Because You Never Asked

     Being that the Olympics have arguably become the single-most important event on the human calendar, rather than feel guilt for writing yet another essay on the subject, I shall consider such expanded treatment unavoidable for one such as I, possessed of a mind in perpetual mental ebullience. Having already discussed the unobjective nationalistic aspects of media coverage, allow me to roam into other areas of media critique. Let's face it, when the day is done and the kids are finally put to bed, the Olympics are whatever the media makes them out to be.

     As we all know, NBC was responsible for the dissemination of Atlanta '96. No one can undertake an enterprise of this magnitude and please everyone. This writer can only commend the network for its announcers, commentators, athletic experts and technical work. (I especially liked Cris Collingsworth's work in Track and Field.) Other than the usual bitch as to excessive patriotic bluster, my primary complaint centers on NBC's concept of the Games and how they presented them.

     This essay was inspired by a commentary made on National Public Radio. I feel somewhat guilty for not remembering the name of the journalist responsible for my inspiration, but his cogent remarks had to do with NBC's decision to give us more "soap opera" than sport. Bingo! What we got was theater, melodrama, innumerable contrived bits of heroism and dedication to the detriment of actual sports coverage. The manufactured human interest angle took precedence over the sporting activities themselves. Rather than athletic competition, we got "The Lou Gehrig Story", "Brian's Song", "Fear Strikes Out" or "Hoosiers". It was as if we were watching a dramatic documentary of the Atlanta Games rather than the Games themselves. What we were really seeing was

     "schmaltz".

     As a result of this attitude, some unusual sports we might never see anywhere else, like badminton, judo, ping-pong and others, were given virtually no coverage. Most prejudiced by this "schmaltz" concept were the team competitions, which produced some of the most dramatic moments of these Games. A few examples are the Cuba-USA baseball game, where the underdog American college kids almost rallied to beat the supposedly invincible Cuban machine; the outstanding men's soccer final, where Nigeria surprised soccer power Argentina in a memorable battle; the bitterly contested softball final won by the American women over their now arch rivals, China. All of these events were given the "highlight" treatment instead of the actual game, or, at the very least, some live coverage. But of all the errors made by NBC, the most glaring was their quasi-coverage of the splendid woman's soccer final.

     The Gold Medal game in woman's soccer filled the University of Georgia's football stadium with 78,000 rabid fans. It was one of the most eagerly awaited events Atlanta '96 had to offer, being a rematch of a scoreless tie in the preliminary round. It turned out to be a tense battle that lived up to its billing, the Americans finally winning by a score of 2 to 1.

     Unfortunately, NBC, in keeping with its soap opera format, gave us a few minutes of match highlights and fifteen minutes profiling America's top player. Instead of the exciting environment of this outstanding game, we got something like this:

     " . overcome the most unbeatable odds to become the athlete she is today. Trish Kelly Shannon lost her mother on the day she was born, leaving her fate in the hands of her troubled father, an unemployed whaler, who unwittingly introduced her to the game of soccer at the tender age of two when he drop kicked her out a second story window and then disappeared. Miraculously having survived the fall, Trish was sent to live with an indifferent aunt who had a hairy wart on the tip of her nose. Abused and neglected, beset with acute halitosis and heartbreaking outbreaks of psoriasis, the lonely young girl began angrily kicking anything in sight in what the psychiatrists later defined as "subliminal revenge syndrome", more commonly known as "being fucked up". As the roulette wheel of life would have it, a phys-ed teacher at her junior high, a Mr. Wartmuller, noticing Trish's rabid obsession for kicking things, as well as the debut of her adolescent chest, turned her on to soccer --- and generally turned her on --- before eventually going to jail for the crime of Statutory Foreplay. The susceptible young girl, still struggling to conquer a severe infatuation with oral sex, would go on to become the greatest player the sport has ever known. Now having achieved her life long dream, that being a shoe deal with a well known company, she has dedicated herself to finding her dad, who she would like to kick where it hurts the most, and then thank for all he did for her ."

     Or how about the heartwarming story of the fifty pound American gymnast, Shannon Trish Kelly, who came back to win a medal in Atlanta after having tragically missed her event in Barcelona when nobody told her she was a girl .

     Or the incredible dedication of swimmer Kelly Shannon Trish, who has logged so much time in the pool she can't remember what it's like to feel wet .

     Being that NBC decided on vaudeville over sport, these Olympics broke the record for clichés, soon to be broken at the Republican national convention in San Diego. As a result of Atlanta '96, we now know that just about every athlete competing in the Olympics was "on a mission", or had "worked all my life for this moment", or had "a dream come true". It is now transparently obvious (how could we have been so ignorant?) that nobody should "ever give up", that if you "just keep trying, you can be whatever you want to be", and that you must "believe in yourself".

     My personal favorite had to do with "sacrifice". We were constantly being told how this or that athlete had "sacrificed so much for this moment". I remember an ESPN announcer wrapping up after the American women had won the gold in basketball. He talked about how much they had "sacrificed" over the last year to reach their goal. I heard a similar statement from the star pitcher on America's triumphant softball team. I eventually had to stop and ask . sacrifice?

     Imagine being a young man or woman in your early 20's with an outstanding skill in baseball, basketball or soccer. Undoubtedly you want nothing more than to play your sport at the highest level against and with people just like yourself. Continue to imagine that someone comes up to you and says . hey! . you're on the team and for the next two years you can play ball everyday at somebody else's expense, everything taken care of, just get ready for the Olympics . the best food, lodging, coaching, facilities . just get ready. And then imagine, on top of all that, the opportunity to travel all over the world, playing your sport, everything taken care of, Europe, Asia . just play . imagine that.

     "Gee thanks, but I have a job back at the car wash, maybe you should find someone else. I don't think I can make the 'sacrifice' ."

     As I put a wrap on my Atlanta '96 experience, like a flooded river that eventually finds its original course, I always come back to a similar conclusion: In much the same way modern Christianity now reflects rather than effects secular western culture (see essay "Michael Chang or Christians Revisited"), so it is with the modern Olympic Games. Its supposed creed of goodwill, harmony and rosy-cheeked dimples, has all but been smothered under an avalanche of competitive ferocity hell bent on personal glory. Being a nice person seems to have been lost in this quest for individual greatness. Nothing could more reflect the current ethic of the predominant western mind set.

     Being nice is more important than being great. How about putting that in the Olympic creed.