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Feb. 17
action
 Weir
connects to the Heartland: This was posted on our
Discussion Board by Todd, who uses the handle
KUJhawker, and lives in Kansas. We think it deserves a wider
audience:
I went to
breakfast [Friday] morning. Where I go is usually populated
with middle age to retired men. Most dont know that I am
gay, but the four or five men I usually share a table with
do know.
When I got there they were watching the mens figure skating
long program on the USA network. I was surprised at how into
it they were when watching. Most agreed that Plushenkos
points were too high; he was a powerful athlete but lacked
some of the emotion an artistic skill of the others. (Yes
they used those words).
Then Lambiel came on the ice and these middle-age working
class men became the judging panel on "Project Runway." They
got downright catty on making remarks about his outfit.
Comments ranging from "a blind tailor" to "a
bestiality-perverted" dream were made. They got a kick out
of how outrageous some of these costumes were.
This led into how tight some of these costumes are. One of
the guys at the table next to us commented how it showed
off their powerful hindquarters. The guy owns livestock and
has won in our state fair so he knows about powerful
hindquarters. Another guy commented, Yeah, they have to
have strong backsides to do all those jumps. Another
commented, Yeah they must do a lot of glute work. OK,
I noticed none of them could actually say ass or butt, and
would have had no problem if the skater was female.
Then the guy next to me asks if I was a butt man. Well I
turned a shade of red. He then asked if I liked Lambiels
butt. I said yes it was nice. Another guy then says, I
never understand what a guy gets out of a butt. To which,
the guy who asked me the original question looks at me and
says, I dont think it is what Todd gets out of a butt, it
is what he puts into it. Well now I turned several shades
of red and desperately wanted to go invisible.
This led to some ribbing over my embarrassment and another
guy at my table wanting my judging scores of other butts. I
couldnt believe I was having this discussion and sizing up
the skaters on the ice. Then the subject of gay figure
skaters came up. I was asked if I thought any were gay. I
said none of them were out but I am sure there were gay
ones. By that time Johnny Weir was on the ice. So one asked
if I though Weir was gay. I said of course. He thought he
was, too, but his wife thinks he is just a very artistic
boy. That caused a laugh and another discussion about being
gay and gay men.
I left still recovering from my embarrassment but was
shocked at where the conversation had lead. These men who
normally discuss the weather, sports (though not ice
skating), and politics, actually got into watching the
figure skating. It also lead to a conversation I dont think
I would have ever had with them, if it wasnt for watching
those men in tight outrageous costumes, using their powerful
hindquarters to go flitting about the ice.
Whose
attitude is the real problem?: OK, so Johnny Weir is
being accused of a bad attitude about his fifth-place finish
in men's figure skating. He's being called a whiner and
worse. Yes, Weir does need to get more seasoned. Yes, we'll
hope to see him back in 2010 with a tougher aura and a more
reliable quad jump.
But what about the screams of attitude from many in the
media and the public, every time a U.S. athlete misses
getting on the podium? Today, Friday, the screams are louder
than they were in the beginning. Lindsey Jacobellis flubs
the gold in the women's snowboard cross, and she is being
interrogated like it's the Inquisition and matters of belief
are the issue. Lindsey Kildow falls again and is out of the
combined -- another possible medal lost. The U.S. women's
hockey team loses to Sweden, so no hockey gold for us there.
In my opinion, there's more going on here, in the dismal
U.S. showing, than just "personal failure" by star athletes.
The screams of outrage are clearly about the medal count --
about the United States being No. 5 in medals today, instead
of No. 1. Today the U.S. is only three medals behind Norway,
who leads at 13. But you'd think, from the tone of the
screams, that we'd won nothing at all.
Apparently the screamers believe that Torino is supposed to
be the U.S.'s personal winter playground -- that all the
other countries are there just to be straw dummies for our
convenience, so our athletes can knock them over and win ALL
the medals.
It's true that nobody holds a gun to the heads of U.S.
athletes and forces them to compete. They do make the
personal choice to step into the hot kitchen. At the same
time, the pressures are not created wholly out of their
personal choice to be in Torino.
Things are out of control with a national expectation that
"we should be No. 1 in medals because we are the greatest
nation on earth." Forty years ago, when the Cold War was at
its peak and the Eastern bloc clashed with the Western bloc
at the Games, the pressures over the medal race got pretty
fierce. But in those days the U.S. was at the peak of its
global power and prestige. Not so today. Our various global
misdeeds have cost us a lot of respect; indeed, some
countries now consider us a "rogue nation," not a world
leader.
