現在還有人說這就是個俚語嗎？
Quotes From Wordreference.com: (Mxxxxx 代表該ID，下同）
Mxxxxx：At the Rio Olympic Games, Byron Macdonald, a Canadian TV commentator, slurred a Chinese girl swimmer "went out like stink, died like a pig." I felt very sorry for his dirty mouth but I'm not sure about the exact meaning of the first part of the sentence. Who can give an explanation? Thanks.
Pxxxxx："Went like stink" is slang for "great eagerness" or "great enthusiasm". So I assume that the Chinese girl started swimming at too great a speed to be sustained right from the beginning. In other words she did not pace herself.
As for "died like a pig" the only reference I can think of is the quotations from The Untouchables, a movie about Elliot Ness and his fight against organized crime. I don't see the connection to the swimming race however.
Elliot Ness was an FBI agent and one of the bad guys (Frank Nitti) had killed a cop who was Ness' friend. The dialog goes like this:
-Nitti: [About Malone] He died like a pig.
-Ness: What's that you say?
-Nitti: I said that your friend died screaming like a stuck Irish pig! Now you think about that when I beat the rap. [Walks off, combing his hair. Ness, enraged, grabs him and pushes him off the roof] Hey! What're you doing! Hey! HEY! [he falls, screaming]
-Ness: DID HE SOUND ANYTHING LIKE THAT?!
Oxxxxxx：Did this swimmer actually die, Mxxxxx? Or did she just lose a race?
Mxxxxx: No. The fourteen-year old girl was in the process of her competition and she is only a new player.
Oxxxxxx：Thanks for the information, Mxxxxx. Then this appears to be a rude comment about her performance as a swimmer. I suppose "died like a pig" means that she lost by quite a bit to faster swimmers.
When pigs are slaughtered, they typically squeal and squirm. A person who "dies like a pig" displays no courage in death and dies in a dishonorable way. Obviously, this is a ridiculous thing to say about that swimmer unless she began bawling and screaming when she lost her match. Did she do this?
I've never heard the "went out like stink" metaphor before, but Pxxxxx had something to say about that.
Pxxxxx：I'd never heard either of them before, but I certainly agree about the rudeness of the whole thing.
