Sunday, August 5, 2012

A Five Ring Sunday Circus


Alright, so I got sucked in.  I’ve taken to watching the games and in large measure it took track and field to hook me.  Well, it took track.  My cynical side, which as anyone who reads this regularly would know is dominant, tells me that the strength events are PED tainted.  I still feel burned over those two USA Track and Field Championships at Stanford a few years back.  A few years back can be translated to mean “the Balco years.”   I spent top dollar for good seats, hyped the events to Cora and then we found out after the Balco bubble burst that many of the results from both meets were frauds. 


At least track and field and cycling put the hammer down on the cheats.  Tainted results are vacated and as far as the record books go it’s as if the fakers never existed.  Sadly baseball hasn’t followed suit.  A visit to The Baseball Almanac shows us that the American League record for career home runs is held by Babe Ruth at 708 and the National League record by that petulant, surly, self-absorbed son of a bitch Barry Bonds.  No mention of Henry Aaron’s 752.  Thank you for participating Hammerin’ Hank and for showing up we have a Popeil’s Pocket Fisherman and several other lovely parting gifts.  I have a Facebook friend who loved the fraudulent steroid raged years ruled by swindlers like Sosa, McGwire and Bonds.  He couldn’t get enough of those 700 foot homeruns and the bastardization of that wonderful game.  The good news for this fellow is that if he wants to see the Mona Lisa and other works of art he doesn’t have to travel to Paris.  He can visit the poster shop at the nearest mall; a fake is a fake is a fake. 

Maybe my comments about the Olympics in my last post where a bit harsh.  I’m not too big to admit that I might be wrong; which means I wouldn’t be fit to serve in Congress.

So I was a little tough on the Olympics (as if they really care).  It still has more than its share of melodrama and there are still too many of those John Wooden, “Sports don’t build character, they reveal it” moments.
                There was last Wednesday’s comic bantamweight boxing match in which Japan’s  Satoshi Shimizu went into the third round trailing by 7 points to Azerbaijan’s Magomed Abdulhamidov.  Shimizu made a 3rd round comeback and pummeled his opponent, knocking down the Azerbaijani 6 times and the referee's cupboard was apparently out of standing 8 counts; nary a one was issued as the rules require.  In the end Abdulhamidov was awarded the bout by 5 points, a decision that was overturned by officials of the International Amateur Boxing Association which issued a statement that said in part, “our main concern has been and will always be the protection of the integrity and fair-play of our competitions.”  Boxing?  Let’s be clear, the words “integrity,” “fair play” and “boxing” should never be used in the same sentence.  The referee of the bout and one of the judges were shown the gate and “no Pocket Fisherman for you.”   As it turned out, a year ago the BBC reported that Azerbaijani boxing officials may have been involved in a pay for medals scandal.  

And then there’s badminton; bad, bad, badminton and the scandal in which teams from China, Indonesia and South Korea flagrantly tanked their matches in order to get more favorable draws for later matches in the round robin tournament.  This pot boiling drama created some incredible observations.
Fans who had paid over 100 dollars U.S. were incensed and booed the competitors (for lack of a better word) mercilessly for purposely serving into the net and saving opponents shots that were sailing well out of bounds.  One hundred dollars to watch badminton prelims?  I would be booing myself just for paying that kind of money to watch badminton. 
Top ranked player Yu Yang has hung up her racket after the scandal, "Farewell Badminton World Federation; farewell my beloved badminton." Yang claimed that she and her partner Wang Xiaoli were BOTH injured before the match and were using the round robin rules to survive to the next match.  Injured?  Badminton? Both players on the same team at the same time?  I must have missed the part where players are body checked into the boards.  Wait, there are no boards.  For dramatic affect Yang concluded, “Do you understand the pain athletes suffer?"
And finally with a collective straight face the Chinese Olympic Committee issued the statement, "The behavior of Yu Yang and Wang Xiaoli violated the principles of the Olympic Movement and went against the spirit of fair play. It hurt our hearts. The Chinese Olympic Committee has always been firmly against any conduct that is against sportsmanship." This would be the selfsame China that fielded a swim team that came from nowhere to win 12 golds at the 1994 World’s and then had 11 swimmers test positive for dihydrotestosterone.  Two years later at the ’96 Olympics with the memory of a doping ban still fresh Chinese swimmers were clean but garnered only one gold.  And then there’s that little matter of underage gymnasts.  “Hurt our hearts” indeed. 

Really; what’s the use of having a medal that came as a result of a payoff, PEDs or some other form of chicanery?  What do you tell your grandchildren?  It was the best performance money could buy? What goes through your mind and what does your heart tell you when you look at your ill-gotten medal?  It doesn’t really matter that the public adores you.  You still have to face yourself.  What will Marion Jones tell her grandchildren?  I guess you own up to it all and try to turn it into a teaching moment and in your own private moments keep asking yourself, “what if?”    

I followed a perimeter of the games littered with scandals, sensationalism and athletes, coaches and fans behaving badly.  Did Hope Solo really have to get in a pissing contest with Brandy Chastain?  Hope, do you realize that except for two weeks out of 208 most American sports fans think women’s soccer is a joke and the rest of the country doesn’t know it exists?  Is that the PR that soccer is looking for? 

 I got sucked into watching by those stories that bring a smile, maybe a head shake or a tear and the realization that while all isn’t right, all isn’t bad either.
The men’s 10000 meter race gave us one of those moments the Olympics are expected to deliver; the joyous moment of victory for Britain’s, Mo Farrah, wide eyed, hands to his face, a mixture of boundless joy and amazement at the moment.  He was living an athlete’s dream; to win an Olympic medal for the hometown fans.   
Missy Franklin is doing things her way.  Despite early success as a swimmer she didn’t uproot herself from Colorado to train with some high powered coach in California and she isn’t planning on cashing in on her successful Olympics.  Nope, she wants to maintain her eligibility to be able to continue her high school swim career and then swim in college.  It isn’t always about the money. 
Holley Mangold only finished 10th (only) in women’s weightlifting but she did it with a torn tendon in her wrist that will require surgery.  Happily she wasn’t competing in badminton because then we wouldn’t understand the pain that athletes suffer.
Kayla Harrison was sexually abused by her judo coach when she was 13; abuse that continued for 3 years until Harrison revealed the abuse first to a friend and then to her mother.  The coach is in jail now but the experience could easily have put the young woman off of judo, if not off of life in general.  She persevered and won Olympic judo gold. 
Even seeing the Dream Team show up at other venues to cheer on their teammates (no they aren’t in the same sport but they are all on the same team) and to an impromptu practice with beach volley ballers Misty May Treanor and Kerri Walsh revealed some indication that these rich young men do recognize the moment. 
The marathon is an athletic opera; a two hour drama complete with acts, full of twists, turns and mystery. 

“Watching the Olympics makes you just want to lace up and go.” said a Facebook post.  The half full glass is that every four years some folks are inspired.  No, I’m not talking about the young athlete who decides to train for greatness.  I’m thinking about the seriously overweight mother and daughter I saw struggling through a run this morning.  Could it be that they watched an event and were motivated to do something life changing?

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