I noted in “Diplomatic Brinkmanship Upstages the Opening Ceremony” on February 9 that supervening events might limit my commentary on Olympic events. That has been the case, most notably last week with the Parkland mass shooting and the resignation of South African President Jacob Zuma, and this week with the death of Billy Graham and the Chibok-style kidnapping of schoolgirls in Nigeria.
Therefore, what follows is an amalgam of commentaries on Olympic events from Day 12-14.
Women’s Bobsled
As a native of the Caribbean, I found nothing comical about the way Jamaicans provided Bobsledding fodder for amusement in Sochi. Here is just a taste of the racial and regional shame I vented in “Sochi Olympics: Day 10,” February 17, 2014:
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I fully appreciated the novelty of having a team from one of our tropical islands participate in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, Canada; I got the comic relief those ‘fish-out-of-water’ Jamaican bobsledders provided; and I got why a shrewd producer thought he could make a mint by turning their Olympic misadventures into the farcical, slapstick comedy Cool Runnings. …
Listening to all of the nostalgic swooning over this movie today, you’d think it reflected Jamaica’s intrinsic cool as surely as The Comedians reflected Haiti’s terminal despair. But, as I recall it, Cool Runnings portrayed the Jamaicans involved as little more than minstrel fools and made a mockery of their national pride. Imagine a feature-length episode of “Amos ‘N Andy Go to the Winter Olympics” and you’ll get the idea.
More to the point, though, Cool Runnings was based on the hapless and laughable efforts Jamaican bobsledders displayed over a quarter-century ago. Which is why, instead of laughing along with everybody else, I am constrained to wonder why the efforts Jamaican bobsledders are displaying today seem every bit as hapless and laughable.
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Given that, you’ll understand my dismay at watching putatively proud Nigerians joining Jamaicans in doing the same in PyeongChang. Here is how the politically correct press is spinning their slapdash preparation and slapstick participation:
Every so often an Olympic team captures the public imagination not because of their stellar performance, but because of the sheer audacity it takes for them to perform at all.
They joke about being from a ‘shithole’ country, as defined by President Donald Trump, saying they hope they can redefine the view of African immigrants.
(Daily Beast, February 17, 2018)
The unwitting point, of course, is that everyone knew these black bobsledders were not just woefully but willfully unprepared. In fact, the Jamaicans made plain their intent to do little more than inject slapstick comedy into this Olympic competition. Only this explains borrowing “Cool” from Cool Runnings and “Bolt” from Usain Bolt to name their bobsled “Cool Bolt”.
More to the point, though, the predictably shitty performances of both teams at these Games will do little to redefine the global view of bobsledders from Africa and the Caribbean.
Meanwhile, the Olympic motto is “Faster, Higher, Stronger”. But watching NBC’s exclusive coverage, you’d be forgiven the impression that its motto includes a fourth word: Sappier.
I have no problem with the profile pieces that invariably tug at the heart. It’s just that it smacked of wanton unfairness when NBC featured Nigeria and Jamaica’s final runs in this event.
It was bad enough that these teams were in last and next to last place, respectively. But NBC blithely ignored the final runs of the vast majority of the other 18 teams – all of whom were more deserving of coverage based on any objective criteria.
As it happened, one of the announcers even remarked that he was getting more questions about Nigeria and Jamaica than any of the teams contending for gold. I suspect he was complaining as much as marveling.
Whatever the case, there seems little doubt that NBC was more interested in providing comic relief than coverage of Olympic competition, and the Nigerians and Jamaicans were only too happy to oblige: the former expected a boost in its ratings; the latter a boost in their commercial appeal.
This, alas, is the legacy of Cool Runnings. And, lest you think all black bobsledders are thusly fated, you need only look to the black-American bobsledders to see what a black team that is serious about this sport can do.
Enough.
- Germany won gold; the United States (with two black bobsledders), silver; and Canada, bronze.
Women’s Downhill
I prefer watching women Tennis players because, in addition to the power the men display, they display a lot more finesse. I find their combination of power and finesse far more entertaining.
This might just betray prurient interest, but I prefer watching women Downhill skiers for similar reasons. They match the daring, power, and speed the men display, but they look so much better doing it.
Then, of course, there was the drama of seeing if Lindsey Vonn could live up to the eight-year hype of finally defending her gold in this event from the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. I refer you to “Day 7 — Lindsey Vonn: Return of the Snow Queen” below for more on her quest.
There was also the drama of Mikaela Shiffrin withdrawing at the last minute to give herself the best possible chance of winning gold in her favorite event, the Women’s Combined.
As it turned out, Vonn was lucky just to make the podium – by the tip of her skiiy-ski-ski.
- Sofia Goggia of Italy won gold; Ragnhild Mowinckel of Norway, silver; and Lindsey Vonn of the United States, bronze.
Women’s Combined
I refer you to “Day 6 — Mikaela Shiffrin Begins Her Heiden Quest” below for more on her quest. But, as it turned out, she too could not live up to the hype.
- Michelle Gisin of Switzerland won gold; Mikaela Shiffrin of the United States, silver; and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland, bronze.
This result means that Shiffrin will leave these Games with 1 gold and 1 silver. To be sure, this is nothing to sneeze at. But it’s a far cry from the 5 gold she was hyped to win.
With all due respect to Eric Heiden, imagine if Michael Phelps had come away from the 2008 Beijing Olympics with only 1 gold and 1 silver after being hyped to win 8 gold. Of course, Shiffrin’s shortcomings speak volumes about that Phelpsian conquest.
Other Notable Events
I enjoyed watching the United States win its first-ever gold in Cross Country Skiing Women’s Team Sprint Free; the United States upset Canada to win gold in Women’s Hockey (proving that, despite Trump, America is still #1!); Anna Gasser of Austria upstage Jamie Anderson of the United States to win gold in the inaugural Snowboard Women’s Big Air; and Wu Dajing of China upset two South Koreans to win gold in Short Track Skating Men’s 500m.
Meanwhile, Women’s Single Figure Skating is easily the most glamorous event at any Winter Olympics. But, after watching the Short Program, I knew it would be dominated by “Olympic Athletes from Russia.”
You might think I would have much to say about this event, but I couldn’t possibly comment. After all, in my Day 10 commentary, I upbraided the IOC for allowing any Russian athlete to participate in these Games.
Nothing vindicates my principled opposition quite like a Russian woman bobsledder testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs today. She joins a Russian male curler who was stripped of his bronze medal for the same shame at these Games.
MEDAL COUNT: Norway 37; Canada 27; Germany 26
Related commentaries:
Opening Ceremony…
Day 1-11…
Sochi day 10…
PyeongChang day 10…