The Winter Olympics are over in less than a week, and while a lot of people can't wait for NBC to get back to its regular programming, I'm not looking forward to it.
Sure I won't lose sleep over the fact that I can't (or just don't want to) watch curling or figure skating for another four years, but I have to admit that I love the Olympics in both its hot and cold varieties.
When I turn on the television at night, I might find myself watching a sport I've never taken the time to understand. Just two days ago, I spent the better part of an hour watching curling, simply to figure out how the %#@$ the sport actually worked.
But no matter what's on the screen, one thing I can always count on is getting a chance to view some thrilling competition along with a few good stories. I haven't quite figured out if its NBC doing its job, or if it's the fact that we only see these people quadrennially, but there seem to be a lot of really interesting stories behind these athletes.
Bode Miller, the prodigal son of skiing, has been a mainstay in the media for a few months after rising to become the most successful American skier in 20 years. Adding fuel to the fire, Bode used his skiing success as a soapbox to educate the masses with his puzzling world view.
Jeremy Bloom, who decided to give up a starting position on the Colorado football team to accept sponsorship money in freestyle skiing, made headlines when he failed to win a medal in the moguls final. Next week, he moves on from skiing to participate in the NFL scouting combine, where he'll have to hope 300-pound linemen don't hit as hard as the landing of a botched off-axis 720.
Lindsay Kildow went into last week's Downhill training run as the top American contender for the gold, only to suffer a nasty crash that kept her in the hospital for 24 hours. Not letting severe back pain or stiffness slow her down, Kildow stepped up and raced anyway, finishing a courageous eighth.
The list of intriguing stories could go on for pages, but what really links these athletes together? Foremost is the fact that each of them started the Games as a favorite in their respective event, only to fail to achieve the goals the media and public had set for them.
Kildow got a pass for all the guts it took to even get back on the race hill, much less complete a minute-and-a-half downhill course that tested every ounce of her mental and physical strength. NBC may be notorious for beating a dead dramatic horse, but Kildow's actions showed that there are still some unrelenting competitors left.
Quite a few writers were not so friendly in their responses to Bode's disqualification in the Alpine Combined, or Bloom's sixth place in Freestyle.
Bode became the whipping boy of a few prominent sports journalists after he dismissed his DQ as just another of his many failures. It wasn't his failure that bothered them as much as the impression that he genuinely could have cared less about it.
Meanwhile, on these very pages last Thursday, an Associated Press article run by The Dartmouth took Bloom to task for falling short after giving up collegiate athletics for professional skiing.
The author was unwilling to credit Bloom's admirable positive attitude, instead focusing his criticism on Bloom's desire for glamour in lieu of hard work. I'm still not sure if that guy was even watching the right Olympics.
The most interesting characteristic all three of these stories share is the fact that none of the athletes seemed disappointed. Today, the American public looks down upon the athlete who cannot maintain grace under the pressure of failure.
Bode Miller received criticism because he lacked that grace. Jeremy Bloom was inexplicably judged even though he handled the disappointment as well as anyone could have -- with a beaming smile, just for getting to be there. And Lindsay Kildow has rightfully made a name for herself, not for winning gold, but rather for displaying the toughness that makes an athlete into an icon.
Now maybe someone else can pick up the slack and start winning some medals.
