Why I love the Winter Olympics
They’re fast. Everything at the Winter Olympics is fast — except the curling, which proceeds at a normal, floor-waxing, houseworky kinda pace. But other than the curling, everything is fast. People ski, skate, and slide at superhuman speeds.
The Summer Olympics, on the other hand, is just sweaty people running. The 100-yard dash is glacial compared to the slowest round of anything at the Winter Games (excluding, again and forever, the curling). The cycling is fast, but cycling is the single most boring sport to watch in the history of civilization. It’s just a bunch of people hunched over, peddling in a circle. Identical hunched-over helmeted people peddling in an identical, unvarying circle. Christ.
But the Winter Olympics looks like fun. I like snow and ice, I like cold, I like bundling up in warm clothes in the cold, and I like (or used to like, when I was healthier) moving fast. The Summer Olympics just looks so goddamn hot and humid. Go sit in the air conditioning, you want to say. Get out of that heat. You’re so sweaty! Yuck. Take a shower. And for chrissake, put on some clothes.
The Winter Olympics also offer fewer occasions for offense to my feminist sensibilities. They’re offensive enough, mind you: women banned from sports at which they excel, patriarchy on ice, the arbitrary insistence that all the women’s events be smaller and shorter and easier than the men’s.
But the Summer Olympics has all that and more. All that to the tenth power, times a billion. From the Parade of Nations, with the gender apartheid (WHY IS SAUDI ARABIA ALLOWED IN THE GAMES??? SOUTH AFRICA WASN’T ALLOWED, WHY IS SAUDI ARABIA ALLOWED???) to the porn outfits female athletes are forced to wear, the whole thing is a goddamn travesty. And don’t even get me started on the gruesomeness that is female gymnastics.
Besides, it’s boring. And sweaty. And slow.
I do like the equestrian events, mostly because I like the horses. I worry about them, though: what if they fall on that jump? What if they break their legs? Are they happy? Do they want to be there? And so on.
I also occasionally become transfixed by something weird at the Summer Games, like the diving. I think the highboard divers are really secret suicides. They’re death wish people with a closet yearning to go head-first into some concrete about 20 stories down. That’s the only thing that makes sense. (Of course, you could argue that the Winter Olympics athletes are death wish people too, but I think there’s a difference. At least the winter sports involve a thrilling ride — down a hill, down a track, whatever. The divers just jump off a ledge.)
But overall, the Summer Olympics are dull.
The Winter Games, though! Now that’s a party. People going 80 goddamn miles an hour! Swooshing down a mountain! Spinning in the air! Sliding and gliding across the ice! Love the Winter Olympics. Love the figure skating, the speed skating (especially short track), the ski racing, the snowboarding, the bobsledding. I even like the hockey.
Now if NBC will just let me see it.
20 Responses to “Why I love the Winter Olympics”
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Adrienne in CA says:
Yeah, me too. Despite all the flaws you mention, plus the rampant commercialism, and idiotic, emotionally manipulative commentary, I do love it.
Something in me wants to believe the story of a world coming together to celebrate our common drive to excel.
I differ on one point with you, though, Violet. I wouldn’t keep any country out of the Olympics. Just as we can continue a dialogue with “bad” feminists, I believe extending an open door to bad regimes, at least in this one venue, does more good than harm — if only to broaden consciousness of disparities and of what might be.
*****A
February 18th, 2010 at 10:27 pm EST -
Violet Socks says:
Adrienne, what did you think about the ban on South Africa?
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Violet Socks says:
Wow, anybody just see Evan Lysacek just now? His music is all very Ballets Russe. His short program was skated to Firebird, tonight he skated to Scheherezade. Fine with me; I love Rimsky-Korsakov and early Stravinsky.
Anyway, his program tonight was all technically great. He seemed very tight to me though, like he was scared to death. But he did great. No falls, etc.
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Adrienne in CA says:
My gut is that it wasn’t that great a factor in ending S.A. apartheid, compared to the economic boycott that ramped up later. The S.A. government put up with the Olympic ban for nearly 30 years.
I absolutely recognize the power that barring an offending nation has symbolically. Possibly black people in the U.S. and elsewhere applauded the action and perhaps believe it made a difference. Although black people had plenty of crap to deal with here in the USA in the 60s as well, so I’d be surprised if it was that much comfort to them.
