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[Winter] Olympics 2006 (American
Performances)?
by Bill Sanders - February 26, 2006
Page last updated/all links last verified July 24, 2006
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The 2006 Winter Olympics is over. The US didn't do as well as it was hyped. Out of 84 total medals, we won 25. For those math-challenged, that's almost 30% of all the medals. As AP's stats-based story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11566430/ points out, 26 countries won medals and 11 won at least 10. Both of the latter are up from prior years. And while we, as Americans, always root for the underdog -- who didn't root for Jamaica's Bobsledding team (http://www.factmonster.com/spot/winter-olympics-jamaican-bobsled.html) and Britain's Eddie "The Eagle" Edwards (http://www.factmonster.com/spot/winter-olympics-eddie-eagle-edwards.html and http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-41-1322-8081/sports/calgary_olympic_games/clip8) BOTH from the 1988 Calgary Olympics -- WE want the US to win and win BIG.
Are we disappointed? Yes. Are the athletes? Most are, some are questionable, and at least one or two don't seem to give a flying banana. Did they do their best? I believe that most did, some fighting injuries, some of which we saw them get. Even so, they didn't "bring home the gold" like we wanted. This isn't the first time, and it undoubtedly won't be the last.
We put so much emphasis on winning that we forget, even our best are only human. Think about all those who ended up only being "alternates" or less and never got a chance. It's always possible that they could have pulled a medal performance, but we'll never know. And think about those who worked hard, made the team, and went to Torino, only to have a single mistake knock them out of contention, before the medal rounds (think Apolo in the 1500m) or during. Hype? Sure. That's what "sells" the Olympics to television. But remember, hype doesn't necessarily mean anything. Actual performance does.
Did some of our team screw up big time? Yep. Don't you think they know it? Most do. I can only think of one from this year who really seems not to care. Yes, there were those that blamed their problems on everyone and everything else, but even those that tried to put a good spin on their performance were seen as failures by the press and much of America. It's bad enough when you try your best at something you've worked at least the last four years for, if not your whole life, and you fall short. But when the US press, specifically, and America, in general, almost demonize them for trying to convince us AND THEMSELVES that they're happy with getting what they got, or the experience itself, well, I can understand why some simply drop any attempt to try again.
Now, I'm not talking about the Bode Millers and Johnny Weirs, here... I'm talking about the Sasha Cohens and Lindsey Jacobellises. Sasha, injured and leg wrapped, fell landing a spin at the beginning of her program, but still continued with her program and did the rest well enough to win silver. Anyone remember Tonya Harding? ... and her whining? Waaaaa. Even so, one article said Sasha "threw away" the gold. GEEZE. And Lindsey ... Well, she did something I'm sure she'll always regret - she was so far ahead in her medal race, she "showboated" on a jump near the end of her run and fell. Even so, she managed to get up and continue one to win silver. I am willing to bet there will be very little "showboating" by Lindsey (and maybe others who learned from her mistake) until the actual race is won from now on.
Now for some specifics. No... I'm not going to go through all the events or people, but I am gonna talk about a some of them:
Some say Michelle Kwan shouldn't even have gone to Torino. That's not for me or you to decide. But she promised that if she couldn't do her best, she'd withdraw, and she did. If Michelle Kwan hadn't pulled out because of her injury, Sarah Hughes' sister, Emily, would never have had a chance to skate in the Olympics this year. And she came in seventh(!) ... At the Olympics? And she's only 17. Kimmie Meissner, another US skater came in sixth(!). These girls are 17 and 16, respectively. Can you say "PRESSURE?" Then Sasha falls (remember, people, it IS ice... I'd like to see some of the reporters and complainers who slam our athletes do even a single-axle, heck - for most, just SKATE - without falling!), and ends up with silver, Russia's best, expected to win gold, falls and gets bronze. And Japan, who hadn't won ANY medals this game, gets a gold. Special? Yes. You don't think she'll be a hero at home when she returns?
