The Tragic Hero...
Y'know, it's a story that's almost worthy of the great Greek tragedians. Four years ago, he almost fell, pulled himself together, and went on to win a medal no one expected him to claim. Now, after being cast in the role of the great hero, Bode Miller is only a factor in terms of how many news stories have been about him.
I think the great story of the 2006 Winter Games is going to be hubris. Bode Miller has utterly failed to be the Great American Ski Hero that was being touted going into the Games. In fact, he's even taken pot shots at the press and the fans, complaining that the pressure professional athletes are exposed to by the expectant fans and eager press pushes them into doping and crumbling under pressure. Funny, I didn't hear him complaining when he was winning.
Lindsay Jacobellis had the Gold Medal in her pocket, for all intents and purposes, in the Snowboard Cross event...and dropped it on a hot-dog move on the last jump (no matter whether she thought she was hot-dogging or not, her jump was not a racing-style jump). Her nearest competitor wasn't even in view when she did it...but that changed in the blink of an eye. (I do have to give her credit for owning up to what she did. Hers is a sport that was built on style as much as speed, and she's remained unapologetic about it. Doesn't change the fact, though, that this WAS a speed event--there are no style points.)
Even the Womens Hockey Team hasn't been immune. Bad blood was sparked between the U.S and Canadian teams when U.S. players accused Canada of running up the score in some of their preliminary games. Now, after having taken the moral high-ground, the U.S. has found themselves to be mere mortals again, after the Swedish team out-gunned them.
I applaud Chris Hedrick. Much has been made in the press of his chances at tying the record of five Gold Medals--and when that chance died in the team pursuit, he didn't fire off accusations at teammate Shani Davis. In fact, he defended Davis' decision to skip the event in favor of focusing on an individual event (which, incidentally, Davis won). I also applaud ALL of the athletes I saw racing in the Mens Snowboard Cross. My faith in the Olympic spirit was reinforced as I saw, at the end of each heat, competitors more interested in congratulating each other on a great race than in shucking their snowboards and getting back to the waiting area.
That's what the Olympics SHOULD be about. This is supposed to be a celebration of the universal human spirit of competition. It's not supposed to be a game of one-upsmanship. While I feel bad, on some level, for the frustration of athletes like Miller, who will have to live for years with the stigma of being unable to deliver the expected results, I can't help but compare their antics to the likes of Ted Ligety--who just sat back and did his thing, almost completely unheralded. Or Shaun White, who seemed more interested in discussing whether a Gold Medal would attract more girls than he was in discussing what he did that won him the Medal, or what his fellow boarders failed to do in their losses.
They get it. They are the people who deserve these Medals, the people we all truly love to see win them. I'm glad that poetic justice has held true again.
Y'know, it's a story that's almost worthy of the great Greek tragedians. Four years ago, he almost fell, pulled himself together, and went on to win a medal no one expected him to claim. Now, after being cast in the role of the great hero, Bode Miller is only a factor in terms of how many news stories have been about him.
I think the great story of the 2006 Winter Games is going to be hubris. Bode Miller has utterly failed to be the Great American Ski Hero that was being touted going into the Games. In fact, he's even taken pot shots at the press and the fans, complaining that the pressure professional athletes are exposed to by the expectant fans and eager press pushes them into doping and crumbling under pressure. Funny, I didn't hear him complaining when he was winning.
Lindsay Jacobellis had the Gold Medal in her pocket, for all intents and purposes, in the Snowboard Cross event...and dropped it on a hot-dog move on the last jump (no matter whether she thought she was hot-dogging or not, her jump was not a racing-style jump). Her nearest competitor wasn't even in view when she did it...but that changed in the blink of an eye. (I do have to give her credit for owning up to what she did. Hers is a sport that was built on style as much as speed, and she's remained unapologetic about it. Doesn't change the fact, though, that this WAS a speed event--there are no style points.)
Even the Womens Hockey Team hasn't been immune. Bad blood was sparked between the U.S and Canadian teams when U.S. players accused Canada of running up the score in some of their preliminary games. Now, after having taken the moral high-ground, the U.S. has found themselves to be mere mortals again, after the Swedish team out-gunned them.
I applaud Chris Hedrick. Much has been made in the press of his chances at tying the record of five Gold Medals--and when that chance died in the team pursuit, he didn't fire off accusations at teammate Shani Davis. In fact, he defended Davis' decision to skip the event in favor of focusing on an individual event (which, incidentally, Davis won). I also applaud ALL of the athletes I saw racing in the Mens Snowboard Cross. My faith in the Olympic spirit was reinforced as I saw, at the end of each heat, competitors more interested in congratulating each other on a great race than in shucking their snowboards and getting back to the waiting area.
That's what the Olympics SHOULD be about. This is supposed to be a celebration of the universal human spirit of competition. It's not supposed to be a game of one-upsmanship. While I feel bad, on some level, for the frustration of athletes like Miller, who will have to live for years with the stigma of being unable to deliver the expected results, I can't help but compare their antics to the likes of Ted Ligety--who just sat back and did his thing, almost completely unheralded. Or Shaun White, who seemed more interested in discussing whether a Gold Medal would attract more girls than he was in discussing what he did that won him the Medal, or what his fellow boarders failed to do in their losses.
They get it. They are the people who deserve these Medals, the people we all truly love to see win them. I'm glad that poetic justice has held true again.
posted by Curtis at 12:01 PM
1 Comments:
Snowboard cross rules! Its my new favorite.
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