Broadcasting an all-white procession (with spontaneous boos from the stands?) around the world also would have held a certain amount of symbolism, could have sparked a great deal of international discussion, and perhaps triggered shame about that in both S.A. and the US.
I’m the first one to complain that women, compared to blacks and gays, don’t demand loudly enough (lately) that demeaning treatment be substantively redressed. Maybe I’m the one setting my sights too low. It’s just that when you bar a country from participating in the Olympics, it’s really the athletes, probably blameless in their government’s policies, who bear the punishment, not the bad regimes. These young people are the future leaders in their country, and it seems like every opportunity to widen their perspective on the rest of the world is worthwhile, and should not be abridged to make a political point. Yes, actions like boycotts and embargoes hurt regular people too, but at least it also causes difficulties that the political leadership cannot so easily ignore.
But I’ll go do some research on the situation with S.A. Perhaps no blanket rule can apply, and these decisions are best made on a case by case basis.
*****A
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Violet Socks says:
I absolutely recognize the power that barring an offending nation has symbolically. Possibly black people in the U.S. and elsewhere applauded the action and perhaps believe it made a difference. Although black people had plenty of crap to deal with here in the USA in the 60s as well, so I’d be surprised if it was that much comfort to them.
At the time it was enormously important, at least symbolically. The black African nations threatened to boycott unless South Africa and then Rhodesia were banned from the Games.
And then in 1976, several African nations did boycott the Montreal Olympics because of the participation of New Zealand, which had allowed its rugby team (or some team, fuzzy on the details) to tour South Africa. The Africans had wanted the IOC to ban New Zealand, the IOC refused, and so the African nations boycotted.
I think the Olympic ban was part of the global shaming, if you will, of South Africa, and sent a powerful message that racial apartheid was beyond the pale.
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Violet Socks says:
On the other hand, I generally dislike using the Games as a political football. One thing I’ve never forgiven Jimmy Carter for was boycotting the 1980 Olympics. I think it just deprived our athletes of their chance. And then led to the Soviet boycott of the 1984 Olympics. Tit for tat.
I also disagreed with those who thought the Beijing Olympics should be boycotted. China’s regime is awful, but, as Richard Pryor joked back in the early 70s when the debate was over recognizing China politically, “Hell, I’ll recognize a billion of anything.” The Chinese are a huge part of this planet, and they need to be integrated with the rest of us. And I think the more China is integrated with the global community, the better it is for the Chinese people. I think that’s their best shot for eventually getting past the authoritarian regime they have now.
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Adrienne in CA says:
Yes, looking up a few things online, I see that the S.A. shaming, which is a good way to describe it, gradually increased throughout the sports world as well as the arts — areas that concerned individuals and liberal institutions could impact — while their governments slowly caught up. Easier done with a less economically powerful country than with debt-holders like Saudi Arabia and China. Cripes, we can’t even meet with the Dalai Lama (or was it sell arms to Taiwan?) without being threatened.
I’d sure love to see such principled and dogged actions on behalf of women some time in my life, though. {sigh}
*****A
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cellocat says:
I love watching the skating. I love to ice skate, though I’m not very good at it, and so I can imagine a tiny bit what it must feel like to swoop and speed and jump and twirl like that. Could do without all the sequins, etc, but watching the athletic beauty of those performances is always pleasurable. Though they’re not usually *really* in time with the music, which can bother me if I let it. :-)
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Nessum says:
What I love the most is seeing how thrilled the participants seem to be to just be there! The joy of the bronze medal winners (or even those sans medals!) often seem as great, sometimes even greater, than that of the gold medal winners.
I also love the display of camaraderie and friendship that crosses borders and nationalities.
There’s so much emotion on display. Like e.g. seeing Lindsey Vonn with tears streaming down her cheeks after having witnessed one of her harshest competitors, but also friend, Anja Pärson, crash. It pulls at the heartstrings! And isn’t that what it’s all about? :)
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bluelyon says:
Yeah, Nessum, that’s what I love too. In addition to knowing them from other competition, they all know what it took for each of them to get there.
