If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to
hear it, does it make a noise? If a
Winter Olympics takes place in a backward country’s warmest spot, with little
introductory hype, does it make a noise?
The first question has confounded philosophers. The second one must be equally confounding to
advertisers, athletes, and even sports fanatics like me, who are stunned that an
Olympic Games is going on and we couldn’t care less.
Oh believe me, there are plenty of explanations. Here are just a few: (1) During the months leading up to these
Olympics, we heard nothing but criticisms of the venue. The host city has the same climate as the
Southern Oregon coast. Its infrastructure
is woefully inadequate for such a grand event.
And it resides inside a country that is unabashedly homophobic at a time
when the “civilized world” is finally waking up to the fact that homosexuality
is not a sin. (2) During the weeks
leading up to these Olympics, the hype machine simply wasn’t working, at least
not in America. The only Winter Olympian
who had been in the news during recent years was Tiger Woods’ girlfriend Lindsay
Vonn, and she announced some time ago that she wouldn’t compete because of
injury. (3) Once the Olympics began and we were reminded
that there were a few titans competing after all, we’ve seen those titans go
down one at a time. Sean White, the flamboyant
redheaded American? He took a seat on the
snow. Evgeni Plushenko, the legendary
Russian skater? He took a seat on the
ice. In fact, Plushenko’s fall, which
took place in a practice round, was so devastating that he quit the competition
for medical reasons. Then, what started
out as a sad story became a maddening one, as the media reported that Russians
are now criticizing the skater for not manning up and fighting through the
pain. Talk about folks who are neither
empathic nor rational! (4) At least here in America, the outcomes of the events
are widely reported long before they are aired on TV. I don’t know about you, but once I know who
won a sporting event, I have virtually no interest in watching it.
There you have four good reasons why I have been
more looking forward to the second season of “House of Cards” than anything
taking place this fortnight at Sochi. Truly,
I want to support these world class athletes who have been training for years
just for their big moment, but something seems off kilter this year. Where are the larger than life
characters? Where is the celebration of
a city and a nation that has given its all to celebrate humanity in its
universality? And where is the sense of
anticipation about an epic showdown between two can’t-lose athletes?
We have none of that in these games. And I guess, with respect to the last of
those issues, it’s just as well. Imagine
such an Ali-Frazier, Borg-McEnroe kind of matchup in Sochi – the competitors
would probably collide with each other approaching the end of the course,
leaving the gold medal in the hand of some unknown competitor from Norway. But that wouldn’t be so bad. For I
have to say, the one thing I have learned from these Olympics is that more
people live in Maryland than in Norway.
Amazing, right? What’s also
amazing is that by the end of these Olympics, practically all of Norway’s young
adults will have won a medal.
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