Olympics

  The Winter Olympics are finally over. I did watch them although I'm a casual viewer. This year was disappointing. It wasn't due to the attention given to Bob Costas eye infection and it wasn't because the Russia won more medals than the United States. I was disappointed in the poor attitudes and  sensationalism that stemmed from some of the competitions.
  Meryl Davis and Charlie White won a gold medal in ice dancing. After this win there were several articles about how the judging wasn't fair, that there was collusion among the competing countries to make sure that the Russian ice dancers would win the team event and Davis and White would win the individual event. There were a couple experts that lamented that the true winners should have been Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. Even Virtue and Moir stated that they felt their coach, who also coaches Davis and White, favored the US pair, which meant that had to settle for a disappointing silver medal.
  The same complaint was heard in the women's ice skating competition. No one was happy with the result except for Adelina Sotnikova, who won the gold medal. Again there were comments about biased judging and judges who had ties to the skaters. There were comments that the change to anonymous judging was creating an environment where cheating and partiality would be hidden. Even one of the competitors claimed the judging was bad.
  There were many shots of the unhappy U.S. women's and men's hockey teams. The men were defeated by Canada and didn't win a medal. The women were also defeated by Canada and won the silver medal.
   There was the Christin Cooper interview of Bode Miller after winning a bronze medal at age 36 making him the oldest medalist in Olympic alpine skiing history. Instead of focusing in on his win and the fact that he had made some Olympic history, she chose to focus in on the death of his brother less than a year ago. At one point during the interview it was clear that he was too emotional to speak and the reporter chose to press the issue anyway. The end result was an awkward termination of the interview while Miller crouched down by a fence and cried.
  This is a sampling of the Sochi lowlights.
   I remember watching the Olympics when I was a kid. I remember that it was fun and exciting. I remember that the people who were chosen to compete were happy to be there representing their countries. I don't remember complaints about judging or about how one country was sending competitors that were technically too young to compete.
  I'm sure that those who did not win medals were disappointed, but they all seemed happy to be there. The ones that did win medals seemed pleased. If the silver and bronze medalists were whining about their medals, I never heard or saw it. I'm beginning to wonder if I grew up in some alternate universe.
  I wonder when the change from representing a country to gold or else took place? Maybe it happened in stages. Maybe it is because we have a "winning is not the most important thing, it is the only thing" culture in sports. Doing your best means nothing unless it wins you a gold medal. I'm sure money is also involved. There are endorsement and other deals at stake.
  I always though that the whole reason for the Olympics was to foster relationships among the nations and friendly competition. Maybe I'm wrong.
  I could be unforgivably naive when it comes to the Olympics, but I can't help but think that there are a lot of athletes who would have loved to compete and were never able to. I'm sure there are many that had their dreams of simply competing in the Olympics dashed by injury, illness or simple failure to make the team. Those who go are a select few.
  Winning a medal regardless of colour should be a special moment. I'm sure there are many fourth place finishers who would have loved to have been a little faster or scored a few more points to win a bronze. The medal winners are a select few among a select few. You can say that you won a medal in the Olympics. The vast majority cannot say that.
  I'd like to give a hand to all that competed. Maybe it didn't turn out the way you would have liked. You all did the best that you could do at the time. I hope you all had fun. When your competing days are over you will have this to look back on. You are an Olympian, you got to compete and no one can take that away from you.