5 Reasons the Winter Olympics Aren’t Quite So Useless This Year
Written by Ray McAllister
Thursday, 18 February 2010 12:20
What is it about the Winter Olympics that, despite all the groveling by NBC to get us to watch them, always makes them so easy not to watch?
Ironically, maybe the best description came from an NBC show. Alec Baldwin’s sardonic character on “30 Rock,” an NBC boss, recently said: "That's what I'm talking about, empathy. It's about as useless as the Winter Olympics.” He paused. “This February on NBC."
Useless. That’s exactly it. The Winter Olympics don’t have the USA basketball team or Australian swimmers or the Cuban boxers or the Jamaican sprinters or the world’s soccer teams. That’s all Summer Olympics stuff.
The Winter Olympics have curling.
Have you looked at curling? It’s like shuffleboard … without the excitement. Other winter sports are just as weird. Ice Dancing? Sure, it takes talent and the results can be beautiful – but that’s true of playing Chopin. The Biathalon? It combines cross-country skiing and rifle-shooting.
Why not throw in car repairs? You could have a triathlon.
And yet …
These Winter Olympics have been strangely NOT boring this time. Not even completely useless. Here are five reasons why – one for each Olympic ring:
1. They’re in the Western Hemisphere. Olympics in Europe or Asia are tape-delayed, reducing excitement. Many are seen live this time.
2. The main TV competition, “American Idol,” hit a dead zone the last two nights with three hours of badly edited highlights. Most seemed to be of coming scenes or, conversely, of already shown scenes. And when you get down to reality shows – real reality – what beats the Olympics?
3. They have blundering, hypocrisy and, sadly, tragedy. Organizers kept visitors far from the Olympic flame, behind a large fence, before moving the fence in and build a viewing ramp. But they never did respond properly to the death of Georgian luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili. They immediately changed the dangerous course – but blamed the death on “athlete error.” Very classy, guys.
4. American athletes have lived up to the hype. There’s the sheer greatness of Shani Davis and snowboarder Shaun White, as well as the persistence of skier Bodie Miller and of the incredible skating machine Apolo Ono … who turns out to be no relation at all to Yoko.
5. And talk about overcoming odds. American skier Lindsey Vonn won gold despite an injured shin. And Slovenian cross-country skier Petra Majdic – who slipped in practice, fell 10 feet onto rocks and was rushed to the hospital for x-rays – returned that day to win bronze. “For me,” she said, “this medal is gold with little diamonds.”
I could be a curling superstar! I already have the broom.
TSimpson
|2010-02-18 10:41:14
I agree with all but the curling! It's fascinating! I liken it to golf, you either love it, or hate it, I happen to love it! As for comparing it to shuffleboard, no where close! I've yet to see a disc take a curl during a game of shuffle board!
