Same kilted man disrupted '03 auto race
I'm all for people making a statement or staging a protest if the spirit moves them. Still, there needs to be some recognized standard for what passes as a reasonable protest. I think I can speak for most of us when I say that tackling the leader of the Olympic men's marathon at the 23-mile mark goes WAY beyond reasonable. Unfortunately, it seems that Cornelius Horan never got the memo.
Of course, if Horan had been looking to go down in infamy, he certainly picked a hell of a way to go about it. No doubt about it, y'all. Cornelius Horan is a DUMB@$$. In fact, I think I could safely say that Horan is Top 10 material- and that's some pretty lofty company, wouldn't you say??
ATHENS, Greece -- A defrocked Irish priest bolted from the crowd and grabbed the marathon leader about three miles from the finish Sunday. The Brazilian runner wound up with the bronze -- and a special award for sportsmanship -- and the former priest was arrested.
Cornelius Horan, 57, was wearing a green beret, a red kilt and knee-high green socks when he attacked Brazilian runner Vanderlei de Lima, knocking him into the crowd. De Lima was able to recover and finish, but was passed by two runners about a mile after the incident.
"I was scared, because I didn't know what could happen to me, whether he was armed with a knife, a revolver or something and whether he was going to kill me," de Lima said.
"I don't know if I would have won, but things would have been different," he said. "After that, it was hard to get my rhythm back. It really distracted me."
The Brazilian track federation protested the result and sought a duplicate gold medal for de Lima, but while the jurors expressed sympathy, they said they couldn't change the result. Brazil said it would appeal to sports' international arbitration panel.
"I'm not going to cry forever about the incident, although it broke my concentration," de Lima said, "but I managed to finish and the bronze medal in such a difficult marathon is also a great achievement."
Well, at least someone managed to maintain something resembling perspective on this whole fiasco. I'm not sure I would have been quite so sanguine about the entire episode, especially had I been leading the Olympic marathon with only three miles to go.
Of course, speaking only for myself, I think that perhaps our intrepid Mr. Horan may have taken out the wrong runner. Now before you Republicans get your knickers in a twist, I am not advocating violence against Our Sainted President. I just happen to think that our latest DUMB@$$ AWARD wiener's aggression may have been directed at the wrong person.
Of course, if one was looking for the express lane to worldwide revulsion and ridicule, Cornelius Horan seems to have found it. Check out Letterman, Leno, and Jon Stewart tonight; I'm guessing Mr. Horan will be fodder for much generalized ridicule- of which he is richly deserving.
Yo, Cornelius...I have a suggestion for you. THORAZINE. And lots of it. Some restraints would probably go a long ways, as well.
It's just too bad that Mr. Horan isn't going to be able to make it to New York for the Republican National Convention. Just think of what might have been, eh?
