Lindsay Vonn during the Women’s Downhill training runs, which went perfectly fine, despite her injured knee. Photo from USA Today.
It’s only Day 5, and I’m already exhausted from the tension. And from the questions: Why did they do that? How could they do that? What were they thinking? What was going through their mind?
I have come to realize that while the Summer Olympics Games is athleticism, par excellence–speed, grace, power, technique, and courage–the Winter Games are all that plus insanity and psychosis. How could they possibly compete under those conditions, especially with the eyes of the entire world watching? And yet they do, again and again.
There will be much to talk about in the coming days, but today’s post has to start with the big topic, and I’ll get it right out there. Lindsay Vonn is a badass, and I applaud her for her efforts. I know some of you disagree, so I want to get into this a little, into the context of what Alpine skiers do, and the Olympic history that surrounds an athlete’s choices. Part of that larger context is the stress of what all these athletes must endure in making spectacles of themselves.
Ironic caption that, given that the photo isn’t of people watching, but cameras watching. Are they interfering or are they essential to the audience? Where does the athlete fit in this alliance?
The only thing worse than the networks’ coverage of the Olympic Games would be if the TV networks didn’t cover the Games. We could play a drinking game: name all the things you hate about NBC (or the BBC or ….)’s coverage of the Olympics. You’d be plastered before the athletes started marching into the stadium.
The packaged, preselected narrative ruins the live experience as TV aims for the most photogenic, the most “American-looking,” the most-likely winners, and ignores most everyone else. The nightly entertainment package is full of insipid chatter by the hosts, incessant shots of family members, content-less interviews with athletes who aren’t competing, and not enough competition to show the competition. And don’t get me started on the idiotic obsession with the medal count. So much to dislike about the way the entertainment media “crafts” narratives about the sports, so much that interferes with the sports, themselves.
In fact, I was planning on a good ol’ fashioned rant about the lousy media as the Opening Ceremonies approached, but I started thinking about the history of the Games. The media changes the Games because the media curates the Games, with its intrusive format controlling the content as that guy McLuhan would say. But is it THAT different today than before?
As much as we prefer our athletes to be unsullied by the watchers, we might think about how their performance has always been about both the audience and purveyors. We want to watch; they want to compete. The media is in the middle. The media has changed the game, but it always has been doing that, from the time of the ancient Greeks to the 1896 reboot to the introduction of television to the drones and ubiquitous cameras. AI will introduce some other ruination and perversion, but…same as it ever was. There’s always been an unholy alliance between the athlete, the audience, and the curator.
Author’s Note: Some of my musings below were shared before Beijing and Sochi, but I’m recycling a bit because it’s good for the planet.
The original International Sports Week! later to be called Winter Olympics I. Photo from wikimedia.
The XXV Winter Games start next week! Opening Ceremonies are Friday, although preliminary heats in Mixed Doubles Curling start on Wednesday. Most of America’s curling athletes come from Minnesota, including Team USA’s mixed doubles team, and Minnesota could use some extra cheering right now, so get in there! Fun Fact: All of Team USA’s Mixed Doubles athletes are named Cory (Cory and Korey)… those long winter nights must just fly by. How can you not watch a team where people have the same name? Mixed Doubles Curling is to Curling what Rugby Sevens is to regular Rugby—half the people but the same size of the field.
Since I brought it up, let’s just look at what we can expect in Mixed Doubles. You may recall that the plucky team from Italy surprised the favored Norwegians with the first ever curling medal for Italy in Beijing 2022. That same pair went 9-0 to win last year’s world championships, and the female half of the team, Stefania Constantini, hails from…wait for it Cortina! Guess where the Curling stadium is… Cortina! The Mixed Doubles Italian gold-winning pair will also be the flagbearers for Italy in Cortina. So you can think of Constantini and Mosaner as the Simone Biles of Mixed Doubles Curling: the ones to beat. Boy, the Cory/Korey’s are going to have an uphill battle against that powerhouse Italian team.
I hear you scoffing, my friends, but you have to remember one of the Kajmeister Olympic Rules: All sports are interesting if you know the rules and the backstory of those competing. Curling started at the Games back in 1924—more on that shortly. But let’s briefly recall how these winter games all got started.
