Lundy: Olympic apathy Comments
I’m told the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, B.C., are still going on. That is, I needed to be told Sunday evening, because I wasn’t really sure. The fact is, the Olympics, winter or summer, just don’t do it for me anymore.
When I was a kid, they just seemed more … meaningful. Not sure if that’s a reflection on them, a reflection on me, or both, but anymore, I just can’t make myself really care.
Take the Winter Games. Hockey is a pretty cool sport, and it’s not like the participants in other events aren’t talented in their own way, but I just can’t relate to the ski jumpers, lugers, biathletes, etc. And don’t even get me started on the “sport” of figure skating; suffice it to say, there are comparatively few legit things in life that involve judging, or sequins, and skating is not one of them.
(An aside: No offense to my Canadian relatives and friends, but curling looks absolutely ridiculous; it is pretty cool, though, that the Canadian team seemed to feature a Sandra Bullock lookalike; I noticed that during my 10 minutes of viewing on Friday).
Then there’s the Summer Games, in which the marquee events from a TV standpoint are swimming, gymnastics and track and field — three things so “marquee” that save for the Olympics, they are basically never on television. (Beach volleyball, though, is something worth watching, I will definitely concede that).
Aside from the fact that most of the events, winter or summer, don’t really interest me, I find the tape-delayed, soap-opera-style packaging of the broadcasts to be, well, unappealing. From a TV standpoint, the Olympics aren’t really about sports; they’re about programming and hitting a target audience that I’m just not a part of.
No disrespect intended to the athletes — the clean, non-cheating ones anyway — but I really don’t think any Olympic chapter has caught my fancy since the Miracle on Ice back in 1980. At least, I can’t right now remember another one that has.
Before that, most of my Olympic memories come from one Games: Munich 1972. I was 7 years old, and I remember the Arab terrorists, Mark Spitz’s 7 gold medals in swimming, and the biggest screw job in the history of sports: the Soviets’ “win” over the U.S. in the gold medal basketball game.
Others in the annals that really stand out for me are Bob Beamon, John Carlos and Tommie Smith in 1968, Cassius Clay in 1960 and probably the greatest Olympic performance of all-time: Jesse Owens sticking it to Hitler in 1936.
But these Vancouver Games? Wake me when they’re over, please, so I can focus on the upcoming baseball season and March Madness.
