It seems to me that there have been a number of medals lost by team USA athletes due to this bizarre display of selfishness showing up here and there. The medal heat of the women’s snowboard cross kind of demonstrates my abstract thought here. I missed the race where Jacobellis’ grab cost us the gold medal, and she claims to not have been showing off. I find this kind of hard to fully believe. She wanted to share the excitement with the crowd but we’re to believe that she wasn’t showing off the fact that she had an untouchable lead? Talk about crash and burn.
Then there is Bode Miller. You love to hate him, and hate to love him. He’s a guy who speaks his mind and tells you how it is. On the other side of that, what he says can sound absolutely stupid. He’s good at what he does. He knows this. Miller is nearly his gift to you. His disqualification in one event meant to him that at least he wouldn’t have to drive a couple hours to Torino for the medal ceremony. This was the guy to watch. Known for being daring, skiing intoxicated in competition, and just being one of the best.
What is happening to team USA? Where is the team? The desire has shifted from the glory of competition and representing your country to being the best of your best. In fact, even those winning gold medals like Shani Davis exhibits this idea of this being an all for one situation. It is completely his call to participate where he believes he can be the strongest, but the team saw his abilities to win. He did bring home the gold in the 1000m, but maybe he could have another one for his fellow team members.
$25,000 bonus. That is what a member of team USA gets when they win a gold medal. Some of these people scrape by to live out their dreams for a brief moment, every four years. Others have endorsement contracts that makes the money a drop in the bucket. Joey Cheek is donating his bonus towards the cause in Sudan. That’s class, but not everyone gets this added boost to their pocket book in other countries. Canada certainly doesn’t, but there is talk of doing it in the future to “buy more gold medals” from their athletes.
This is a moment of a lifetime to just be in the games and representing their country, no matter how big, small, spectacular, or brief the event is. You show up at the opening as our country. I bet there are a bunch of people who will skip out of the closing ceremonies because it’s just too fluffy for their more important, personal lives. It’s ugly. It’s confounding.
This is where you expect me to say that I’m ashamed to have them represent my country in the olympics. I’m not saying that. I’m more so trying to portray the thought of, what the hell?