The Winter Olympics Have Jumped The Shark
I’ve always liked the Olympics. I love sports in general and the Olympics, in my opinion, are sports at its most pure form. It’s running, jumping, skiing and skating. Its athletes in relative anonymity for relatively little money training hours and hours a day for one shot every four years. Its everything that’s right about sports. But I fear that the Olympics, the Winter specifically, have jumped the shark so to speak.
The X Games have taken over the Winter Olympics and I don’t like it. The only reason snowboarding, snowboard cross and the event where they ski off a jump and do 9,000 flips in the air are in the Olympics is because we, the United States, are good in these events. If it weren’t for these events the good ole US of A would only win about 5 or 6 Gold medals tops. We are average when it comes to the core Winter Olympic events and that’s not good enough. We pay the most money for the TV rights so we need to have events on TV that we can win. This bothers me.
I’m not saying it doesn’t take a lot of skill or athletic ability to compete in these X Game-ish events. I’m sure it does. It’s just that they’re not Olympic to me. Skiing down the mountain as fast as you can is Olympic to me. Sledding down the course as fast as you can is Olympic to me. Skating around a track as fast as you can is Olympic to me. Getting wicked air on a half pipe is not Olympic. An announcer that uses the word radd to describe your performance is not Olympic. An event that has Sublime playing in between every heat is not Olympic. A Gold Medallist who credits Bob Marley, Jay Z and Linkin Park as inspiration is not Olympic to me.
Most importantly, these events set a bad precedent. What’s next? If the X Games can find its way into the Olympics, so can the Circus. Is Tight Rope walking, Trapeze Swinging and shooting yourself out of a cannon ball soon to be events? Is fitting the most clowns into a car going to get some country a Gold Medal in four years? My money is on Mexico in that one by the way. Those examples might be a bit far fetched but don’t be surprised if Skateboarding is a Summer Olympic event in the near future. Get ready to hear this statement: Joining Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Mark Spitz, Dorothy Hamill, The US Men’s Hockey Team, Bruce Jenner, Mary Lou Retton, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner Kersee and Michael Johnson as America’s greatest Gold Medallists is, wait for it, wait for it……… Tony Hawk. Jesse Owens and Tony Hawk potentially in the same club. Now that’s Un-Olympic.
The Winter Olympics have jumped the shark people. I fear it’s only a matter of time before the Summer joins them. Maybe they’ll jump the shark by adding shark jumping as an event. I’d watch that. I’m a sucker for irony.
The X Games have taken over the Winter Olympics and I don’t like it. The only reason snowboarding, snowboard cross and the event where they ski off a jump and do 9,000 flips in the air are in the Olympics is because we, the United States, are good in these events. If it weren’t for these events the good ole US of A would only win about 5 or 6 Gold medals tops. We are average when it comes to the core Winter Olympic events and that’s not good enough. We pay the most money for the TV rights so we need to have events on TV that we can win. This bothers me.
I’m not saying it doesn’t take a lot of skill or athletic ability to compete in these X Game-ish events. I’m sure it does. It’s just that they’re not Olympic to me. Skiing down the mountain as fast as you can is Olympic to me. Sledding down the course as fast as you can is Olympic to me. Skating around a track as fast as you can is Olympic to me. Getting wicked air on a half pipe is not Olympic. An announcer that uses the word radd to describe your performance is not Olympic. An event that has Sublime playing in between every heat is not Olympic. A Gold Medallist who credits Bob Marley, Jay Z and Linkin Park as inspiration is not Olympic to me.
Most importantly, these events set a bad precedent. What’s next? If the X Games can find its way into the Olympics, so can the Circus. Is Tight Rope walking, Trapeze Swinging and shooting yourself out of a cannon ball soon to be events? Is fitting the most clowns into a car going to get some country a Gold Medal in four years? My money is on Mexico in that one by the way. Those examples might be a bit far fetched but don’t be surprised if Skateboarding is a Summer Olympic event in the near future. Get ready to hear this statement: Joining Jesse Owens, Wilma Rudolph, Mark Spitz, Dorothy Hamill, The US Men’s Hockey Team, Bruce Jenner, Mary Lou Retton, Carl Lewis, Jackie Joyner Kersee and Michael Johnson as America’s greatest Gold Medallists is, wait for it, wait for it……… Tony Hawk. Jesse Owens and Tony Hawk potentially in the same club. Now that’s Un-Olympic.
The Winter Olympics have jumped the shark people. I fear it’s only a matter of time before the Summer joins them. Maybe they’ll jump the shark by adding shark jumping as an event. I’d watch that. I’m a sucker for irony.
posted by Rob Maher at 11:07 PM
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