Our figure-skating pairs didn't even make it into the top 5 (they finished 7th). In men's figure skating, our "best" (and I use the term loosely) blamed the transportation system ("I missed the bus.") and his "mojo" ("I didn’t feel my inner peace, I didn’t feel my aura. Inside I was black.") and ended up 5th, I believe, while his teammate came in 4th, just missing the medals. And who do the press talk about? Not the one we didn't expect anything from and came in 4th, but the one we expected at least silver from who finished behind HIM and whined (poor baby!)
And the US ice-dancing team that won silver? She was born in Canada. Though she'd been in the US for years, she couldn't get citizenship. Finally, with the help of a congressman, she was given her green card, allowing her to skate for the US. This happened at the beginning of THIS YEAR. They had a VERY short time to gather themselves and their things and get over to Torino, yet they won Silver (the first ice-dancing medal for the US in 30 years). And remember, I believe the number was five, of the TOP teams in the world fell or had drops, one of them being injured enough she couldn't dance in the medal round. FIVE (5) TOP WORLD-RANKED TEAMS! Don't EVER say that ice-dancing (ballroom dancing on ice) is easy! Personally, I have a new respect and appreciation for it ... at least once every four years!
Bode Miller. Hmm... Pa-a-artee! Bode had a blast. He's good, apparently even when blasted, and apparently, it didn't matter to the US Olympic Committee that he liked to party and even boasted about it. I don't doubt that he did things his way, and that may have been his undoing. I also doubt that he skied drunk, as he said he had before. This was just too important. (Well... Maybe hungover...) Then again, I'm SURE he skied without the rest he should have gotten. Even so, again, I challenge ANY of those saying he should have won to put on a pair of skis and go down that mountain at the speeds they go, and even come CLOSE to the times, all the while remaining on your feet and not "hooking" flags. SHOULD he have done more prep and be better? Probably. COULD he have? Probably. But as the announcers kept saying, over and over (and if he'd won, no one would have said a word about it) "That's Bode." Then again, see http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11570120/ for more about this... "Wild Child".
Most of the other hyped skiers also had problems. But let's NOT forget that Ted Ligety won the Men's Alpine Downhill ("Ligity-split!") and Julia Mancuso the Women's Alpine Slalom for the US, and I don't believe there was much hype about them. Therefore, the press left them alone, leaving them plenty of time to prepare.
The snow-boarders? Well, we won big. Most of our gold came from snowboarding events. Then again, we (the US) INVENTED the sport. We couldn't beat the world at skiing, so we created our own version, the world noticed, added it to the games, and the rest is history. See http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11388609/ for more.
Then there was Speedskating - or the Chad Hedrick/Shani Davis soap opera. Chad complained that Shani didn't race in the team pursuit and that's why they were eliminated in the quarterfinals. Shani said he was "saving himself" for his individual race the next night, for which he won gold, so maybe his strategy was sound. The day of the pursuit, after they missed the medals, Chad and the team pointed out that maybe THEY had made a mistake in their strategy, putting Chad in the lead in the last lap(s), leaving another to TRY to keep up with one of the world's fastest men in speedskating. Duh! If it had been left there, the games would have quietly gone on, but Chad mentioned that he would always wonder "what if"... what if Shani had raced with him in the pursuit? He also said that he had "no problem" with Shani. But, then he said, “Every chance to represent your country and show what your country can do, I think you should take it. Other people may think differently.” The press pushed, Chad answered, Shani took offense, Chad didn't congratulate him when he won his gold, and the fight was on. Too bad. It overshadowed that Shani Davis was the first black athlete to win an individual gold medal for the US in the Winter Games. Chad DID say that he and Shani tend to make each other better, but... GEEZE! He HAD to add that "But".
Then there was Apolo Anoton Ohno. He slipped and didn't qualify for the final of the 1500m, then didn't realize he was in the "B" race... He had to put on his skates again, got there late, they almost didn't let him on the ice, then he came in third. The only way he'd get into the final would require three or four disqualifications of the main bunch, which was not likely to happen. The way things were going, it wouldn't be surprising if he'd "bomb out" of the games like others. Instead, he gathered himself together and won gold in the 500m and saved bronze for the US team in the 5000m relay. He didn't whine about the 1500m, he didn't blame anyone else, (at least from what I heard)... He did it right.