I also love the “come from behind” or “squeaker” wins. It keeps me coming back, and why I assiduously avoid the news during the day so I at least get to be surprised when I finally get to watch what NBC lets me.
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votermom says:
My 8yo now says that if she is were to pick an in Olympic sport to participate in she wants to do curling.
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Alison says:
Thank you, Violet, for covering the winter Olympics at Reclusive Leftist! Your post have inspired a rant of my own:
http://thenewagenda.net/2010/02/18/18679/
as well as a haiku:
http://www.haikubytwo.com/haiku-414/
I still can’t get over people’s sleepy response to this exclusion. People really need to translate sexism into racism in order to “get it”. If this were an issue of ethnicity people would be boycotting the Olympics.
When it comes to women I guess things are so completely seeped in tradition that it’s hard to see it some time. Really, I had never thought about the figure skating issues you raised. Because in my head I just accepted the tradition of it all.
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Val says:
Well, none of my equines are Olympic athletes, but I think they **DO** enjoy their work… They are always jostling at the gate or stall door to be “selected”. As a matter of fact, my QH gelding was too busy trying to outmaneuver his younger-Arab “brother” the other night; he stepped on my foot & [accidentally] knocked me down instead of MINDING me & going into his stall! So now I have [another] purple crooked toe on my Quasimodo left foot…
Thanks, Quigley; it’s a good thing Momma loves you. -
propertius says:
I liked Top Gear’s version of the Winter Olympics.
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Emily Post says:
Mixed feelings about figure skating. It’s great that there’s a sport where women monopolize the endorsements and media attention, bad that it enforces a rigid definition of what constitutes beauty and femininity on its female athletes. With the large exception of Sonja Henie, for most of the modern era the men have been the innovators in athleticism and expression pushing the sport and I’m sure part of the reason is the ice princess template the girls are locked into. The men can be butch. The men can be swish. They can skate to rock music. They can skate to classical. There’s much less variety and interest on the women’s side.
Lysacek did alsmost as well as he could yesterday, which isn’t saying much.
The women who skate in the pairs competition are surely among the most daring and intrepid athletes in the world. They suffer terrible injuries and take great risks. The men are mostly porteurs, distinguishing themselves chiefly as partners and consorts, which lowers their profile but increases their safety level.
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Kiuku says:
the thing is, women excel at most things they are allowed to do. That is why, women were banned from most things, at the dawn of patriarchy, I am convinced of this. How can the men make any place for themselves if they are biologically inferior? In order to make any place for themselves, they, collectively, violently, work together as a team to systematically silence women. Eventually, this becomes biological reality, as women, with a double X chromosome capable of recombining, adapt, while men, with a Y chromosome incapable of recombining, stay the same over time.
Add to this the fact that people just aren’t interested in things women excel at. I believe this is because innately we know, there is nothign special about women excelling. They are biologically superior.
The thing is, if women are allowed to do sports, eventually, maybe in only a couple generations they will out perform the men. Now, men and women are about even in marathon running. Sprint is coming up close too. The gap is almost inconsequential. Of course, people discount my study on this, saying that the women are doped up on testosterone, or that they are men to begin with. But I have also shown, that testosterone has nothing to do with performance. It has to do with the tendons and muscle reaction time. Regardless, women are making leaps in athletic performance, -when they are allowed to perform-. Eventually we will overtake them in any sport.
As you can see, though, women are not allowed to perform against the men in areas that will make the men look bad. When women excelled at swimming, they had to swim separate. When women excelled at aiming, they couldn’t go agains tthe men in archery. Women cannot ski jump against the men. Pretty soon that will be all areas, and we will be back at square one.
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monchichipox says:
I love the Winter Olympics too. I forget the year but it was when I was little. After watching the speed skating on the Olympics I decided I wanted to be an Olympic speed skater. So this was a way for my dad to show his sweet side without having to show any emotion. He went into one of our fields and dug an oval trench and filled it with water so I could “train” as a speed skater. Of course me being me my obsessions, though powerful, were always short lived. I think it lasted about a week or two. Poor guy.
