
Stopping Ain’t Gonna Happen, No Way, No How (Silverton Style)
February 7, 2014
Innovative Ways to Fool The Public
March 7, 2014Now that its almost over, I’m already going through some withdrawal symptoms. Read the essay and you’ll know what I mean.
I’ll post this essay now so I can log onto that result website and find out things way a head of time.
Word Count: 798
Foregone
Television Viewing
I enjoy watching the Olympics. Doesn’t matter whether it’s the summer games with their huge variation on the whole theme of “Higher-Stronger-Faster, or a similar pursuit of physical excellence on snow and ice during the winter edition. There’s something to be said for witnessing an athlete performing at a level that most of us can only envision ourselves doing in our wildest fantasies. Dreams all right, more like delusional phantasms in the case of most people.
During the course of the last two weeks I’ve noticed a somewhat strange phenomenon related to the games. The winter Olympics are taking place this year halfway around the planet in Sochi, Russia. A totally exotic locale and a very different time zone. The result is a lot of the events take place seven or eight hours before they’re ever broadcast on primetime American television. Sometimes even longer than that as an event occurring during the day over there might be happening simultaneously late at night the previous day in this neck of the woods. Could be very early in the morning also. Basically before the butt crack of dawn in certain situations.
So what does an Olympic fanatic do in situations such as this? Some may act distracted or try not to listen when TV lists results for an event NBC won’t broadcast till six or seven hours later.
A large majority of the general public follows my course of action instead. Why not find out what the final standings are immediately, then decide whether or not to even bother with watching the event that evening on the tube? If an American athlete ends up doing well in a particular event, I’ll make sure to watch the highlights when they’re broadcast that night. If an American athlete performs below expectations, I’m indifferent about viewing the broadcast. Sometimes I’ll watch the event, but if I miss its broadcast during primetime so what.
I’ve even taken this practice to an extreme. While brewing coffee in the morning for our hotel guests I’ll log onto a website broadcasting Olympic results. Just so I can immediately find out who won, who lost, and whether or not I need to watch a particular interview. First and foremost if the athlete performed at or above expectations to see them bask in the glow of victory. Or if they buckled under the relentless pressure with their display of physical ineptitude, to find out if they’re going to follow up on their under performance threat. Moving to an isolated island in the South Pacific.
This brings up another point about the Olympics. I truly enjoy all the hoopla surrounding the games, but every two years get particularly annoyed by one practice the media continues to carry out (with total impunity in most cases). These athletes are under a tremendous amount of pressure to perform at an extremely high level, and just getting on the Olympic team for their country is quite an achievement in and of itself (with the exception of jokers from tropical nations that try to compete in the Winter Olympics). Finishing in the top ten of their event, let alone winning a medal of any color is quite an achievement. Six words I truly hate in the English language are when a broadcaster says, “Had to settle for the Silver.” More than a few times I’ve turned off the television in total disgust when I heard that. Turned it back on five minutes later since I was looking forward to that event whose results I already know.
Since the demise of the big, bad, Iron Curtain in the 80’s my encouragement loyalties are different too. Even though I still root fervently for the U.S. to really perform (and donate faithfully to the U.S. Olympic team), I find myself smiling when participants from small, obscure, out-of-the-way nations exceed expectations. Its truly great for the people of these places to see their athletes do well. Why shouldn’t they be rewarded for performing at as high a level as our athletes from the good ole red, white, and blue? Some sports dynasties are nice, but I’d prefer to see the wealth get spread around equally.
So now that it’s almost over I always find myself going through these strange withdrawal symptoms the week after the Olympics ends. It’s fun viewing the grand spectacle during the fortnight, and it only happens every two years. Guess that’s what makes it so special? For most of these athletes it’s only once every four years (with World Championship exception of course). All these people seem to be putting everything they’ve got into it when competing. Some of these over-paid professionals in certain team sports could probably take a lesson or two in passion from them.