do not know rick suhr and i happen to know him personally for my whole life. if you do not know him you do not know his personality or his coaching style, he is a great coach and a great person. i think instead of picking a two minute conversation with his athlete apart we should focus on the fact that how many coaches take an athlete who is playing basketball one day and make here a silver medalist in the olympics four years later. how many tell me please. take a good look because you won’t find any! and i invite anyone who dares to debate me on the character of rick suhr
joelo,
First of all, if you’re going to call someone a dick, at least get their name right – it’s John Paulsen, not john paulson.
Secondly, even if someone’s a nice guy, it doesn’t mean they automatically get a free pass for when they’re a dick. John is talking about one specific incident – not Suhr’s entire life.
The camera didn’t make Suhr look like a crap bag – that was all Suhr. He deserved to be called out for that one specific situation and it’s nice of you to rush to the defense of your admirer and I’m sure Suhr has done more good than bad, but once again – he deserved what he got in this situation. He wasn’t a professional and got a public beating because of it.
Ann …..if u could find some 1 too kick his ass that would be great…let me know how that goes
Suhr is a NYS wrestling champion and most importantly A COMPETITOR !!
what he said was too another COMPETITOR
making her better……Jenn’s goal and Ricks goal was 2 bring home the gold ….when u fail of course there will be dissappointment ….followed eventually by joy… but dont start bashing an innocent and good coach for trying to make his athlete better……..and if u known anything about Jenn and Rick u would know that Jenn was not hurt by rick’s words in any way ….!!!!!!!
Update: August, 2012. She won the gold in London. Oh, and they got married a few years earlier.