You going to translate for (mostly) everyone?

Basically how evil the regime and the prince is and that taking money from them is supporting their propaganda. Frodeno tried hard to explain that he thinks he is doing good, but he was called out by others.

I am a fan of Frodeno, and I find it difficult to square that with his association with Bahrain. He should not be anywhere near that place in any way. Also,he is Jan Frodeno -there are surely other backers/sponsors out there for him?

Not cool. At all.

I remember when Kienle left and he said something along the lines 'I had to leave because I can't look past what's going on and just be a part of the team just for the money'. I was impressed that he took a stand.

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"see the world as it is not as you want it to be"

Pros should know: you take this guy’s cash, it reflects very poorly on you.

I just can't work-out how they came to choose the number '13' for the Endurance Team.....

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29 years and counting

Its a disgrace that any of them take their money.

Ali, Javier, Terenzo, Jan....

Shocking.

 
The aim was that if you google "Bahrain 13", you find some triathlon stuff instead of this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain_Thirteen

Always curious about why the kits don't fall under rules about demonstration of political propaganda.

For those not do close to this, look why the team is called Bahrain 13 - seemingly trying to out propaganda Google

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bahrain_Thirteen

Indeed.

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29 years and counting

So again I'll ask the Americans here.Are you going to petition the US Navy to stop supporting the same "regime" that is sponsoring the Bahrain 13 and demand that the US 5th Fleet be relocated out of Bahrain or is it just Prince Nasser and his triathletes that has got you all hot and bothered.

Hell yes I am - no blood for oil, and no whitewashing torture and human rights abuses.

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I wrote this, you should read it:
https://www.slowtwitch.com/...n_Swimming_6700.html

Uhm..

Let us take a walk through history. We had slavery. We had segregation. Our country locked up Japanese during WW2. We tortured people in the aftermath of 9/11. On the lighter side - We tell people that are homosexual that they cannot be married. We take over countries for their resources or to benefit our own country innocent civilians get killed. We give weapons to countries so they can slaughter other countries again for our own long term benefit. Let us not get into the foundation of Christianity with the crusades and Popes just wanting money and power but people still go to church? Would this not be akin to still showing support for Stalin or Hitler? There is really no difference in what the old church leaders did to what Hitler did..

I want to know where you people draw the line on "human rights". Everyone turns a blind eye to something but not another.

Me? I got off my high horse a long time ago and can be bought - very cheaply I might add. Might as well stuff my coffers. With the cost of top end tri bikes now a days - morals be damned haha

On the scale of 1 (I would do another for a buck including shilling for a Hitler) to 10 (I would rather be on the streets than taking money from a dictator), Jan is probably like 6.

TBH, these guys, Ali, Jan, Ryf, et al, should know better simply because of the questionable optics. Like others said, it's not like they can't find sponsors, perhaps for just a little bit less money. But I can certainly understand the mentality of athletes trying to cash in while they can.

Well, I find it more rational to petition my representatives in civilian government rather than "petitioning the US Navy" but, rather our elected representatives in government. But yes, I generally try to support politicians who don't "enable" repressive regimes in the Middle East (or elsewhere). Khashoggi, etc. Though that's rather difficult since they're few, and it's an extremely difficult position to unwind. (As we're learning right now.)

There's some risk of appearing sanctimonious or "on a high horse" as a poster put it. But if we all waited until we and our governments were pure-as-driven-snow virtuous before we dared criticize others, it'd be pretty hard to expose evil to the light of day. We do what we can, with what influence we have.

And I'm not on a high horse. If I were an up-and-coming cyclist and Bahrain-Merida offered me a contract, I might take that. It could change my whole life. But I hope I'd be open-eyed enough to acknowledge I might be participating in propaganda.

There's a possibility we're being used. That's worth acknowledging, despite our imperfections.

There's also a possibility that by admitting some participation in modern sport the attempt at propaganda might ultimately backfire on the regime in the long term. I hope that's the case.

As Twinkies post above points out people seem to be very selective in their outrage..

On the other had, at least in U.S. politics currently, we seem to spend about 90% of our time trying to identify hypocrisies in each other rather than discussing the actual issue. Check out the Lavender Room.

People claim they are all moral but if everyone was as moral as they say - they would not buy $10,000 tri bikes and donate that money to homeless poor people who starve on the streets. Good for you - you work hard for what you get and went to med school but I am sure you turn a blind eye to that mother with 3 kids down the street whos husband walked out and now she is working 3 jobs or that shambling homeless man with a heroin addiction. Unless you are giving these people all the extra money you don't need to "survive" you are full of total shit.


I may be an asshole who can be bought - but at least I am not a hypocrite haha

So when will they rip into the German government?

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

This is the worst take on something I've seen in a long time.

"If you don't care about everything, you can't care about anything or you're a hypocrite"

I get that you can't be arsed to care, but that doesn't justify trying to silence the people who do.

This seems a relevant article. - https://www.theguardian.com/...-human-rights-abuses

While everyone rips into how bad Bahrain is on a positive if you look at one of the sponsored athletes Lauren Parker well I think kudos to Bahrain and Lauren for the sponsorship arrangement. Lauren was in my tri club and I watched her get 2nd at Kona here before turning pro. Maybe a little over two years ago she had an accident on her bike and is now a paraplegic. Within a year she got a medal for triathlon as a paraplegic in the Commonwealth Games and a month ago won the world titles. Her sponsorship options are limited and now triathlon is her focus that keeps her going in life. Kudos to Bahrain for sponsoring a disabled woman and letting her lead a life where she has quoted she hates being disabled but when she is racing she is an athlete not a paraplegic for that period.

Personally there isn't a lot of money in the sport and although a lot of athletes on the list probably don't need the Bahrain gig but maybe it lets another sponsor that they may have had go to another more needing athlete so the more money in the pot the more everyone gets. Saudi Arabia is a far worse backward, human rights violating country than Bahrain and even after being caught out murdering a US citizen in their embassy, today it is announced the US is sending troops to support them. Where do we draw the line and not all be hypocrites?

 I get this is helping the athletes, but the big problem is with that Bahrain 13 is that they are trying to "google wash out" the actual Bahrain 13 story. And I for one would be shocked if they cared about her, other than for nice PR pics.