Does she think that statement makes any sense at all?

Edited to add my response to her:

Are you saying that joining the team and taking money from Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa will provide you with access and protection to fully and fairly investigate the allegations that he jailed and personally tortured Bahraini athletes that advocated for democracy? Will you advocate for a fair and independent judiciary to take up your findings in a court of law? Of course you will not do these things. Even if you were able to rise above the conflict of interest you have due to the fact you earn your living from him, you would be jailed, and possibly even tortured by him personally if you did any of these things. But yeah... other than that, your comment makes a lot of sense.

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

She and his Highness are proactively thinking outside the box to produce a synergistic vision for the future.

Yeah, if she were a wheel manufacturer she'd now be Dished Wheels.

I read it a few times and tried to read between the lines, but yes, I would agree it makes little sense and no response at all would probably have been better. To me, it all smacks of obtuseness to avoid the uncomfortable reality of the situation.

Athlete's are not politicians.

Athletes let us see what is possible. If they align with the future. Otherwise just enjoy the show;;;;;;;;;;;;

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Team Off Constantly

women rights aren't a priority in the Middle East

There is a tendency to be too broad here. I'm no expert, but like many things, when you are talking about multiple countries across a region, you are going to have a range*. There are certain middle-eastern countries that are more progressive than others.


My understanding is that in the middle east there is a range of progression on womens issues from country to country. Now, if you go to 30,000 ft and look at the region as a whole and compare it to Europe, yes women's issues are not at the same level of priority.


*It would be like saying all those North Americans are crazy for guns! :)

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

I agree with you. However, I would say that as a professional athlete, you are trying to project an "image" of yourself and your endorsements. While there are more progressive countries in the Middle-East than others (Bahrain might be one, I'm no expert), the general public will only see the broad picture.

the general public will only see the broad picture.

. . . and that's where there may be a great opportunity here. To change those broad public perceptions and stereotypes!

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Steve Fleck @stevefleck | Blog

The issue is not going to Bahrain, or any other Middle-Eastern country to promote women's rights, athletics, etc. The issue is going to Bahrain to promote women's rights on the dime of the royal family.

I missed this a couple weeks ago. WOW.

Something motivates a person to form triequal and to spend a lot of time and effort on that. That motivation to become an activist is something strong and powerful. It is not just a matter of being bothered by someone's post on slowtwitch and staying up late to reply. That effort had to come from real passion.

That passion leads Sara to feel she had a duty to interview Dan Empfield and among other things:

- ask him to update the "about" section to reference female employees
- ask why only 1 of 36 articles on the front page are written by women
- ask why there are so few women posters
- ask (and this was absurd I think) if slowtwitch is too technical for women


What has me (and I think others) confused is: what happens to the passion when she is in Bahrain? If Dan Empfield is a itch that had to be scratched, how's she gonna feel there? Even if Dan is the misogynist Hugh Hefner of triathlon, he is small potatoes compared to what she is going to find there in all kinds of different places. Will she ask to do an interview with any men in power?

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

Since she grew up, in part, in Dubai, I think she knows how she's going to feel, and is fairly familiar with Middle East culture. And it's not inconsistent for an activist to seek out places where they could have the most effect vs. the places they feel the most comfortable.

That said, I'm no fan of her decision for other reasons.

Perhaps so. I just can't think of any examples where it is anything but a sell-out.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

activists may go to places they feel they could have an impact, I'm hard pressed to think of an example where they're going on the dime of the people they want to change

It would be like exxcon or BP or shell sponsoring green peace

Right, that's the "other reasons" I was referring to.

I have to be honest and say this is comedy gold..........when someone says "you couldn't make it up" - I think this is what they're talking about.

Here is a thought. Is it possible that the person whose dime she is going on, wants to make changes for women's access and health, but at the same time that person is accused of torture during the Arab Spring. People are complicated, and I know many on ST have a problem with decoupling the revolting side of a person from the qualities that might be bearable or even attractive. Most of my friends, there are things I love about them and there are corners of their lives that I just can't stand, but I keep them as friends because some things they do, either don't affect me, they don't annoy me enough, or they don't spill into the specifics of our relationship. The same applies to close family members.

Perhaps Sarah feels that she is on the dime of someone who wants to change opportunities for women, while she is also on the dime of someone accused of wrongdoings during the Arab spring (she has perhaps glossed over the latter in a previous public statement that did not work out well).

As she told slowman at TBI and as Slowman explained about many grey area things in life, "It is complicated". Daily we engage with products, services and other aspects of western life brought to us by tyrants, dictators and polluters which are gloss over in day to day western life being far decoupled from how that oil get to us, or how those diamonds do, or how our tri gear does from cheap factories in the Pearl River Delta or clothing shops in Pakistan or Bangladesh. We're just as much "on the take" from bad guys, so it's a slippery slope from our glass houses.

