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They're each other's everything!
I was hoping, to some extent, to ignore the Beijing Olympics.
Mainly, I don’t like the idea of China raking in a bunch of cash, of how their human rights standards and Big Brother security undermine what should be a joyous event. Let’s just say the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver are considerably more appealing.
Try as I might, though, I’m sucked in
For one, there’s the added element of the China-US medal race, adding an element of “us versus them” not seen since the Cold War. It’s not easy to get riled up when you’re battling Australia or Jamaica for athletic supremacy. China’s quest for dominance smacks so much of nationalism that I feel compelled to respond in kind. So, anyway, Go USA! Or whoever’s battling the Chinese, which is why I found myself cheering as Kenya’s Wincatherine Nyambura Ndereba sprinted to a second place finish in the women’s marathon, crushing the silver medal hopes of China’s Zhou Chunxiu.
The Olympics have a way of bringing that out. I can still picture being on vacation (Sun River?) during the 1988 Calgary Games. The music brings me back, and the names of athletes you only hear from every four years, but ring like old friends.
But then I have to deal with those horrible human interest stories. I have to deal with endless interviews of athletes and their families. I have to go from rejoicing as Michael Phelps makes history, to watching an interview with him where he comes off a jerk. And I have to watch Debbie Phelps bask in the glow of the publicity, when I can’t help but picture her as every Little League mom the rest of the parents and kids couldn’t stand. I have to pray somehow Usain Bolt gets beat by someone, because even though it’s amazing to watch him dominate so easily, I can’t handle one more shot of him pointing to the stands after a race.
It’s hard to say what I want. On one hand, maybe we’re better off just not knowing who these guys are. I mean, don’t you need some level of self-obsession to destroy your opponents? But there’s also the flipside, where Kirby Puckett and Michael Jordan are still worshipped as legends, despite the fact Kirby was charged with sexual assault and spousal abuse, and His Airness is known regarded as a Grade A-hole.
In all fairness, Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt aren’t that bad…yet. And, on the plus side, excessive focus on Debbie Phelps did bring us the image of the guy sitting in front of her during the 100m Fly (around the 3:35 mark).
You know who seems the most likable athlete so far? Stephanie Brown Tafton, the woman who barely made the US team, then proceeded to chuck a discus farther than anyone else in the field. She was also remarkably gracious and soft-spoken in her interview. I’m just saying.
Oh, and I also have an affinity for Logan Tom, but for entirely different reasons.
Tags: olympics
August 19th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
Jordan, I’m kind of just flabbergasted by a lot of your comments, especially from someone who’s supposedly portraying a Christian point of view in what they’re writing. Maybe more of it is tongue-in-cheek than I’m giving you credit for, but cheering for someone to “crush the hopes” of an athlete just because they compete for a country whose governmental decisions you don’t agree with seems awful. If anything, I feel bad China’s athletes because as young children they are often taken from their families, pushed to their limits in training and discarded if they don’t succeed. My wife and I were discussing as we watched the women’s gymnastics team final that while we were rooting for the US, it was hard not to be happy for the group of Chinese girls whose very worth in their society stems from their athletic accomplishments. The Chinese athletes don’t deserve your scorn any more than American athletes do for the problems that our own government causes here and abroad on a daily basis.
Perhaps you need to actually start paying attention to the human interest stories you seem to be so annoyed by, because then you might actually notice that these people are just that… human. They have struggles and problems that go beyond their athletic achievements, and that’s what makes sport as a whole so great. If you just want to root for the laundry and not the person wearing it, you are welcome to do that - no one is forcing you to watch those human interest stories. But I think there’s a Visa commercial running right now that summarizes my feeling about the Olympics - we root for athletes because they are human, and when they succeed, we succeed. The Olympics have winners and losers just like any other sport, but I think they’re really about pushing the boundaries of what is possible… regardless of what country the athlete who does it is from.
August 19th, 2008 at 6:56 pm
You’re right, cheering for Zhou Chinxiu’s hopes to be crushed wasn’t very Christ-like of me. And afterward, when she was smiling and waving to the crowd and obviously overjoyed after running a little over 26 miles, it seemed like she was pretty cool.
But I disagree with your final points. We don’t root for “athletes”. We root for the athletes we like to beat the other athletes. That’s why the US Hockey team beating the USSR in 1980 mattered so much…maybe they were individuals, but those guys were representing us, with all the ideological and Cold War tension that encompassed.
Based on your site, you’re a Tar Heel fan…I didn’t see any photos celebrating the achievements of Greg Paulus or J.J. Reddick. As much as sports are about heroes, they’re also about villains. The great thing is, sports allows us to separate ourselves from the equation a bit. Maybe if you met J.J. Reddick, you’d like him, but my guess is you hoped he failed in his quest to beat NC. I couldn’t stand Brandon Roy when he was at the University of Washington and carving up the Oregon Ducks, but I love that guy now.
If you were an Oklahoma fan during the 2006 Fiesta Bowl, maybe you were blown away by the sheer effort Boise State put together, and maybe you even appreciated that you’d witnessed one of the greatest games of all time. But I’d guess you’d still be sad the Sooners lost.
