Olympic

I'd almost forgotten what it meant to cheer for your country in an international event until I saw Joey Cheek race earlier today. He was in charge, in first place after the first of two runs in the 500 meter speedskate, and I was nervous he'd trip out of the gate like two others before him, blowing his chance, but no, he's moving, racing, sprinting, mastering the turns, making the second run just as great as the first, and what a champion there was on the screen, humble and joyous, and so was I. This American, this Southerner had won a gold medal in the freaking Winter Olympics, and I jumped up to grin and laugh share his joy, like you're supposed to celebrate greatness and take pride in your own people.

Unfortunately, this was about the only time I could be compelled to look up from my book. I sat through three hours tonight of tape delayed and processed drama that, just earlier today, was a great sporting event. Today this race, pairs ice dancing, and snowboarding were shown, but couldn't seem to keep on any one long enough, as if every Olympic fan had developed a case of ADD, needing constant cut-aways for entertainment, with a horrible Chevy commercial to boot. All of this jumping kept me from getting into any event, feeling little of the drama and the passion and the raw nerves that should fill every sprint and every jump where you simply can't look away as sprinter after sprinter after sprinter try to match the best time on the board and be remembered as one of the greatest of all time, to be celebrated in his country for years, and his hometown forever. Instead I read my pop science book.

What does NBC and the rest of the media do? They highlight Kwan, a very likeable athlete, but one that likely wouldn't have been a factor had she competed. They highlight Bodie Miller, showing all of his lesser points, making him as unlikeable as possible. They treat snowboarding as a truly important international sport to attract young viewers, even though the only question was which American would win (and most young people would rather watch Grey's Anatomy anyway). They show every minute of women's hockey debacles, where checking is not allowed and teams often score more goals than their opponents take shots. They show us the same scenes, the same sappy stories over and over and over until we can't take it anymore. Meanwhile Joey Cheek, the defending World Champion, gets treated like a happy to be here underdog, not even being mentioned in his own heat until they are just seconds from the gun. Why not?

It's the small moments that last, that you always remember, and, if I remember correctly, they used to do a much better job of bringing to the audience. When the Chinese lady Zhang Dan got back onto the ice tonight after a crash that might have blown out her knee, I worried that she'd do further damage, but could see in her that she simply wouldn't let that keep her from finishing the program. It's the freaking Olympics, dammit! I know the world is a lot smaller, and I know the Cold War is over, and I know that most of these sports aren't of interest every other week of the year, but it's still the best in the world competing at the highest level, showing you for just two weeks what they have worked their entire lives to accomplish. You should be able to sell that. Everyone, especially NBC, is missing some great sport.