Gardiner and his management team were afforded a trip on the poor tax payers of the bahamas. They owe us an explanation. They do not get to make a private decision when they are funded by the bahamian people. How can they keep this to thems3lves. That is selfish! We want our thousanda back. That was a free ride on our VAT taxes.

Stevie's job is to run, and his livelihood is based on funding from his sponsors. As much as The Bahamas means to him, we dont put food on his table. I dont think he'd arbitrarily drop a race.

They also said:

"*he's in distress whether pain or discomfort. Won't know until an examination is done... Claude Bryan, chief executive officer of "On Time Management," Gardiner's agents, confirmed that Gardiner had some issues around his left ankle and the tendon in that area.... He and his team had worked around the clock the past two weeks trying to get him in a state of ready for the title defense*"

I believe this will be the same for Shaunae. I'm told by an expert that hamstrings take 6 weeks to heal... actually more accurately, they are "*advised*" to take 6 weeks for healing. It's only been 4 weeks. If she had an easy race she might pull a win off by cruising, but this is the olympics that leg is going to be under stress... we'll know between tomorrow and Tuesday if she's ok.

1 medal, maybe.

So, if Gardiner knew that he couldn't run or won't run, why give Bahamians false hope???? There were other younger athletes who could have benefited from the experience.

We don't fund his personal wealth but we pay taxes. And these trips cost many thousands of dollars. If he just got his Adidas contract renewed for millions, that's good for him. Now go and build a track in Moore's Island for his ppl. Give back to where he came from. Put some skin in the game.

These athletes are becoming as disingenuous as the pastors, politicians and police. Smt.

"*if Gardiner knew that he couldn't run or won't run, why give Bahamians false hope????*"

To everything **before** "*false hope*", because he's a world class athlete. They go until their body tells them no way.

To "*false hope*" specifically, we give that to ourselves. We hype up expectations for many of these meets based on emotion rather than reality. We guh win because we is The Bahamas. You need some of that, but reality also has to be in the mix. Up to today, nobody would even acknowledge that Shaunae was injured. I'm not surprised that she was not able to finish her race. But that doesnt make her less of an athlete to me because I didnt over hype my expectation.

Stevie is injured, he's been injured before, he's healed and continued to excel. There's noone else on the men's side who could run for us and medal. Let him recover for his next meet.

All this indignance and accusatory talk, none of you knows whether the man is injured seriously due an incident in warmups or not... yet all of you fat, tv watching couch slugs are quick to decry and get into a huff, with NO DATA! How about reserving an opinion until presented with more data, what is this bubbling geyser need to spew an opinion into the universe before everyone else? Its both frightening and sickening.

You sound just like those apologists for the New Day crew. Believe what you want. Be gullible & proud.

We actually dont need to know if he's "*seriously*" injured. The best news would be if he stopped at "*discomfort*" before a serious injury.