Sorry to have been a consistent downer in this thread. I did start off being excited by the Olympics, but the things that have bothered me about them seemed to have come to a head to the point where it prevented me from enjoying the games.
Here, let a professional say what I meant to say:
Quote:
No amateurs, no miracles. Headed into the final weekend, the U.S. men’s basketball team — led by NBA stars such as Kobe Bryant and LeBron James — is on track to win its fifth gold medal in the past six Olympics. The women’s team is closing in on its fifth consecutive gold.
Good for them, and America, but something is missing.
Before professional athletes were allowed to participate openly in the Games, America used to relish being the underdog. U.S. collegians took on the quasi-professional communist bloc teams and pulled off the occasional against-all-odds upset, none bigger than 1980’s “Miracle on Ice” victory in Lake Placid against the mighty Soviet hockey team.
Today, the U.S. Dream Teams are like that Soviet squad. If they win, it’s expected. Ho hum. And if they lose, it’s a huge blow to national pride.
Sure, today’s system is a lot more equitable. It’s just not more exciting.
Thrill of victory. Until its regular broadcasts went off the air in 1997, no TV show captured the emotion of sports better than ABC’s Wide World of Sports, which promised viewers “the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat” and routinely delivered. These days, nothing on TV captures that extraordinary range of human feeling better than the Olympics, where a lifetime of dreams and years of agonizing training can turn into joy or despair in seconds.
Of course there are moments of agony, for athletes and viewers alike, when the omnipresent cameras get so close to someone who has just lost that you want to snap at NBC and demand a little privacy.
Luckily, though, the cameras tend to dwell on the winners. Watching night after night is like taking a mood-elevating drug that has no bad side effects. In the 200 meter individual medley, for example, American swimmer Caitlin Leverenz placed third, and the camera caught her face as she looked up at the scoreboard and realized she had medaled.
A jaded viewer might think: It’s third place. But for Leverenz, 21, who had worked for this from age 7, often getting up before dawn to put in grueling workouts, it was an Olympic medal. Her face showed shocked surprise, a surge of joy and then tears, then joy. The tiny moment was over in seconds, but it was impossible not to be moved.
One pleasure of watching the Olympics is the constant reminder that joy is universal, and that it is difficult not to find yourself grinning when you see the sheer, unfeigned thrill on the face of anyone who has just won gold, silver or bronze.
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London Games' hits and misses
The problem is, too much Michael Phelps and LeBron James, not enough Caitlin Leverenz. So, what do I do? Do I never watch the Olympics again?
I don't know. But, sharing my thoughts here helped. You were all part of my Olympic therapy, whether you liked it or not.
