I have always thought of the America’s Cup as a rich (White) man’s hobby that has more in common with social events like Polo matches than sporting events like Baseball games.
Except that at least Polo has some redeeming value in this respect – given that, although a majority of the team owners/sponsors are White men, a majority of the (best) players are Latinos. Whereas, not only are almost all of the team owners/sponsors for the America’s Cup White men; almost all of the yachtsmen are too. Which is why, ironically, Polo players are more representative of the Americas than the men who participate in the (men-only) America’s Cup. But I digress.
It was impossible to miss all of the jingoistic reports and commentaries on the way the America’s Cup played out in San Francisco Bay today between Oracle Team USA (Team Oracle), defending the Cup, and Emirates Team New Zealand (Team Emirates), challenging (its oxymoronic appellation notwithstanding).
For the uninitiated, which I suspect will be 99 percent of you, the Cup goes to the team that is first to win 9 races over a specially designed 10-mile course, which in this case incorporated such scenic mileposts as Alcatraz Island. And it looked to be a rout when Team Emirates raced to an 8-1 lead on Day 8 (September 18). But, by some miracle (or, more likely, a mutually beneficial collusion), Team Oracle sailed to seven consecutive victories that were even more improbable than Team Emirates’s 8-1 run. This led to (or set up) today’s made-for-TV, winner-take-all race with the teams tied 8-8.
Team Oracle won the tiebreaker to clinch the Cup. But if ever there were a race where money bought victory, this was it. “The greatest comeback in sports history“? Sure. It ranks right up there with Lance Armstrong’s comeback from cancer to cycle to seven consecutive victories in the Tour de France….
But it’s an indication of how fickle most commentators are that the same ones, who on Day 8 were venting all of my misgivings about the elitist, all-white, men-only nature of this event, were commenting on this do-or-die race today as if it were the friggin’ Super Bowl.
Incidentally:
Billionaire Oracle mogul Larry Ellison’s team won the America’s Cup in 2010 and thus earned the right to determine the current regatta’s rules. He called for the new AC72 catamaran, which can hydroplane on top of the water at speeds of nearly 50 miles per hour. These boats are among the fastest, most sophisticated, most expensive, and most dangerous sailboats ever built.
(TIME magazine, September 17, 2013)
But frankly, all you need to know about this event is that 14 teams signed up to compete – only to have Ellison, the world’s 5th-richest person with a net worth of $41 billion, make the cost of competing so prohibitive (with team budgets of $100 million, give or take a million) that 10 of them withdrew. Another two teams were deemed unsuitable, for whatever reason.
The point is that it would have been too elitist to be worthy of public interest even if all 14 teams had competed in qualifying rounds to make it to the final, first-to-nine series. That only four teams ended up competing just compounded the mockery of this rich man’s hobby masquerading as a bona fide sport.
Not to mention that the seemingly contrived outcome gives credence to claims (by real sport sailors) that the whole event amounted to little more than an ostentatious exercise in self-flattery for Ellison’s Olympian (money-can-buy-me-anything) ego.
Interestingly enough, my take on the Equestrian Eventing at the Olympics pretty much sums up what I think about the America’s Cup:
Many of you took umbrage at my blithely dismissing Equestrian Eventing at these Olympics. But, truth be told, because success depends almost as much on the nature of the equipment/horse as it does on the skill of the competitor/rider, I don’t think Equestrian Eventing should be an Olympic sport. The mere fact that one has to be either rich or sponsored by a rich person just to participate makes a mockery of the egalitarian spirit of the Olympics. And while even rowing is enjoying some racial diversity, equestrian performers are almost exclusively White men and women of European descent.
(“London Olympics Day 3,” The iPINIONS Journal, July 30, 2012)
Finally, I feel obliged to clarify that, as one who has fond memories of many summers competing in sailing races, I am hardly averse to sport sailing. It’s just that the boats of the America’s Cup are to sport sailing what assault rifles are to sport hunting.
Related commentaries:
London Olympics…
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Wednesday, at 9:03 pm