“It has been a disastrous Olympics for the United States”
I actually heard that from more than one TV commentator this week as the US “languishes” in 4th place in the medal count at the Winter Games. What we have here is a situation where perception is trumping reality.
Yes, we sent the largest team in Winter Olympics history–so being far behind less-populous countries like Norway and Canada looks bad. But let’s be honest, what percentage of our population is ever exposed to conditions suited to winter sports. And when events are known as “Nordic Skiing” people from Nordic countries should probably dominate.
Incredible successes have been achieved by Americans in these games. We won our first ever medal in men’s single luge. Chris Mazdzer won silver after failing to get into the top ten for many of the events leading up to the Olympics. We won our first-ever gold medal in women’s cross-country skiing in the team sprint event. Our women’s hockey team finally got over the mental hurdle that has killed them for so many years when they play the Canadians. And later today, we will win our first ever gold or silver in men’s curling.
The reason it seems like the US is a “disaster” this year is because we are losing what I like to call the “TV Olympics”–the tiny sliver of action that NBC decides to show during their prime-time broadcast window. NBC hitched its wagon–as it always does–to a few high-profile athletes in its promotion leading up to the games. Snowboarders like Chloe Kim and Shaun White delivered gold in primetime. But they were one-night, one-event athletes. We saw plenty of Mikaela Schiffrin and Lindsey Vonn flashing their blonde hair and blue eyes before the games. But weather delays forced Schiffrin to cut back on the aggressive schedule she planned to ski–and Vonn simply wasn’t good enough in her latest comeback from a knee injury.
And then there is figure skating. Adam Rippon became the “breakout star” of the Games (on NBC). He was “flamboyant”. He was “sassy”. He “put Vice President Mike Pence in his place”. He also doesn’t do quad-jumps in his routines–and he was never a serious medal contender coming to South Korea. Nathan Chen does a lot of quads in his routine. But he flamed out in the short program and dug himself a hole too deep to get out of in the long program. The Americans choked in ice dancing, weren’t good enough in pairs and the women’s team was just weak this time around. But because these are the athletes that NBC (and other media outlets) know get ratings in primetime–they were all we heard about.
The real sport we need to be concerned about is speed skating. Medals were few and far between for Team USA in these games–and the future of the sport doesn’t look too bright. In fact, most of our top contenders in South Korea are recent converts from in-line skating–who started skating on ice in just the last couple of years. That doesn’t bode well for folks at the Pettit Center in West Allis–where greats like Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen honed their skills.
In terms of a TV show, these Olympics have been a bomb. In terms of what this is supposed to be about–sports–we’ve done fine this time around.
