Sad and shocking....especially given it had already happened once

The sublime thing about sports is how they bring people together, cutting across racial and national lines to highlight the essence of our shared humanity. Unless you happen to represent the Jewish State in modern-day Europe. Then fuck you:


The two Israelis won gold and bronze medals at the European Cup fencing tournament for under 17s. Dana Stralinkov, 14, won gold and Alona Komarov, 13 won bronze. But the Austrian official in charge of arranging the national anthems played when the winners went on the podium said he could not locate the recording of 'Hatikvah'. After a few minutes of silence, the two teens sang the Israeli anthem themselves, with no backing track.

Good for those girls, who knew what to expect after the same thing happened in Sweden. The Austrian official who approached the podium actually said that he had the old Israeli national anthem available, which was an interesting rhetorical gambit insofar as it's the only thing he could have said to decrease his credibility.

Unbelievable.