Bitching about the bitching...

Will someone please tell Russia that paranoia is no way to run a sports program? I am sick of the petty crap the Russian Gymnastic team is bitching about, especially Svetlana Khorkina. She once was a great gymnast; she's no slouch now, but past her prime. She has always choked in Olympic competition, in the last THREE. Instead of gracefully counting her blessings that she did as well as she did, she's whining to whom ever will listen. The Diva needs to get a grip. I watched her compete. I don't claim to be an expert, but she was sloppy, even I saw that. Sorry Svetlana honey, I'm not buying your pity party. The South Koreans had a legitimate complaint, there was messy judging, which may or may not have cost them a gold. I watched Paul Hamm's performance: he earned every ounce of that gold. The Olympics are judged by humans. Judgment by nature is biased to the opinion of the judge. There will always be disgruntled athletes. Life isn't fair.
The bigger problem with Russia is that their former Soviet Sports Machine is nothing but ashes now. The country is crumbling. And even though Putin is now concentrating on rebuilding, the Russian program has been in decline for years. They didn't build Rome in a day; it will take a while to restart. I am reminded by all this by the last winter games. Russia did they same thing, griping about the judges being biased. Then they had a point. The Ice judges were caught red handed cheating, but that affected the Canadian team, not the Russian.
I would have a lot more respect for the Russian team if they would put all this energy complaining into their program. Who knows how much better they would get?