Ah, the Winter Olympics. It's a time of year where millions of people become obsessed with sports they didn't follow at all the prior four years. Make no mistake about it: I am one of those people and couldn't be happier to come down with Olympic fever. When you couple the dedication and athleticism of these people with compelling personal stories, you have all the makings of what I, and so many others, consider good entertainment. From the USA's perspective, there have been some great achievements, from Nicole Pikus Pace coming out of retirement following a miscarriage and putting together an inspired skeleton run to take home a silver medal, to Bode Miller's emotion fueled Olympics, to so many others, we don't lack for human interest stories. As with any Olympic games, there is also no shortage of drama and controversy, as is seemingly inevitable, especially in some of these sports. I want to preface this by saying athletes are entitled to vocalize whatever they'd like, and sometimes candor is appreciated in a sport where giving safe, by the book answers are norm. There's also the fact that in the USA, we cover USA athletes more than those of other countries, so what the athletes say here might not be materially different than other countries. Nevertheless, I can't help but feel the USA comes out with egg on its face because more and more athletes are not handling losing with the grace we tend to expect and appreciate of world class athletes.
The poster child for this, for me, is Shani Davis. Davis perhaps has earned the right to say whatever he likes; he is a record setting athlete in his sport and clearly will go down as one of the greatest speedskaters we've seen. That said, following the 1500 meter event I was disappointed that the suit issue was still to blame. This event was skated with their old suits, not the newer, perhaps poorly designed suits that were thought to create drag on the skaters. His comment was that the damage had already been done. That's right, merely putting on those bad suits ensured that even when switching back to the old suits, they still couldn't win. I get that the USA has a strong team, and that there was some mental anguish associated with these suits, but you look pretty immature to put up yet another dud of a race without the suits that had been blamed and still say it wasn't your fault. Davis had not made the podium at several other low altitude events with the old suits leading up to the Olympics either. He is clearly a better high altitude skater, and to blame the suits seems like a cop out. We can generally respect a disappointing showing if it is handled with grace, credit is given to the opponent, and you move forward with the results being a lesson for the future. Davis opted to make excuses, even if they have some degree of truth to them (although I think his case is weak), now the whole team sort of has that "guilt by association", despite the fact not all the skaters blamed the suits.
Moving onto figure skating, this one is different from the case of Davis. I can easily argue both sides of the Ashley Wagner discussion, and I might lean more to her defense, personally. Here's the thing: everything she said is true. Figure skating is probably the most corrupt sport in the Olympics, as it seems there is always conspiracy, rigging of results, etc. There's an immensely flawed scoring system, and it's not intuitive. To the average viewer, they can, for the most part, figure out watching any of the halfpipe events who scored well or not. If an athlete crashes, their score is basically a throw out. Granted, figure skating is different in that you have one run, so it isn't appropriate to instantly throw someone in last for a mistake, all but requiring a nearly flawless run for a good score, but the system basically says "give yourself the hardest program possible, even if you cannot execute it because it's better to fall on a hard trick than land an easier one". It makes for bad television; the men's program was awful, as you just saw fall after fall. Everything Wagner said is absolutely true. Unfortunately for her, she is a lightning rod of sorts in the media. Her selection to the Olympics was thrown under fire due to her one poor showing (these people are now saying who is she to criticize people who fall when she wasn't penalized for it, ignoring the fact that she was selected for her body of work, not because her falls were overlooked), and she's become an internet meme sensation due to her expressiveness on the ice. Wagner wears her heart on her sleeve, no doubt. In so many ways I find it refreshing, and it is bold for her to put herself out there. She's good natured about it, too, creating a Valentine's Day card of her own making light of one of her faces people have been posting about. I just wonder if now was the time for her to say something. I think what might have been a better PR move for her is to let the public make the criticism (which they have, in light of the backlash that Sotnikova was seen hugging one of the judges not long after her Olympic gold). Yuna Kim, in contrast to Wagner, took the high road and said her job is not to judge, so she had no comment. I can't help but think that type of deflection would help Wagner more than her very vocal stance, which certainly brings her more scorn from the international community, and even here in the US. "Just another whiny, entitled American".
Ted Ligety, in my mind, falls somewhere between Davis and Wagner. He criticized the slalom course setup as "borderline unsportsmanlike". Now, the results support his assessment; nearly half of all participants could not complete the course. Think about that. Thirty-four of the absolute best in the sport could not complete this course. That is absurd and does highlight that the course was... unique, to say the least. Ligety is spot on with his assessment that it rewards playing it safe and merely not crashing rather than highlighting some more of the dynamic runs these guys are capable of putting up. Ligety is not the the only critic of the course, either. That said, who said the intent of the sport is to make courses play into the strengths of any one type of skier? They all ski the same course; it is not like figure skating where the outcome is largely subjective. Everyone gets a similar chance (not same because the conditions of the course change over time after people ski), and it is up to the athlete to execute. Further, his criticism appears to be more whiny than constructive because he did not earn a medal in any event. He performed worse than his peers irrespective of individual setting the course for an event, so it does certainly come off as more of an excuse than anything. His contention may indeed have merit, but again, this is a situation where he was better served to let others do the talking. Somehow I doubt he would have been critical of the course had he made his way onto the podium.
It is unfortunate for the US as a country to have us framed in a negative light. It further perpetuates the stereotype (perhaps a true one to some extent) of American entitlement. Maybe our athletes don't care. Maybe our athletes just are more candid and vocal. But in the global eye, I feel a bit disappointed that our athletes couldn't act with a little more restraint and exhibit more textbook sportsmanship. Personally, I value sportsmanship in any sport, but to me it is particularly important in individual sports, and athletes need to hold themselves to a slightly higher standard. Maybe it just comes as a little bit of a shock to me as a person who follows tennis, a sport where the level of sportsmanship is considerably higher than many other sports. In the end, what has been said cannot be unsaid, and perhaps US athletes can try to be a little more mindful of the manner in which they communicate or elect not to communicate their opinions on matters.
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