For Americans who scream about medals, the Olympics have
become a psychodrama where they're acting out a need that
has little to do with the Games. They desperately want to
grab back that vanished prestige of yesteryear. They hold
our athletes accountable for winning back something that was
never lost on the ski slopes or the ice. It was actually
lost in the halls of government, in the board rooms and
corner offices -- by Congress, by the White House, by our
military, by corrupt politicians and corporations, and by
media people who don't know the difference between news and
nauseous attitude.
With this kind of pressure riding on their backs, it's no
wonder that so many of our athletes are crumpling at Torino.
The U.S. is not alone in putting this kind of over-the-top
pressure on athletes. It's typical of major totalitarian
governments to put the screws on their Olympic teams. The
Soviet Union has done this, along with Nazi Germany and
China. Athletes who went home a failure often had to face
severe political and social disgrace. Is this the model that
"the land of the free and the home of the brave" should be
following?
So it isn't just Johnny Weir who needs to grow up. The
screamers need to grow up. The United States needs to grow
up. And it's high time we grow up -- this year we are 230
years old, but we're playing against nations that are many
centuries older than we are. Where is our respect for their
right to beat us out of some medals? (Patricia Nell Warren)
A
dissenting view: While I agree with Patricia that the
U.S. often expects to be No. 1, I don't see it a whole lot
with the Winter Olympics. Many of these sports are so alien
to most Americans that we really don't expect to see bobsled
or cross-country. And I haven't seen that much angst over
not being in the medal count.
I think the complaints are
about specific athletes. Bode Miller was more overexposed
than Jessica Simpson, appearing on the cover of Time and
Newsweek (among others) and being on "60 Minutes." These
things don't just happen -- they are well negotiated
by the athletes and his agent for maximum exposure. Bode was
everywhere (even on commercials broadcast during Olympic
telecasts) , so we all had an expectation that he would win
or at least medal, or at least care if he didn't. But he's
bombed out of his first two events and had said he really
doesn't care; if that's the case, why have you bombarded us
for the past month? Get lost.
As for other
disappointments, the U.S. women's hockey team blew a 2-0
lead over Sweden, a team it never had lost to and wound up
going scoreless in the overtime shootout. They should be
criticized, like any other highly touted team that doesn't
succeed. As for
Lindsey Jacobellis in the snowboard cross, her unnecessary
hot-dogging cost her a gold medal and she should be slammed.
Jacobellis had a huge lead and a sure gold medal when she
decided to showboat on the next-to-last jump and grabbed her
board in midair (called a "method"). She crashed instead and
finished second. She should be ripped, just like we rip a
football player who prematurely celebrates by holding the
ball aloft before crossing the goal line and has it knocked
out.
Finally, I have
seen very little about Weir whining for finishing fifth. Far
from it -- he was rightly
criticized for blaming a missed bus for not skating well.
But overall the media love him. He comes out of these Games
with a high and positive profile. The kid's gonna be a star.
I think most
Americans are not angst-ridden over our medal count. Since
twice as many watched "American Idol' anyway, they're much
more upset by Simon Cowell. (Jim
Buzinski)
Hot
jock of the day 1: Tobias Angerer (top) is smoking! The
stud German cross-country skier made a great run late to
capture the bronze medal in the men's 15K. "It was a very,
very important medal for the German team," Angerer, 28,
said. "I had a perfect race. I was in the top five from the
start. My only goal was to get to the podium." We learn from
Angerer's
website that his hobbies include shopping (hmmm?),
concerts (Madonna?), movies (Brokeback?), the Internet
(Big Muscle?) and meeting people (the
Outsports Clubhouse?) (Jim
Buzinski)
Hot
jock of the day 2 Top American Kris Freeman, or
Freebird as his U.S. Cross-Country Ski Team mates call
him, finished 22nd in the 15K, the best American finish yet
in Torino but a disappointment considering Freeman has
placed in the Top 5 in World Championship races and he
considered this his best event. Freeman is diabetic, which
he says doesnt effect how he skis in a race, but definitely
has made a big impact on his life. I raced against Freeman
since we were juniors and I dont think Ive known any other
U.S. skier who is as focused and dedicated to training for
the sport. Good luck to Kris for the rest of these Games.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Babe
of the day: If I were either a lesbian or a straight guy
I'd be really into Swedish hockey star Maria Rooth, who led
her team to a shocking semifinal win over Team USA. It was
the first time the U.S. women lost to anyone except Canada.
Rooth scored two goals and her penalty shot following
overtime clinched the win, Sweden's version of "Miracle on
Ice." Rooth, who plays collegiately in Minnesota, was
totally charming in her post-game interview, especially when
she said "thank you" to the interviewer in Swedish. Sign her
up for a guest spot on the "L Word." (Jim
Buzinski)
Hockey:
The womens hockey
tournament got down to business today with semifinal games
to determine who will play for gold. Swedish goaltender Kim
Martin and her teammate Rooth led the Swedes in a comeback
against the USA that resulted in a tie at the end of the
third period. Overtime solved nothing and it was time for
the first shootout in womens Olympic hockey history. Thats
when the U.S. choke factor, a common theme at these Games,
came into play. Sweden prevailed, more on shooting mistakes
by the US than anything else, and the upset was complete.