Few reports I've seen and read talk about how WELL any of these people did on a WORLD stage (millions or billions watching), in a foreign country, and with the PRESSURE from the US (which is NOTHING compared to the pressure most put on themselves) to win. They talk about the FAILURES to achieve expected, predicted results. Again, get almost any of these reporters on the ice and snow even attempting to come close to what these athletes CAN do, and that most actually DID, and they'd end up reporting from a hospital bed or wheelchair, if they could report ANYTHING anymore.
We can always dream about "what might have been", but ultimately, we must accept "what is". For the majority of the Olympic games, the US sends teenagers and very young adults. Why? They are our "best chance" to win gold. The US tends to think athleticism over strategy. By the same token, strategy is what the coaches in some of these sports are for. That and helping some of the kids get over not winning gold or ANY medal when the world is watching and the US almost demands it. Some take it harder than others.
At http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11567768/, MSNBC writer Mike Celizic* points out that our (the US's) showing SHOULD be something to be proud of, no matter the final tally. I, personally, agree. At http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11395808/, in his story about Johnny Weir, he points out that sometimes the predictions and prognosticators are wrong. Duh! Really?. At http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11573834/, MSNBC's Filip Bondy and at http://rss.msnbc.msn.com/id/11561411/site/newsweek/, Newsweek's Devin Gordon say that while we did well, the "bad" outweighed the good. This is my point. While important, why do we dwell on the bad, when we did do well?
*Oh, and Celizic not only commented on the hits (see above) but also on the misses (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11564949/) of the US team at the Olympics. At least he seemed to be more objective than those that simply reported the misses.
One commercial that Bode Miller did points out a problem with thinking in the US (and elsewhere, I believe). The commercial says something to the effect of: "If a child tries out for or tries to do a sport, and doesn't do well, they often quit sports all together." Sometimes they quit on their own, and other times it's a coach, a parent, or someone else that convinces them to do so. They're dropping sports left and right in schools, because new stadiums and gyms cost so much, the belief that students learn nothing from them, and in some cases, the academics of those competing slips badly. And, sometimes, parents and grandparents push their little athletes so hard... A lot of kids give up on sports and turn to video games to escape. (They've done the same with music in our schools.)
And we talk and wonder about how FAT Americans and American kids are getting.
Well, personally, while I would have liked the USA to do better in the Olympics,
it's like waiting for the Colts to get to and win the Super Bowl. They try. They
do their best. They fall a little short and learn. (Maybe the Colts have learned
that those "games that don't mean anything" and the "bye week"
ARE important and DO mean something!
) Some learn how to be gracious winners
and losers. Some learn how not to do things that will hurt their chances. Some don't
learn a thing.
The Summer Olympics will be around in a couple of years. The next Winter games will be in four. Maybe some kids were inspired by our winners AND our losers. Hopefully, the press will not go so hard on those that don't win (except for those that don't care about it... those Bode Millers...) Hopefully we will win more next time. I don't COUNT on it, like many in America seem to.
I'd rather the emphasis be placed on the competition, sportsmanship and doing their best, no matter if they win a medal or not. Isn't that what the Olympics is all about?
by Bill Sanders © February 26, 2006 - email:
***
Dick Button -
Figure-Skating and Ice-Dancing "Team-Member"
Added February 27, 2006
I know I'm not the only one to notice. Dick was a real "dick" in the announcers' booth this time around. I don't remember the last time he was so vitriolic and "picky" about skaters' moves and performances. Maybe NBC asked him to be the "Simon Cowell" (American Idol judge) of the group. Maybe he's just getting old and curmudgeonly. I don't know. I (and others - from boards I read) didn't like the way he "did his job" this year. And, personally, it seemed to me that he wasn't very objective. If it was non-US skaters making bobbles and mistakes, he lit into their performance like there was no tomorrow. If it was an American team (or obvious medal contender), he grunted, and didn't say anything.
