There's a lot more visibility since the stadiums are smaller and people closer to the court—-I barely notice the cheerleaders at Soldier Field, but the Bulls cheerleaders are relatively obvious. Skills wise I don't think there's a huge difference though.

it's kind of incredible how basically everyone here is just blatantly ignoring THE EXACT SAME THING in our own media.

It's a good thing we here in the US never sexualize our female athletes. Take that, Russia!

it's because Kate Bosworth is merely a frame on which they can hang clothes on. a cover with Kate Bosworth is there to showcase the clothes, not to showcase Kate Bosworth.

You're absolutely correct, it's not an aberration of our justice system to not sentence relatives of famous people for criminal offenses.

Lebron might have to adjust to the fact that he'll get the shit hacked out of him and fouls won't be called.

Since Scotland is far to the left of England on a bevy of issues, probably so.

what does putting down stray dogs have to do with terrorism....?

psh, the NSA already logged it.

is that the new Lakers fans' delusion?

popovich's interviews are hilarious, far funnier than anything Belichick's put out

It would probably just end up being a few minutes of homophobic slurs.

Well they have said they are weighing performances at other competition other than Nationals (as Winn points out below). But generally results at Nationals account for most of the decision—-and in this case, it definitely wasn't a clear case of Wagner' having a far superior record to Nagasu outside of Nationals. …

Sure, but Kwan and Kerrigan aren't exactly comparable to Wagner. Hypothetically they probably could've petitioned on, but that would still be different from this case.

Then you should have no problem with calling this bullshit out in this article. Or are you saying everybody should just accept the undercover racism and shut up about it?

Right, they gave her all those endorsement deals not because she's pretty, but because of her "consistent record".

Well, if they drop the whole pretense about "merit" and just flat out say "hey yeah, it's based on your marketability and the media", then sure.

Only that's never been a reason for why the top three weren't chosen. The only other exceptions to that in the past have been injuries.

NAW. this is America, yo.

Ashley Wagner was going to be a major part of the US Olympic team's marketing campaign—-you don't dump that for stupid ideals like "meritocracy".