Be Gracious In Defeat.

The 2020 Olympics in Tokyo did not get off to a good start.

Whining US athletes and an equally bitter US press didn’t make for a good look while they managed to ruin the mood.

They were also keen to blame everything on the Russians, only this time round it was the fault of its athletes; but hey, that’s narcissism for you.

Ryan Murphy, irked at losing twice in a week to Russian counterpart Evgeny Rylov, launched into a monologue drenched in melodrama during his post-swim press conference.

Here I am swimming in a race that’s probably not clean and it is what it is,” he declared after finishing second in the 200m backstroke final.

So what wasn’t clean? The pool or the Russians!

Then he prattled on about his mental state.

His ramblings revealed him as a sore loser; but he wasn’t the only one.

All round wet blanket and Yahoo Sports columnist Dan Wetzel seemed offended at the display of Russian patriotic pride by four of its gold medalists.

He was outraged the IOC plan to ban Russia from Tokyo 2020 backfired so badly.

He griped that the ban gave Putin the chance to pump up nationalistic pride, rather than what it should have done; shame Russia.

Then he went off on a typical sour grapes tangent; a bunch of Russians, dressed like Russian flags, climbing a podium to listen to a famed Russian composer and accept medals they will bring back to Russia.

So!

Cry us a river Dan.

And this guy’s supposed to be a sports writer?

In the bigger scheme of things this couldn’t have anything to do with team USA finishing a lowly fifth out of eight teams in the final at the Ariake Gymnastics Centre.

Nah never!

Put it all down to the base level of anti- Russian propaganda in the US press, the reason why the average American can’t even think straight.

Then aggrieved athlete no 2 Megan Kalmoe aired her views on social media over Russians Vasilisa Stepanova and Elena Oriabinskaia winning silver in the women’s rowing.

She moaned; seeing a crew who shouldn’t even be here walk away with silver is a nasty feeling, really disappointing overall and I feel for the other athletes.

But that’s not all; she and her USA team mate contested a semi-final in which they finished fifth, with the Russians in second place.

The big news of course was Simone Biles quitting for having an off day.

The US press lauded her as some type of hero when her dying swan act was more worthy of a Golden Globe than an Olympic Gold.

So when the going gets tough the tough don’t get going but waffle and whine about imagined miscarriages of justice, use passive aggressive statements to allude to cheating by others they just can’t back up, and flounce off for good.

Just shut the hang up and let the medals do the talking.

Please!