We listen to the announcers to tell us non-experts of the sports being shown what the judges are looking for, and the mistakes they see, not their take on the way the girl's butt hangs wrong when going into a "death spiral" (which seemed to be one of Dick's pet-peeves). (Ok... You've told us it was wrong... WHY? Maybe you can tell us again in a different way?) Maybe he figured if he'd explained it once, he didn't have to again, and this is what made it sound bad. The problem is that not everyone watches all of the coverage(s) of all of the games, and may have missed the explanation. If the judges are looking for specific "lines" and her body's not straight (her butt's hanging down) at certain points, why couldn't he just say it that way, instead of sounding so disgusted.
If Dick is on an announcing team again (and I'm sure he will be), I hope he's more objective and less painfully harsh.
***
"The Glare"
Added February 27, 2006
Everyone was talking about "The Glare" between the world's favorite Italian ice-dancing couple, after they stumbled and fell near the end of their free-dance program. They stood and stared into each others' eyes for a full 30 seconds before taking their bows. I watched it live and I watched it as it was repeated over and over and over and... I didn't see ANY of the reported daggers. I saw disappointment; I saw maybe a touch of recrimination; But I didn't see ANY of the daggers that it seems almost all the reporters and announcers reported.
It was obvious they were not particularly happy, with each other and/or with their performance, especially when they arrived for the next. But what has been termed in the press as "The Glare" was actually, to me, "The Stare" of disbelief that they had come this far, and blew it. "The Stare" of disappointment that they probably wouldn't win a medal in their home country. I didn't see the "hate" and "disgust" which some reports said it was. (THAT'S when the daggers come.) I didn't see it. And the way they avoided each other before the final skate was apparently (especially noticeable after the skate itself) their way of trying NOT to blame each other. And, of course, newspapers and stories CAN'T be sold if there isn't some type of controversy.
Even so, they're Italians, stereotypically known for their PASSION. Maybe they "stare daggers" differently in Italy. But that "Glare" didn't appear to me to be what it was made out to be.
----------
Reply from Glenn M., February 27, 2006
Bill,
I just finished your 2006 Olympic commentary on OFP. Quite entertaining, to say the least, not to mention enlightening from a human interest perspective.
I don't watch the Olympics much. I catch a little here and there, but this year I didn't watch any. Not that I'm opposed to the Olympics, I just didn't dedicate any time to it this year. I do hear enough from every critic out there, though, about the "woulda, coulda, shoulda's" and how this person didn't this or another person didn't that.
Well, here's my view on all that: When a national athlete is out there performing in the eyes of the entire world, it is the business of EVERY American to support them in whatever fashion they can. For most of us, that means cheering them on and all the other "pat on the back" type things that EACH athlete deserves JUST FOR PARTICIPATING AND REPRESENTING THE COUNTRY. As long as the athlete plays with honor and to the best of his/her abilities and in the true spirit of sportsmanship, that is all we can ask! The spirit of the Olympics is bonded to international competition and good will ... what better way to represent our country with pride and distinction than to stand tall and proud, shoulder to shoulder with the finest athletes of every other country?
I, for one, choose not to second guess the athletes. I am not trained to be an athlete. As long as they do nothing to dishonor themselves or our country, then I am happy with their best, win or lose. This is not to say I don't care about winning...by all means, take the goal if you can! But I would have to say that as much as you or I cheer and celebrate a win, IT WOULD BE NOTHING TO THE FEELINGS THE ATHLETE FOR HAVING BEEN THE WINNER! By the same token our disappointment in a loss would also be nothing to theirs after having trained for so long only to lose in front of a major portion of the world.
So I say leave the negative criticisms to the trainers and coaches and the athletes themselves. They already know how badly they performed and, better yet, they are in a position to do something about it so they can perform better next time. It's OK to point out the errors and slip-ups: that's part of reporting what happened. But petty speculation on what they should have done or, worse yet, using terms like "threw away" the gold, which implies that an athlete deliberately screwed up in order to lose is just plain unprofessional, petty, and uncalled for.
Finally, here's my final word to each of our Olympic athletes and their trainers, supporters, and families: Thank you for the countless hours of training and hardship, for having the courage to stand up and perform in front of billions of people, and representing the United States with honor and dignity in the world arena of the 2006 Olympics.
Glenn
[And I agree... Thank you all -bs]
[If I get more responses, they will all appear on another page.
-bs]
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