Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Swedish Wrestlers Don’t Go Away. Abrahamian is Back.

I felt the need to do a quick update on your favorite wrestler and mine. Ara Abrahamian. Swedish wrestler. You may remember him from his unsportsmanlike conduct when he refused the bronze medal and stormed out of the medal ceremony at the 2008 Summer Olympics in China.

I’ve written plenty of articles about the man:
Car Trouble, a Bronze Medal to Ara Abrahamian, and Swedish Disgrace
Swedish Olympic Wrestler Ara Abrahamian
Ara Abrahamian - Swedish Olympic Wrestler Loses Bronze Medal
Swedish Wrestlers in the News. Again.

Maybe I am just feeding the beast. The beast being his inflated ego about the power he thinks he seems to hold over the wrestling community. Or maybe that comment in and of itself was feeding my inflated ego. Or maybe I just have nothing else to write about and so I return to sports.

Anyway, Abrahamian is no longer banned from wrestling. After his act of defiance he was banned for two years. Now he can start aiming for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. But wait… Ara Abrahamian said that that was to be his last match. Seems he changed his mind. Or at least is thinking about changing his mind. Again. Just like when he decided that he might want that bronze medal back after all. It was refused though. Tough luck.

Some have argued that the changes wrestling’s governing body has made were directly related to Abrahamian's actions. Of course, this may give a bit too much credit to a man who was immediately suspended, stripped of his medals, and erased from the 2008 Olympic history. To suggest his actions lead directly to any changes is a far leap that I am not willing to take. Plus it ignores anything else that might have been going on in the wrestling community. As I have said though previously, I have no problem with Abrahamian wanting to protest. I just don’t believe that his idea of a protest was acceptable.

Welcome to Sweden. Where Ara Abrahamian and Swedish wrestling just won’t go away...


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7 comments:

  1. Seems like Ara is behaving like a child. He should follow example of ski jumper Janne Ahonen. He was dissed by Norwegian judges on regular basis, he murmurred but accepted it. And had victories in spite of that. Didn't throw away medals. Norwegians even had demonstration video of how one shouldn't jump - starring Janne Ahonen! That's mean, don't you think?

    Hairy, if in need of fresh subjects, LOL, start a database of ski jumper judges' results. Which country gives small/big points to others. I don't need a diagram to see that Norwegian judges usually give the lowest points to Finnish ski jumpers. Nothing to do with actual jump, just pure envy.

    Well, it may be that you don't get to see any ski jumping in Sweden, because the Swedes haven't been succesful in it for a loooong time :)

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  2. If you need something sweet to write about, you can always check this out; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yRzQz0KMyI
    It's not about Sweden, but al least Aftonbladet wrote something about it.

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  3. Hairy...I agree with pretty much everything you've said on this subject I think. "I think", because I can't actually remember every little thing you've said. It's also a bit tiring and plain boring. I come to this blog to be amused, damn it! I also tire a bit of other Swedes angry comments in Ara's defense. On the other hand, I've been glad that Ara wasn't completely disowned like Ludmila Enquist was after her possitive doping test. All of a sudden there was nothing about her that was the slightest Swedish and she was basically run from the country. I mean doping...that's something that Finns do, not real Swedes...

    @Smek this - I wrote a long reply to you. It was mean as a Norwegian. Not that I think that Norwegians are actually mean as such. Well, the "Swedish peseta" thing they nag about is a bit mean, but they don't really mean to be mean, they're just jealous of us Swedes...I can't blame our little brothers in the west for trying to take us down a peg or three. Norwegians as a people are the ones that are the most like us Swedes. Finns on the other hand...they're more Swedish than Swedes. At least going by what some people define as Swedishness (for reference: look as Hairy's post below about Sales people in the nordic region). More it less though. But I'll give you this: Vargtass/wolvespaw(?) is the best summer drink ever. Koskinkorva andd longon berry drink = awesome.

    Awesome word verification update after taking a long time to write this comment: spingon (sprit + lingon?). Heck, I'll upgrade and say that it's not just awesome - it's glorious!

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  4. @Jacob M - Well, my point wasn't to diss Norwegians. Just look at the points Norwegian judges give to Finns in ski jump. That's nothing personal from my part at least.

    I have been planning on blogging about Norwegians and their actions on Winter sports, but haven't had the time and the power for it. Yet.

    Hairy, haven't you noticed anything as kind of a foreigner? Judges were unfair to Ara, how about Norwegian judges to Finns? Totally unnoticed in Sweden?

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  5. @smek – agreed. I love the ski jumping comparison. And I must say, that’s pretty damn funny about the demonstration video. Just rubbing salt in the wound.

    @Fredrik – I actually saw some stuff on that. But not from Aftonbladet. Did aftonbladet have anything interesting to say about it?

    It was kind of interesting. Not entirely sure if I buy into his theories but it was definitely interesting.

    @Jacob – I’ve said a lot. I just wish it would stop being in the news because everytime it is I feel like I get dragged back in. I cant get away from the story. It intrigues me. I’ll work on keeping you entertained in the future though. Unfortunately, I give no guarantees.

    That is a glorious word verification by the way.

    @Smek – Afraid that its totally unnoticed in Sweden. At least as far as I have noticed…

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  6. I would like to wonder how many Americans who comment on this blog, have actually been to Sweden? And how bad their view of Sweden have become after this blog post?

    I live in the U.S. now, in Washington D.C. And I realized some really bad things, the health care system sucks. And there are some weird people walking the streets, murder and assaults are like candy here. My hairdresser said to me "things like that happen every day, I have lots of friends who've been assaulted".. I have never heard such thing in Sweden before... Luckily.

    And all those homeless people?.... omg.. Nothing seems to work.. And the rights of homosexuals?.. Yep, it's gonna be good coming back home in May.

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  7. actually I think most of the people who comment have been here or are living here now.

    but i really hope that people don't judge sweden based on this one blog post about the actons of an idiot wrestler.

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