olympics
listening to sports columnists panning the olympics and pointing out how no one is watching is starting to drive me nuts. i have watched a huge amount of olympic coverage, which i realize is not what the average american is doing, but aside from while i'm at work, i pretty much have it on whenever i'm able.
people talking about what a disappointment bode miller and michele kwan are should shut the hell up. bode placed 5th in his first event. IN THE WORLD. 5th best skier ON THE PLANET. but since he didn't medal, everyone's all "oh, what a screwup. he must not have taken it seriously. i can't believe he got that nike sponsorship. i mean, there's obviously 4 other people ON THE PLANET who deserve that nike sponsorship more than him." Then he got DQ'ed during slolem for stradling a pole. that sucked. i'm sure he's pissed. that was a shame. but to say he's having a "flame out" or is "a complete bust so far" is absurd!
Then there's michele kwan. she got into the olympics based on her reputation, despite fighting an injury. she was unable to overcome that injury, and has graciously bowed out to allow the THIRD BEST HEALTHY SKATER IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES take her place. now, no one is going to watch the olympics. no michele, no watch. i guess (and i looked at the rules online to check on this) the 6 MINUTES of time she would have been skating during competition would have been so fabulous that everyone around the united states would have decided to watch the entire day's olympic coverage just to be sure they didn't miss the SIX MINUTES of michele kwan. but she's not skating anymore? aw, screw it. no sense watching anymore.
my other gripe with the media and public as a whole, is that they seem to be stuck on the idea that americans should be winning all the medals. this is a competition to determine the best in the world, and you only get once chance. so if you slip one single time, you obviously are not going to be in the top 3. so the fact that the united states team is not bringing home more medals is not completely surprising, and people should quit acting like our whole team is a bunch of losers who have ruined this years olympics and made it pointless and not worth watching.
my final problem: can the united states please stop inventing sports that we know we can win? if you look at the medal standings, we're not bad: 6 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze. 4th in total medals overall, and first in terms of having the most gold medals of any country. however, remove all snowboarding events from the olympics, and here is our medal count: 3 gold, 1 bronze. impressive, huh? we dominate snowboarding, though. of 12 snowboarding medals awarded, we've won 6. 3 of the 4 gold, 3 of the 4 silver. and no other country has more than 1 medal in snowboarding. so, eat it, rest of world. we own you in snowboarding.
*medal counts as of 1:30pm on friday 2/17
people talking about what a disappointment bode miller and michele kwan are should shut the hell up. bode placed 5th in his first event. IN THE WORLD. 5th best skier ON THE PLANET. but since he didn't medal, everyone's all "oh, what a screwup. he must not have taken it seriously. i can't believe he got that nike sponsorship. i mean, there's obviously 4 other people ON THE PLANET who deserve that nike sponsorship more than him." Then he got DQ'ed during slolem for stradling a pole. that sucked. i'm sure he's pissed. that was a shame. but to say he's having a "flame out" or is "a complete bust so far" is absurd!
Then there's michele kwan. she got into the olympics based on her reputation, despite fighting an injury. she was unable to overcome that injury, and has graciously bowed out to allow the THIRD BEST HEALTHY SKATER IN THE ENTIRE UNITED STATES take her place. now, no one is going to watch the olympics. no michele, no watch. i guess (and i looked at the rules online to check on this) the 6 MINUTES of time she would have been skating during competition would have been so fabulous that everyone around the united states would have decided to watch the entire day's olympic coverage just to be sure they didn't miss the SIX MINUTES of michele kwan. but she's not skating anymore? aw, screw it. no sense watching anymore.
my other gripe with the media and public as a whole, is that they seem to be stuck on the idea that americans should be winning all the medals. this is a competition to determine the best in the world, and you only get once chance. so if you slip one single time, you obviously are not going to be in the top 3. so the fact that the united states team is not bringing home more medals is not completely surprising, and people should quit acting like our whole team is a bunch of losers who have ruined this years olympics and made it pointless and not worth watching.
my final problem: can the united states please stop inventing sports that we know we can win? if you look at the medal standings, we're not bad: 6 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze. 4th in total medals overall, and first in terms of having the most gold medals of any country. however, remove all snowboarding events from the olympics, and here is our medal count: 3 gold, 1 bronze. impressive, huh? we dominate snowboarding, though. of 12 snowboarding medals awarded, we've won 6. 3 of the 4 gold, 3 of the 4 silver. and no other country has more than 1 medal in snowboarding. so, eat it, rest of world. we own you in snowboarding.
*medal counts as of 1:30pm on friday 2/17