Just free associating now, here's stuff I loved about the Olympic events I saw: I thought Matt Mitcham last night in the diving was amazing.
I don't really care for the diving, but that kid's story won me over. The fact that he'd left diving for a year or two, a bit of a headcase, that he had no expectations, that he was so freely in the moment, that he wasn't overwhelmed, that he took such joy in what he was doing, as opposed to the Chinese kid with the weight of a billion people on his shoulders, it was just beautiful. Then when he had won and he was crying, and an Australian girl came up to him and hugged him and said, Matthew you just won the Olympics! in that great Aussie way, and you could hear it on camera, and he didn't believe it, his knees buckled, I don't think you can ask any more from sports, or spectacle generally, than that moment. The downside of course is that no one will ever forget this as long as he lives, he will never escape that golden bubble.
I was grateful to Mitcham for overshadowing Michael Phelps who notwithstanding the fact he's from Baltimore, which makes him great in my book, it was a little grinding and joyless to watch, and too much luck on his side, and overladen with such American chauvinism I found it hard to watch.
Usain Bolt of course overshadowed Phelps first. It was his Olympics more than anyone's. And you had to love him, even if he was an asshole in the 100, taunting Asafa Powell. Hideous. Still, what a sense of showmanship and of rising to the occasion. And beautiful to watch. Like Mitcham. He's gonig to be around for a long time, and it's great for Jamaica, a country I really like, the wild free spirit of Jamaica.
I hated a lot of stuff. I always hate the American coverage, the way they chop and cuisinart everything and try to tell the story rapidly. Hate it. Give me the event in all its glory. Don't like Bob Costas though I thought he did a very good interview with George Bush and again last night with Rogge. I loved the Jamaican women. I loved the American women on the track last night in the 4by400. They made me proud to be an American, that they were thankful and smiling and didn't put on airs. I don't like Jeremy Wariner. He's too arrogant and weird. I love Logan Tom, I forget her name for four years and then there she is again, too beautiful, and I realize that's why they invented the Olympics.
Didn't like the beach volleyball, disappointed in the Nigerian soccer team. I'm forgetting that my headine is all positive. Loved Lionel Messi. Loved the Nigerian goalie, loved the forward named Promise Isaac. Hope he's in my future.
Yes, the Matthew Mitcham celebration was refreshing. So much of what goes on today seems to be posturing for the media, or reenacting scenes picked up from Bud Light commercials ("Go for the gusto!"). It's nice when you see pure unadulterated joy.
I hate to keep harping on women's field hockey, but another wonderful moment was the Dutch team's celebration after winning the gold. Pure laughing, singing, skipping joy.
Here's the unedited match video–
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even if he was an asshole in the 100, taunting Asafa Powell. Hideous.
Bolt!? The strut at the end? Hideous?… It was showmanship, yeah, it was the same primal display of triumph and domination you see in the NFL or NBA or table tennis for that matter.
I didn't have access to any of Bob Costas' great coverage (except his interview with Bush which I downloaded but I dozed off, I think from the second-hand fumes from all Bush's medication… no wonder the guy can hardly utter a sentence, he must be popping pills more often than Amy Winehouse in Methadone clinic.)
Anyway, here in Bananastan, some unprofessional, uncouth commentators actually mentioned the total contractual net worth of the NBA allstars on the American basketball team.
$170 billion dollars.
Dunno if it's true or for how many years from now those contracts are still valid.
But if it is, that means 12 American guys with high school diplomas have among them an income of 9 TIMES the entire annual GDP of Jamaica, country of almost 3 million people.
But yeah that Usain Bolt throwing his arms out like that…
The Chinese kid probably has a story too. But I don't think NBC was interested in humanizing him. Most of the Chinese athletes came from poor rural areas. The Chinese kid who won the 3-meter springboard said his family was surviving on less than a dollar per day. With his gold medal he has a good chance to earn 1 million or more with rewards and endorsement. Like many poor black kids here in the US, poor Chinese kids want to use sports to better their lives. If they won a gold medal, they and their family would be all set for the rest of their lives. Phil, you don't have to think about food and shelter when you were kids. Not every kid is as lucky as you were.
It's nice to watch the athletes, but what reasonable person doesn't believe that the Olympics is a drug-fueled ad fest?
Or in my case, an ad-fueled drug fest
Speaking of drugs, the figure I cited above is most certainly exaggerated. Perhaps they said $170 million, not billion, but in that case, the figure is way too low. (Kobe Bryant alone is pulling down $20 million a year, just from the Lakers. I imagine that like Jordan and others, he makes even more money from endorsements.)
Let me add something else here, a little parallel that ties in to Phil's recent interest in the looming energy crisis the world faces.
Beijing 2008's total medal count:
1. U.S.A. (110)
2. China (100)
3. Russia (72)
Top consumers of energy, worldwide, 2005 data (quadrillion btu):
1. U.S.A. (100,691)
2. China (67,093)
3. Russia (30,293)
Surely that's just a coincidence.
(And did anyone else notice that those U.S. swimmers, compared to the mere humans from other countries, look like grain-and-hormone-fed beef? And fresh out their 1200 megawatt tanning salon?)
Phil, I am a Catholic graduate of Brandeis, and have enjoyed your site immensely since stumbling upon it a year or so ago. There is much to disagree with, but American anti-intellectualism and self-censorship has drowned any discussion of American-Jewish cultural and political influence outside of the giveaway Jewish weeklies I pick up at the local deli.
On topic:
"Don't like Bob Costas . . .."
You would have been better served to have simply stopped there. Costas is an 8-ounce glass of warm, skim milk in my book. The local sports radio station has taken to broadcasting his show on Sunday mornings when I go out to grocery shop. He has killed the most pleasant, serenity inducing, half-an-hour of my life.
marc b.