Sweden 3, USA 2.
There was a more predictable result in the second game of
the day, as Canada moved passed Finland 6-0. On
Monday, the US and Finland will go for the bronze, while
Canada looks to defend its gold against Sweden.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Semantics:
Disclaimer of the day, from broadcasters Mike Emrick and A.J.
Mleczko (who was on the women's team in 1998 and 2002)
during Tuesdays USA-Finland women's hockey game:
Emrick: "At times we have used the words 'a man short' or 'a
defenseman' or 'too many men on the ice.' These are just
hockey terms that have been honored by women's hockey, too.
We are not doing anything in gender violation here."
Mleczko: "I think that speaks to how many of these women
grow up playing men's hockey, don't get insulted by it, and
the term 'woman,' 'defensewoman,' 'too many women on the
ice' is just a bit cumbersome." (Joe in Philly, from our
Olympics forum)
XC
Skiing: In
2002, Andrus Veerpalu won Estonias first ever gold medal
since that country became an independent nation. Today,
Veerpalu took to the hills of Pragelato to defend that title
in a classic Olympic event, the 15K individual classic style
race. Thirty-eight minutes later, he charged through driving
snow up the final stretch to post a time that would again
hold up against the worlds best. Lukas Bauer of the Czech
Republic powered to silver. World Cup points leader Tobias
Angerer of Germany looked up at the scoreboard as he crossed
the finish line, then collapsed, exhausted but pleased with
his first individual medal of the games, a bronze.
If youve never watched cross-country skiing, your best bet
to give it a shot will happen this weekend. One of the most
anticipated events of these Olympics (in any sport) is the
mens 4x10K relay, which takes place on Sunday. The relay
has become a spectacle ever since Italy upset Norway on
their home snow in Lillehammer in 1994, winning by just .4
seconds. That race is the equivalent of the USA beating
Russia in hockey in 1980, if it had come in a shootout in
front of 150,000 flag waving fans. Since Lillehammer, the
finishes have only gotten closer. In 1998 and 2002, Norway
got revenge over Italy, but only by .2 seconds and .3
seconds respectively. Now were on Italian snow and if this
race comes down to a NOR-ITA sprint again, it will be one of
the greatest moments in Olympic history. NBCs coverage of
Fridays xc ski race was awful. Please, NBC, dont f*** this
one up.
(Ryan
Quinn)
Catty:
Am I the only one who thought
Barbara Fusar-Poli,
half of the Italian ice dancing pair, looked like a drag
queen? With the fake tan and the little neck cover, I could
have sworn it was Hedda Lettuce out there on the ice. (Cyd
Zeigler Jr.)
Humanitarian:
Joey Cheek won a gold in speedskating early in the week and
with it comes a $25,000 bonus from the U.S. Olympic
Committee. Rather than spend it on himself, Cheek, 26,
announced he will donate it to a sports program to help the
thousands of Sudanese children who have been turned into
refugees by warlords in the Darfur region.
"For
me, the Olympics have been the greatest blessing," Cheek
said. "I always felt that if I ever did something big like
this I wanted to be prepared to give something back."
Cheek
will give the money to Right to Play, established by
Norwegian speedskating great Johann Olav Koss. "The things
he has done have been an absolute inspiration to me," Cheek
said about Koss. "He has lived his life in the manner that I
hope to live my life."
"What
I do is great fun. I love what I do. It's a great job. I've
seen the entire world and I've met amazing friends." Cheek
added: "Honestly, it's a pretty ridiculous thing. I mean, I
skate around on ice in tights, right?"
More
Cheek:
According to
USA Today, Cheeks friends are all wearing shirts
that say, "Fastest Cheeks on Ice." Cheek is a
self-described geek, and his girlfriend, George Washington
University business major Eleanor Collins, also addressed
Cheek's quirks to USA Today. She noted the only thing Cheek
wears beneath his racing skinsuit is Bjorn Borg underwear,
sold only in Europe. Collins said she got a little tired of
seeing him rotating the same two pairs.
"In
the last year, he ripped a hole in both pairs," Collins
said. "So I got him new ones when I was over in Sweden and
gave them to him for Christmas." |
XC skier Tobias Angerer shows his abs
Tobias at a toga party
Lukas Bauer celebrates XC silver
The women's snowboard cross medalists
(SI.com)
Estonia's Andrus Veerpalu won XC gold
(SI.com)
Snowboard champ Seth Westcott and his family
(NBC
Olympics)
Don't mess with the U.S. bobsled team
(NBC
Olympics)
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