I think we let the body of work that Sara achieves be the final measure of the engagement with the Bahrainis. It's easy sitting on our butts in the west (not you Andrew, since you are local in the Middle East), and throw her under the bus. Meanwhile, we let off all kinds of people in our sport....namely Felix and Messick who have directly engaged with the Bahrainis. They are making money through the engagement with the same people while also at the same time bringing sport to that part of the world. Maybe rather than beat up on a pro triathlete, (who we can argue barely gets by financially in the first place), we can look at the larger picture of what she gets done.

I'll probably keep getting sucked back into this thread every time it gets bumped until Sara proves to me that she just "sold out" and got nothing done. From what I see, Gomez, Frodo, Ryf, Steffen, Kienle...well none of them are doing anything either for the advancement of women's rights in the middle east either. They are truly on the take with no charter to do other things to directly influence athletes locally (men and women) from what I see.

"Will she ask to do N interview with any of the men in power?"

Maybe a puff piece directed by their PR people. More likely, she will cash her check and do as she is told.

Pretty much what Sara is doing as well. I think her statements about trying to make a change are a convenient backpedaling of an excuse once there was a backlash. I think she's in it for the money too. If I'm a big Jewish rights advocate I probably wouldn't join the Nazi Party Triathlon Team funded by Adolf Hitler, in some lame brained attempt to change things from within. Hyperbole notwithstanding... that's about as ridiculous sounding.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

I completely understand that we all must engage with colleagues friends and family members who have done things we despise or have personality traits that we dislike. But there must be a limit at which we no longer are able to look past bad behavior to work with them on something else. If imprisoning and torturing people who peacefully express a desire to be free does not lie beyond that limit, what does?

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Ed O'Malley
www.VeloVetta.com
Founder of VeloVetta Cycling Shoes
Instagram • Facebook

Sure it is possible. But anything she does behind the scenes will be outweighed by the negative if she changes her behavior. By changing her behavior I mean going from outspoken woman who is unafraid to challenge men in power to becoming a quiet meek and accepting woman. If she does that, her biggest statement will be: "outspoken woman from North America comes to Bahrain and changes behavior showing she knows proper way for women to behave in the middle east."

We'll see if she sells-out on speaking up. Early indications are not good.

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It doesn't really matter what Phil is saying, the music of his voice is the appropriate soundtrack for a bicycle race. HTupolev

Right. And while I don't think the athletes involved are much better, at least they haven't, to my knowledge, positioned themselves as women's rights crusaders prior to taking their blood money.

Exactly. It almost defies logic what she did. Maybe she was being completely altruistic but I don't believe she's that naive.

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Favorite Gear: Dimond | Cadex | Desoto Sport | Hoka One One

OK, I think if you guys were in Philosophy 101 class most of you guys would fail. There is technically no link between suppressing people (mainly young men) trying to topple your regime while at the same time promoting women's rights and access to sport. I say 'technically' because a Prince in power, be it one that Machiavelli described, or our boy from Bahrain, could want to do everything he wants to do to stay onto power, while also limiting women's rights. Or he could do whatever he has to do to hang onto power, while supporting women's rights. I don't have the answer to that, but doing vile things to hang onto power, and supporting women's rights can "co exist" in the same person. I don't have the answer on whether it does or not in this case. Most of you don't either. Sarah may. Other triathletes on the Bahrain13 may also.

I do agree with you guys in a world where marketing and perception are important and where they can be largely decoupled from intellectual reality, it's a bit of a lift to be women's rights crusader while being on the payroll of someone who did his share to suppress people opposing him during the Arab spring. He would not be the first guy in power to do so though. We're all supporting a variety of dictators who did a variety of atrocities each time we go to the pump to fill up gas, so it's really a question of degrees of how closely we happen to be coupled to the guys who did mean things to stay in power.

Let's see what she gets done in the next year and then make a call. At least she is doing this from a position of being informed having lived in the Middle East and having done sport while based there (well, she was part of the ex pat community, but at least had a big window more than any of us).

It seems that a major part of growing up involves setting aside ones ideals in favor of making a living. (Perhaps there are some ideals we can't or shouldn't set aside).

This is a natural part of life. And something we all face.
What makes us human is that we recognize and accept the hypocrisy in our decisions. After all we didn't invent this stupid world- we just weren't smart enough to change it much.

Phonies and sociopaths never reach this conclusion. They don't "sell out." What is "right" and "wrong" magically changes depending on what they want.

That said I think one would need to talk with Sara off the record to see exactly were she stands.

I've already made the call. She said that she'd leave the issue of torture "to the courts." The courts are effectively owned by the royal family. So either she's being condescending and hand-waving away the issue, or she's ignorant of the natural tension between totalitarian power and individual rights. It's an open question whether the types of rights she crusades for are in any way consistent with totalitarian power. Even if she truly believes "His Highness" is a truly benevolent ruler-in-waiting.

I'm a friend of Sara's.

This wasn't a decision she took lightly.

It wasn't about the money. She could be making more money doing various other jobs that are far less contentious.

She truly is passionate about her work on women in sport.

I view her as the type of person who thinks about how an opportunity can lead to positive change. Period.