The Olympic Games are happening! Yes! I love the Olympics! Michelle Kwan was my idol during the 1998 Olympics. I went right out and joined the local ice skating club. I made my premiere as a munchkin in the spring production of “The Wizard of Oz on Ice.” It was pretty epic. The 2010 Olympic men’s figure skating short program in Vancouver is on tonight, and I have to wonder, why is there still so much drama within the sport?
Of course with all professional sports, and nonprofessional sports for that matter, there is drama. Drugs, conspiracy, obsession, and paranoia are rampant. But it seems that ice-skating takes the cake. Yevgeny Plushenko, the reigning gold medal winner from Torino, is the center of the recent scandal. He has suggested that judges can prop up skaters with the new scoring system, just as in the old 6-point system, by inflating their “component” scores. This added to the suspicion by some that exaggerated artistic marks were given to Plushenko at recent championships. And this lead to further suspicions by the Russians and French that Americans and Canadians were conspiring against European skaters. Russians were also upset because Americans and Canadians had produced a training video for judges that featured Plushenko and contained harsh critiques of his 2006 Olympic performance. And now pair this with American Johnny Weir’s love of fox fur and PETA’s rage. Gah! The drama of men's skating!
What does all of this controversy and mistrust mean? The world is getting smaller and smaller and geopolitical lines are becoming fainter and fainter. Europeans are criticizing Europeans, American’s criticizing American’s, Russians are coaching Australians, Chinese are coaching the Bulgarians, and the Japanese are cheering on the French. The cold war is over. So, I am curious, why, despite this crossover, is there still animosity?
Granted, the Olympics are such an amazing event that brings together the world. And you can’t help but smile when you see the coverage from Canada, and I was tearing up when Alexandre Bilodeau carved his way into Canadian history when he became the first Canadian to win a gold medal on Canadian soil. I am not saying that the negative hue is prevalent throughout the Olympics, but still, coverage of those aspects somehow makes the events happening off of the slopes and ice more engaging then what is happening off of them. Why is this the case? Is it our world’s constant connectivness? The ability to see the best with just a click of the button? Is it the fact that athletes, though equipment, technology and training, are doing increasingly better and constantly breaking records? Do we need more then phenomenal athletics to keep our attention? Or is it the simple primal human need to be the best? The commitment of nations have the very best players? To impress the world?
Russia has been the long time leader in men’s, women’s, and pair’s skating. Perhaps this is because until the fall of the Soviet Union, government funding was actually being used to fund the sport and because of the use of sports as propaganda in the communist state. But even though Russia’s Plushenko is at the top, the American Evan Lysacek is right on his tail. And for the first time in many years, the Russians did not win gold in pairs skating. Is this because the fall of communism and thus the fall of the money? Is it because the rinks built in the Soviet Union are now transformed into commercial zones? Or is it because the quality of life in Russian currently leaves few families able to afford to send their children to ice skating lessons? Is it because Russian coaches left to places where they are guaranteed to be paid? Once again, the geopolitical lines are blurring. With Russia no longer clear wins, other countries have a bigger chance of winning. It adds geography to the sport.
That is the beauty of the Olympics. The games open up the world to us. They show people; the similarities, the interests, the difference, the culture, the support. So I am saddened by the fact that networks like NBC are describing athletes like Shawn White fondly as not wanting only to win but wanting to dominate. And what was their reasoning behind the eerie profile of Plushenko that made him look cold and cruel? I understand competition. I understand the want, the need to win. But when is that drive too much? When does the need to dominated become a demon, eating away at moves towards unity, friendship, and inspiration? I also understand the importance of honesty and fairness, and I wish that it could established in a reasonable way and be upheld without excessive criticism or elaborate schemes to circumnavigate the rules.
As a child who stayed up until two a.m. to watch the biathlon, I only hope that the spirit of the Olympic games stays true and is embodied by the athletes, coaches, judges, and fans. I feel that with an increasingly homogeneous and globalized yet violent world we need just this.
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