Paul Revered

Is it wrong to not pull for Paul Cayard in the '04 Olympic Star Class? Maybe so, but there is an underlying of something, not dislike exactly, perhaps resentment (indeed, very likely resentment), but certainly a feeling that it is hard to get enthusiastic about a yachtsman who comes off with such an air of superiority, drenched in a blasé arrogance.

Okay, I think he's just hard to like, and I don't see much reason to cheer him on.

One can't possibly deny his accomplishments, but he'll likely go down in yacht racing history as the guy who made the most millions off of this sport without really doing all that much that would justify the fat bank account he owns.

Like most manicured athletes, he rarely says what's really going on, he speaks in clichés, the Innerviews he's given us here have to be the driest, most perfunctory ever, and the I Love Me mentality has never played well around here either.

Plus who can forget the screaming sessions he starred in while skippering AmericaOne and losing the cool that he has so calculatingly cultivated for his public image while losing to Prada in the 2000 AC? What the hell was that? I'm pretty sure that at that moment I crossed him off my Greatest of All Time list.

So, if he fails to medal, we'll not be unhappy. If he does medal, we'll say that's what we expected, and if he Golds, we'll no doubt and quickly run an editorial titled: Paul the Great: We Told You So. - The Ed.

08/17/04