Olympic Miracles

This is another in the “Sunday Story” series.

“That’s right, I start crying. Because another human being, a species that I happen to belong to, could kick a ball, and lift himself, and the rest of us sad-assed human beings, up to a better place to be, if only for a minute… let me tell ya, kid – it was pretty goddamned glorious. It ain’t the six minutes… it’s what happens in that six minutes.” – Vision Quest – 1985

Lunatic Fringe – Red Rider

Sports Fan

I am a sports fan.  So, I was fired up – the Olympic Winter Games (don’t dare call it the Winter Olympics, I don’t know why) started on February 3rd.  I was ready to spend days watching events I know little about, from figure skating to what looks like roller derby on snowboards.  And of course, there is the inevitable hours trying to figure out curling.  It’s easy to write curling off; it’s an inscrutable event.  What looks simplistic from the outside, must be a highly complex skill on the inside. 

The first few days didn’t grab me.   I was waiting for the “Jean Claude Killy” moment.  It was back in the winter of 1968, not the best year of our American history.  The Winter Olympics were in Grenoble, France, and I was an eleven year-old who knew little about winter sports.  But here was this seemingly out-of-control Frenchman, flying down the mountainside. Even at eleven I recognized that the difference between winning and catastrophe, Gold or out, is a razor thin edge. And  Killy, arms flying, seemed bound to crash into the barriers.  But he didn’t – his willingness to put everything on the line brought him the Gold.  That’s a lesson I learned – for sports and for life.

But the first few nights of the 2022 games didn’t have it.  So we moved our viewing away, back to the unending grind of the “news”.  We even read through a whole evening.  (It isn’t that we don’t read, but usually it’s during the day.  Evening reading usually means early sleeping).

Athletic Choices

Wednesday night I tried one more time.  It was the finals of the women’s snowboarding half-pipe competition.  The competitors drop down a twenty-two foot wall into the “pipe” then use that momentum to fly up the other wall – perform flips, turns, and things I can’t even follow, switches and “940’s”. Then they try to land and do it again on the other side.  It’s incredibly complex, and obviously dangerous.  

But what caught me was the choices those athletes had to make.  The scoring is the best of three attempts (a lot like track and field).  If you fall – you fail and that run doesn’t score. The strategic thinking is about how to weigh out the efforts:  go for it all from the beginning and pressure the field or get a safe run in, then build on that momentum.  And, after the first run, the “safe” run, they all got out on that “ragged edge” of Gold or failure.  They tried “tricks” that were so hard that the success percentage was low.  They fell, and yet they went back up and tried it once again.  

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Chloe Kim is the American champion.  Her runs were incredible, tricks that seemed undoable followed by clean landings into another amazing effort.  And when she had won it all, and could just “mail it in” on her final run, she didn’t.  Chloe took her third run and tried tricks that had never been done in competition before.  She tried to raise the standard of her whole event, and to risk that last Olympic moment as a failure.  And she did fail – but in the attempt personified the Olympic spirit – Citius, Altius, Fortius, (faster, higher, stronger) – even with the Gold medal already around her neck.

And after the women’s half-pipe, came the men’s figure skating.  The athleticism involved in jumping, spinning, and twirling on the ice is incredible.  And again, I watched athlete after athlete risk their entire performance, give up the “safe” program, to gain the Gold.  For me, who watches figure skating once every four years, the incredible change is the “quad”.  They leap from the ice, and spin four times in the air before they land.  And it’s not just once, it’s four or even five different quads in a performance.  At least, if you want the Gold.

They fell, one after another.  The only path to Gold was through the quad.  Only one finalist, Jason Brown of the United States, didn’t attempt it.  His was an impressive performance, surely a medalist effort in the 1990’s or early 2000’s.  He knew what he couldn’t do, so he gave everything he could.  He got sixth.

Chen

And then there was the other young American, Michael Chen.  He attempted five quads, four of them seemingly perfect, one flawed but still successful.  And the rest of his performance was incredible, from interpretation to athleticism.  His was the “Killy” moment, when he could take all of his gifts, all of his work, and channel it into a single effort.  He won the Gold medal by over twenty points.  I don’t really know the difference between a salchow and a triple toe loop, but I know an amazing, world class, dedicated athlete when I see one.  Michael Chen is one.

So I’m back watching the Olympic Winter Games.  Last night it was the men’s half-pipe, then the women’s Giant Slalom.  The incredible Sean White made his last Olympic effort, and in true Olympic style, risked it all on his final run.  He was fourth, and it required even more tricks to gain a medal.  He tried and fell:  then showed incredible “class” as he stood with his younger competitors and cheered on the final medalists. 

I’m glad I came back.  They’ll be more sports this weekend – and another athletic oddity– the Bengals in the Super Bowl?  (Coach Sam Wyche’s daughter is bringing his ASHES in a silver football to watch the game – not making that up!!). No wonder the world seems so confused.  But as a Cincy native, an original Bengals fan from the beginning in Nippert Stadium – Who Dey!!!!  Or as a young announcer named Al Michaels said in the 1980 Olympic Winter Games – “Do you believe in Miracles?”

The Sunday Story Series

• Riding the Dog  – 1/24/21
• Hiking with Jack – 1/31/21
• A Track Story – 2/7/21
• Ritual – 2/14/21
• Voyageur – 2/19/21
• A Dog Story – 2/25/21
• A Watkins Legend – 3/7/21
• Ghosts at Gettysburg – 3/14/21
• Lessons from the State Meet – 3/28/21
• More Lessons from the State – 4/4/21
• Stories from the Road – 4/11/21
• A Bear Wants You – 5/1/21
• My Teachers – 5/9/21
• Old Friends  – 5/23/21
• The Gift – 6/6/21
• Echoes of Mom – 6/20/21
• Stories of the Fourth – 7/3/21
• Running Memories – 7/25/21
• Lost Dog of Eldora – 8/1/21
• Dogs and Medals – 8/8/21
• The New Guy – 9/5/21
• Stories of 9-11 – 9/12/21
• The Interview – 9/26/21
• Night Moves – 10/3/21
• Funeral for a Friend – 10/11/21
• National Security – 10/24/21
• Boots on the Trail – 10/31/21
• Taking Care of Mom and Dad – 11/14./21
• Dogs Found and Lost – 11/21/21
• Watching Brian 12/12/21
• Stories from Shiloh – 12/19/21
• Team Trips – 12/26/21
• Uphill, Both Ways  – 1/9/22
• Old Trophies – 1/30/22
• The Last Time – 2/7/22
• Olympic Miracles – 2/13/22