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Tanya Derbowka says:
I am embarrased to admit that I had no idea that female figure skaters had to wear skirts. And I participated in figure skating for years. My parents bought me seven hundred dollar figure skates and I wore the girly outfits despite being frighteningly butch. I always hated wearing the female drag. It never crossed my mind that I had a choice. It was just what you did. I also got bullied by mean coaches who would berate me for not being good enough. Despite all that, figure skating is really great. I loved it. It was was the best thing that a kid could be involved with and I feel a little guilty that I never encouraged my kids to get into skating. Jumping and spinning are the most fun a person can have and even if you do it badly, people are in awe of your skills. Even though I haven’t skated in years I could go to the rink right now and spin and jump and impress the hell out of all the little kids. Landing a single axel was the greatest accomplishment of my life. I got a tiny feel for how great it must feel to do a triple jump. I was the only girl in my figure skating club who could land a single axel and I could do it effortlessly. I could even do it right now because once you get the feel for a jump you never forget how to do it. After watching the Olympics I feel like skating again for the first time in years and years. Figure skating rocks, even if the girly crap makes it suck for a butch like me. I am straight but I have always disliked femininity.
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anna says:
Female figure skaters can wear trousers now.
That sounds like a really interesting study Kiuku, could you post it for us to see?
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Julian Real says:
Thank you Violet, for this post! I am only now waking up from my post-Winter Games viewing marathon nap!
I think it’s outrageous that women’s ski jumping isn’t allowed, and the imperative that any women on TV have to be “feminine”. If women can be hockey players and bobsledders…
Another excuse I’ve heard is that there aren’t enough elite women ski jumpers worldwide, but there are more ski jumpers than skeleton sliders, and the IOC allows the women to go down a perilous, and sometimes lethal, icy course.
I’m also annoyed that butch women athletes are not allowed on TV, or, if on, are not focused on by the media or potential corporate sponsors.
We can recall the difference between how the media treated Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova: it is both grossly patriarchal and lesbophobic. And, why can’t we know if a woman athlete, femme, butch, or neither, is a lesbian. We do, kind of, get to know which male figure skaters are gay, although only using “coded” lingo. And the homophobia and effemiphobia in men’s figure skating is as thick as pre-Global Warming antarctic ice. Johnny Weir has had to endure misogynist/homophobic commentary. This effemiphobia is extreme in a sport that simultaneously promotes grace and flow. Evan Lysacek wearing feathers is considered the “butch” peformance, when, to me, it just lacked a quality seen in both Weir’s and especially Stéphane Lambiel’s skating. Lysacek is, for me, an excellent athlete, but what he does with his arms is nothing to write home about.
I think men’s figure skating has suffered since jumps became more important than spins. Stéphane Lambiel’s spins are stunning. Jumps are thrilling, but if Plushenko had won, it would have confirmed it’s just a male sport about who can spin fastest in the air, and land cleanly. I want the men’s competition to be more than just a jumping contest. And without slo-mo replays, I can’t usually tell the difference between triples and quads anyway!
As for women’s figure skating, we can recall how Midori Ito should have won gold but didn’t, even though she was able to push the sport forward in terms of complex jumps landed cleanly. Back then, figures still had to be skated, which was what hampered Ito’s cumulative scores.
As for comparing gender discrimination to race discrimination: for me, that’s always a dangerous point to try and make. The Winter Olymics, their sports, their sponsors, are and have always been deeply racist. Just ask any elite winter athlete of color.
Especially, there’s an anti-Black racism that permeates the Winter Games. The lack of Black athletes in some sports is often due to the fact that the racism is as thick as pre-Global Warming antarctic ice among white coaches and athletes. Shani Davis and Apolo Ohno both have had to overcome not being white in sports that the U.S. sees as white-only. How many times have I heard white folks call the Winter Games called “The White Olympics” and the Summer Games called “The Black Olympics”?? Too many.
This so invisibilises all the people of color who aren’t Black who are in both Winter and Summer Olympic sports. Racism is present when Shani’s perceived “coolness” to the media four years ago in Torino was seen as race-related, but Bodi Miller’s temperamental relationship to the media is never assumed to flow from his whiteness. Please don’t assume that if media pointed out anti-Black racism in a sport, a white supremacist country like the U.S. would give a damn.
The “All-American” look media and corporate sponsors love still means “Aryan”-looking. That’s racism, “pure” and simple. Generally speaking, in the white, white West, the darker the athlete, the lower the sponsorship.
