Some Musings on the Olympics (by Laura Orem)

The Olympics are fun, but I don't think they are as exciting as when both Summer and Winter Games were held in the same year. Back then, you really had to wait four years, not two, for the next Olympics, and so a huge amount of anticipation built up. Now, some Games or another seems to come around fairly often, so it's hard to get as hyped up about it.

This is not to cast aspersions on the achievements of the athletes, or the excitement of the competitions themselves. In fact, judging by what's going on in Vancouver, the sports are getting more and more challenging and daring. Shaun White flying through the air - I mean, jeez louise. Amazing.

And is it just me, or are the athletes uniformly rock-star glamorous? Even White, with his shock of flaming red hair and baggy snowboarder wardrobe, gives off the kind of good-hearted bad-boy sex appeal that makes young girls swoon. And I have never seen so many sets of perfect teeth in my life. Without exception, the Vancouver Olympians have teeth you could read by. Really, there isn't a bad looker in the lot.

   

left to right, Bode Miller, Shani Davis, Apolo Ohno

 

left to right, Shaun White, Lindsay Vonn, Katherine Reutter

Today's athletes are highly polished, highly technical, highly trained. Physically, they have to be - their sports are more competitive, more daring, more dangerous. They are all also media packages, looking toward a life after competition of endorsements and television appearances. Many of them struggled and sacrificed much to get where they are, so they can't be faulted for this. Everyone has to make a living, and these folks are the best of the best in their fields. They are entitled to some payback and reward.

But I must admit that I miss the old days of scandal and mess, the juicy unrehearsed mess that seemed to accompany the torch wherever it went. What Olympics is complete without some deeply delicious controversy, a la Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding? In Vancouver, everyone, even the former problem child Bode Miller, is decorously well-behaved and poised. What fun is that?

I also miss the non-top tier athletes. There always used to be competitors who were awful but undaunted - think of the Jamaican bobsledders - who inspired not by talent but by grit, but they are few and far between anymore. The level of competition is so high that they are not welcome; in fact, the rules now state that Olympians must have competed at world-class levels in their sport to be eligible to participate in the games. This ensures exciting competitions and world records, but it also eliminates folks like my all-time favorite Olympian, Eddy "the Eagle" Edwards.

For those who don't remember him, Eddy was a British ski-jumper who participated in the 1988 Calgary Games. He was a blue-collar, virtually penniless downhill skier who had switched to jumping because, among other reasons, it was cheaper to do. (Eddy was so broke that he had to stuff his secondhand ski-boots with five pairs of socks to make them fit, and on occasion he lived in a mental hospital - not as a patient, but because he had no place else to go.) He wore coke-bottle glasses that fogged up when he skied and a goofy buzz-cut hairdo, and his nose was lumpy and crooked from being broken more than once crashing into the hill. He was about the worst ski-jumper ever. He was also unfazed by his lack of skill and courageous in the face of his terribleness. He didn't care that he was going to come in last or maybe end up in a tangled heap of skis and snow at the bottom. He just wanted to participate.

Despite the grumblings of some who saw him as "cheapening" the sport, Eddy was arguably the most popular athlete at the 1988 Games. He touched something in everyone who had not been the fastest, the strongest, the best ball-thrower, and who had perhaps memories of standing against the wall, waiting and waiting to be picked for the team. The spectators would chant, "Eddy, Eddy!" whenever he appeared, and he remains the only athlete mentioned by name in the closing ceremonies (also sparking an "Eddy, Eddy!" chant by the crowd).

Here is Eddy (complete with Finnish narration) demonstrating his terrible jumping skills and his wonderful chutzpah.

Eddy has had his ups and downs since Calgary (NPI), but he is remembered fondly. He was a torch-bearer this year, carrying the Olympic Flame through Winnipeg. I miss him.

Comments

[Stacey]

I too preferred the Olympics when they were held every 4 years. I'd forget about them for roughly 3 of the 4 intervening years and then the excitement would build for the final year. And I've noticed the white teeth too. Wow. And every one of the major athletes must have a team of psychologists to coach them in answering the questions about their performance, how it feels to win, to get silver, etc. The answers are the same: "It's all about the (fill in the name of the sport), not the competition. As long as I've done my best." And so on. And I've read that some countries won't let an athlete go if they don't think he or she has a chance at a medal! I don't remember Eddy Edwards. You probably have to tune in at 3:00 a.m. to catch the Eddy Edwards of today.

[Terence Winch]

Dear L: I was obsessed with the Knicks as a kid, used to follow boxing in the golden age of Ali-Frazier-Foreman-Leonard-Duran-Hagler, and, as a Bronxite, I stay half-tuned in to the fate of the Yankees, but, deep down, I increasingly feel that sports is just more corporatist bullshit, individual achievement notwithstanding (since many of my poet friends are baseball fanatics, however, I put baseball in a special category; plus, I like the fact that any given baseball game, a la Zeno's Paradox, has the potential of lasting an eternity). And the Olympics have always seemed to me the epitome of must-not-see t.v. I don't always agree with him, but I'm on board with Christopher Hitchens, who said this (and lots more) in his excellent critique of the Olympics in the Feb. 15 Newsweek: "Meanwhile, with millions of other don't-care people, I won't be able to escape the pulverizing tedium of the events themselves." (And don't even get me started on how much I don't care about Tiger Woods or golf or anything having to do with either.) Sorry. yrs, T

[Laura Orem]

I can't argue with you, T. It's so slick now - very disheartening. Minor league baseball is better, if you go to the games - the players are very nice and appreciative to the fans, especially kids, and the games are fun to watch, too. Echoes of the old days, when you could sit in the bleachers and have a hot dog and not have to take out a home-equity loan.

As for Tiger Woods, I'm with you 100%. And golf as a spectator sport...well, it isn't. As Rosie O'Donnell says, it's just men in funny pants walking.

[Grace Cavalieri]

Will you kindly expound on why 100,000 condoms were distributed to the OLYMPIC VILLAGE? That makes about 19 per athlete.

[Laura Orem]

Morale.