Olympic Size Assholes
I have been watching the Olympics on and off for the past week, trying to catch the events that I enjoy watching. Specifically I like watching some of the race events, like speed skating, super-G, and bobsled; I also like catching the women’s curling, but that is mostly just to watch the really attractive Scandinavian women.
Anyhow I hate watching the coverage of these events, because for some reason the media thinks it necessary to make each event into some kind of melodramatic tearjerker, instead of just concentrating on competition, which I am there to see. This brings me to Shani Davis, the world record holder for 1000-meter speed skating; the media has been climbing over themselves to do a story about this guy. Not because he is an American who is the best in his event, but because he is black and because there is drama involving him and the rest of the American speed skaters.
For some reason the media has tried to make Shani Davis into some kind of Jesse Owens of speed skating, talking about how incredible it is for an African American from a poor Chicago neighborhood to become a world class speed skater. I really half expected them to pop over to Wolf Blitzer during his race for a quote like “Shani is so fast, and so black.†Give me a fucking break; it is incredible for anybody to reach the level of competition that Davis has reached, no matter what the color of his or her skin.
Then there is the drama surrounding his decision not to be involved in the one speed skating team competition. The reason he gave sounds perfectly sensible to me, he believes that concentrating on the races that he is best at will better his chances of winning those races. And that is why he’s there, he has spent most of his life working to become the fastest man on a pair of skates and this is his chance to show that all that work has paid off for something in the ultimate test of his abilities.
But does he get questions about how it feels to be in his first Olympics, or if he is excited to race? No he gets hounded constantly about the color of his skin and the drama created by the rest of the American speed skaters. And then when interviewed right after his win the first question is, “How does it feel to be the first African American man to win an individual gold medal at a Winter Olympics?†It is no wonder he became surly towards the interviewer and gave only terse answers. The media coverage showed a quiet type of racism by concentrating on the fact that he is a black man instead of the fact that he is a winner.