Gotta agree with Talbot that the the pile onto Sam Long shouldn't have been shown by the PTO. They just endorsed bullying.

And before anyone else recommends toxic masculinity (suck it up! it's boys being boys!), think about how many kids might have seen this who are bullied at school -- people, it's a lot these days. A LOT.

Rap that Laidlow authored also pokes fun at Sam Long for wearing pink -- and, fellas, we all know those references are dog whistle for pink representing soft femininity...because the world thinks that women who can push a bowling ball out of their bodies and then return to elite level athletics are "soft." Laidlow just wore toxic masculinity all over that. Thanks to the PTO for normalizing bullying [slow clap]

@talbot you have an inside view of the PTO. Can you send this back? I know that every single one of my women friends are cringing at this display by the PTO. It's not helping draw women into the sport.

I hope Sam Long crushes Laidlow.

If you listen to what he is saying, he cops to being obnoxious and flamboyant in the past, but he was never hurtful. He’s being bullied by a lot of 2nd tier pros who think his outlandish personality has garnered him more sponsorship money than he deserves. Maybe they’re right. But, constantly bagging on him makes these athletes look childish and petty.

Sam Laidlow better strap it on tomorrow.

But the reality is, whether Laidlow backs it up or not, one will get to say "I told you so" the other will have to take it, and then I bet dollars to donuts they hug it out, high five, talk the other person up as a great race. This isn't going to be some long term "personal" beef. It'll mellow out, while the PTO may still keep it some contrived on going thing like they have the Lawrence Salthouse "rivalry".

For whatever reason my GF just replayed the audio, it's far worse the second time I've listened to it. They should have stopped filming and had his mother spank him. That wasn't "trash talk" or "smack talk". That was just an idiot being allowed to be hurtful. Alex Payne probably should quit to if this is what the PTO is going to put up with.

At least in Rugby you get to hit each other for 80 minutes.

If you can't tell by his tone starting at 22:40. Then we won't really agree on much.

But apparently he publicly agrees that his conduct was disrespectful.

For whatever reason my GF just replayed the audio, it's far worse the second time I've listened to it. They should have stopped filming and had his mother spank him. That wasn't "trash talk" or "smack talk". That was just an idiot being allowed to be hurtful. Alex Payne probably should quit to if this is what the PTO is going to put up with.

At least in Rugby you get to hit each other for 80 minutes.

I wouldn't bother Talbot, look how much attention it's got!

We can go back to Triathlon all being nice and no one really gets paid.

If you listen to what he is saying, he cops to being obnoxious and flamboyant in the past, but he was never hurtful.

The Wong - Pingpong joke was totally harmless. See, the premise for the joke is that the top 3 in the ITTF rankings at this moment are Chinese and that Wong (Western version of Huang/Wang) is a common Chinese name. Praising a country for its ability to develop athletes isn't seen as racist on this side of the pond.

Totally different to bashing an individual or a group for how they dress/look/feel or choose to live their life.

Again, I might have missed something but the duathlete comment and the part of the rap that Laidlow mentioned during the matchup was ok IMO.

A stereotype is a stereotype is a stereotype. It doesn't matter if it's positive or negative. It's reducing an entire identity to one aspect of culture. Not ok.

Same with the reference to pink. I'm not the biggest Sam Long fan, but I am happy he rocks the traditionally non masculine color. I wish there were even more gender stereotypes he would break.

I believe Talbot when he says it wasn't staged. There can be many reasons why it went down the way it did. I'm just not a fan of the hype train. It feels forced. I do like the racing, though! And the general behind the scenes stuff.

I can assure you this was not staged or fake. I dont think this video provides the built up and context to what happened. I like both sams. I do have to back sam long on this one. There was alot of personal messages sent and maybe to the point it was bullying. This was just the breaking point.

This was all real prob should of not been shown on Camera tbh but im sure you all saw the press conference and what sam had to say.

I do know after the door slam lionel went and got sam and got him fired up and chatted with him for a bit. You will deff see sanders and long working together.


i would be interested who edited the video ... as this person obviously wanted it to be the way it is .