In reality, Michael Phelps is just a guy who really, really likes to win, and he uses mundane statements from other athletes as a motivation to cut their hearts out. Usain Bolt is probably just a bit self-centered and insecure, so he uses his dominance to mock other competitors. Debbie Phelps is just proud of a son she raise alone…an astounding and honorable feat…but she still reminds me of those crazy Little League moms.
The bigger question is should we root for teams at all? Can we really just root for individual athletes? Should players be judged or scored on their effort at all?
August 19th, 2008 at 10:21 pm
Jordan,
Those are all fair points, and I’m sorry if I came on too strong. You’re right that sports is just as much about villains as it is about our heroes, and that’s perfectly captured in one of my favorite sports books that chronicles a year in the UNC-Duke rivalry entitled “To Hate Like This is to be Happy Forever.” We root just as hard against certain teams we hate as for the ones we love.
I guess I have a few conflicting feelings. First, I like to think that I only root against people if they have done something to provoke my ire, not just the nature of their very existence or nationality. But then I think about if all the players on Duke really have done something legitimate enough to make me dislike them as much as I do, and they probably haven’t, so that does smack of a little hypocrisy.
I also guess I feel like the Olympics are different for some reason, and while it’s good to have a sense of pride in America and root for their athletes, as someone who has lived in other countries I have a knee-jerk reaction against painting entire nations as villainous because I feel like that sort of attitude breeds the very same nationalistic attitudes we don’t like China for. I feel like the only athletes I’ve rooted against in these games have done something like taunt an opponent (here’s looking at you, Allain Bernard), showboated or done something else. And when a US athlete does those same things, I don’t feel indebted to still root for him just because he’s from my country. Granted I haven’t been able to watch every second of Olympic coverage, but I feel like the Chinese athletes I have seen have embodied the ideal of hard competitors who display humility in both victory and defeat.
I guess all that is just to say that your points are well taken, I just feel like there’s a big difference in rooting for someone to lose and rooting for something bad to happen to them; then you sort of cross the threshold into brutality. But maybe I’m trying to hold you to some golden standard that nobody could measure up to. After all, I would never want to meet JJ Redick - that way, as you suggested, I never have to consider the possibility of liking him… ha!
August 19th, 2008 at 11:06 pm
“…there’s a big difference in rooting for someone to lose and rooting for something bad to happen to them…”
Very well put, sir, and I agree entirely. I can also see where my post came off that way.
I think, to explain further, I am rooting for the Chinese National Team to not accomplish their goal of dominating the medal count (they’re already dominating the gold medal count). Partly, this is because I don’t particularly like nationalism, period. As you said earlier, it’s really sad the pressure they put on these athletes, and how their worth is completely in how well they perform. For the individuals, I guess I’d hope they do as best they can. For the government behind those individuals, it’s sickening.
Your comment on how the Chinese competitors display humility is also right on. They never seem to have the same issues with sportsmanship that Western athletes do.
Anyway, great points, and thanks for reminding us who those people are. That is, after all, how we should view all people.
August 20th, 2008 at 7:04 am
I’ve pretty much boycotted the Olympics this year, but I did watch Phelps’s 7th and 8th races and Bolt’s crazy 100m dash. Seeing peak athletes dominate is always a testament to hard work and God-given ability.
Otherwise, I’m just torqued that China got an Olympics given all their human rights issues, so I’m not watching so as to not support them. But NBC is getting good ratings anyway. Good for them.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Just for the record: I despise Michigan and I have absolutely no problem with Ohio State crushing their dreams of a big ten championship!
August 20th, 2008 at 11:19 am
It is sad to hear some of the Chinese athletes who had had disappointing performances talk about how they’ve let down their country. You can just sense how much pressure is put on them by their government to win for the glory of China (as opposed to the glory of God, the glory of yourself, or the glory of whatever else you want to glorify).
There was a quote from China’s VP (or some equivalent) that basically said they were disappointed by what happened to Liu Xiang in the hurdles, but that they know he will come back stronger to win for China. Doesn’t he get a say in that? I know he has already said he will come back faster, but what if he didn’t want to?
There was also an interview with a chinese female gymnast i heard on FOX sports this morning. She didn’t know if her parents were there to watch her perform, she hadn’t been home since going to train for the Olympics over a year ago, and they hadnt given her any vacations. Intense training is one thing, but from what I’m hearing about how the Chinese handle their top athletes, it’s just over the top.
August 21st, 2008 at 1:21 pm
I’ll concede that there are many athletes that may well be jerks, obnoxious, etc- but sometimes I think that if I were constantly in the lime light with everyone wanting to interview me every minute I was not competing eventually I would say something or do something that would make me look less than a role model.
August 21st, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I’ll concede that there are many athletes that may well be jerks, obnoxious, etc- but sometimes I think that if I were constantly in the lime light with everyone wanting to interview me every minute I was not competing eventually I would say something or do something that would make me look less than a role model.
You’re also right though that the very nature or athletics brings that out in us. We play to win the game. It is always been said of guys like MJ and Kobe that they really want/wanted to kill you whether in practice, games or ping pong. That competitive nature is something that is hard to fit into a redemptive mold when the outcome we desire (winning) is always at the expense of someone else.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:56 am
This is interesting, thanks.