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Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Pozpective: Olympics are supposed to be fun
The great Poz about hotdogging in Torino, 2006:
I won’t lie: That was my first thought too. When I watched the race again (and again), I could not help but feel that this WAS something generational. There Jacobellis was, in the shadow of Olympic glory, and she decided that was a good time to try to some silly hot dog move and …
And then, watching it a third or fourth time, something else hit me.
I was watching SNOWBOARDCROSS, for crying out loud.
I mean this wasn’t even a word a few years ago. They were not snowboardcrossing in Ancient Greece or even in not-so-ancient Lake Placid. They added snowboardcross to the Winter Olympics that very year — Jacobellis was racing in the FIRST Olympic snowboardcross — because, frankly, they had a little too much nordic combined and biathlon for America’s taste. They wanted to give the Winter Olympics a little Agent X-Games, a little youthful exuberance, a little something to pop the ratings, something Moms and Pops and kiddies might actually watch at night.
Lindsey Jacobellis did not get into snowboardcross because of some Olympic dream. No, she got into snowboardcross because it was fun and wild and on the mountain she could express herself. Just because the Olympics added snowboardcross (and the half-pipe and moguls and all the rest) doesn’t suddenly change the complexion of these sports. Showing off isn’t a side effect of snowboardcross. It’s the POINT of snowboardcross. Winning is fine, but leaving them awed is the goal.
That’s not to say that Jacobellis crashing while trying The Method was not stupid. Sure, it was plenty stupid. But it seems to me that it was stupid in the innocent way that a kid who hangs upside down from a branch and falls out of a tree is stupid. She was feeling the moment. She wanted to give everyone a thrill. Whatever the case, this wasn’t an American Tragedy, and it did not reflect anything more than a 20-year-old kid showing off for the crowd, just like she had her whole life.
Also one word. Kids today. They’re too busy having fun to … not have fun.
You’re either in it to win it, or you are in it to have fun. Basically, in this case, the sport is like an all-star game where they happen to give out a trophy for most accurate shot.
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