It’s been several days, and I have been forced to notice a small, ring-shaped hole in my life. I am personally reminded at every Olympics how the games for me resemble a relationship in an incubator. For two weeks it’s nearly complete immersion. First comes the opening ceremony - I meet the country hosting the games and its many competitors. We get acquainted. There’s a spark. We’re both excited about the possibilities. Then, the games begin. They sweep you off your feet (especially when the United States takes the very first gold). We get more and more serious as the days ensue. Dates are implied. Every night, eight o’clock. Sometimes we’re up all night to get lucky. Sometimes things seem that they could not be any better; other times, we fight, and despite my verbal abuse, the Olympics always gets her way. Drama mounts towards the end, as the medal count seesaws. We ask each other to put everything we have into this, knowing the relationship’s terminal state. Then, when the closing ceremony comes, we regretfully say our goodbyes, and we prepare to grieve what we knew could not last (though she said she’d be back in a couple years…).
This year, in seeking catharsis, I wanted to compile a list of some of the memories. Just as in any relationship, there are many good ones, a few bad, and some that we remain ambivalent towards. But in the end, it serves us in our grief to create a space of loving memory for the lost in being able to appreciate the time we had together. I hope these memories can assist you with your own grieving process.
Failure
Let’s start with the bad. Sometimes, initially after the breakup, it is helpful to be able to sit with a good friend and vent about all the things that make your ex a terrible person. Let’s take a look at some of the failures of the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Sochi
Sochi in and of itself was a bit of a failure, as the infrastructure didn’t quite come together in the end. Reports of open-concept public restrooms, pee-colored water, and disastrously long waiting periods in the lines of the vendors were just a few of the criticisms that made yuppy Westerners cringe.
Insignia Fail
Four rings instead of five...the firing squad could be heard echoing off the mountains that night.
Bob Costas/Matt Lauer
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| Costas is lucky Rick was not in Sochi. |
Initially it was just a humorous puffy left eye that was trending on Twitter. A few days later, the NBC medical staff was forced to conduct a full-body examination, checking for any bite marks or large chunks of skin and muscle that had been ripped off, in case Costas was in fact making the slow transition to undead. Costas bravely persisted with several evenings of self-deprecating reporting, but he eventually was forced to pass the reigns to Matt Lauer. Lauer may be a kind and winsome face, but there’s a reason why he is on The Today Show and not covering high-profile sporting events. Zombie Bob Costas was suddenly missed.
Shaun White and Company
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| Unhand Flying Tomato, hipster Shaun White! |
Many countries have their shtick. In the Winter Olympics, Russia has figure skating; Canada has hockey; Switzerland and Austria have downhill skiing; the Netherlands has speed skating; the Scandinavian countries have cross country skiing; Germany has luge; and the United States has snowboarding halfpipe. Since its inception at the Nagano games in 1998, the United States had taken eight of the twelve medals in the halfpipe, including three of the four golds and a sweep of the event in Salt Lake City in 2002. But this year at Sochi, Americans failed to make the podium. Three made it to the finals, but none, including favorite Shaun White, medaled.
Hockey
In the 2010 Vancouver games, the men’s gold medal game ended with an epic overtime goal by Sidney Crosby, putting Canada over the United States 3-2. The women suffered a similar fate, losing to Canada 2-0 in the finals. Both losses for the Americans left our nation largely in want. This year’s Olympics seemed poised for both US teams to claim their revenge. The men’s team was dominant in the games leading up to the semis, while the Canadian men in comparison seemed a bit lethargic. But when it came time to play, it was clear that the Canucks were just...better. With a suffocating defensive effort, one goal was all the Canadians needed to steamroll the American team in a shutout. Demoralized, our men would go on to lay an egg against Finland, being shutout again in a 5-0 loss. Even more gut-wrenching than the men’s tournament disappointment was the way in which our women’s team lost. Up 2-0 against the Canadians with less than four minutes in the gold medal game, Canada would go on to unleash a scoring barrage against the Americans - two goals within two and a half minutes and the winning score in sudden-death overtime. It was nothing less than shocking…like a swift kick to the groin. Canada...my neighbor to the north...I asked for your tunic, and instead you took mine and the shirt off my back.
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| Revenge - a dish best not served? |
National Anthem
I saw way too many Americans stumbling through the words to the Star Spangled Banner. This wicked and perverse generation! Why do we not know the words to our own national anthem, played or sung nearly ubiquitously before any large event? Better still, why are our athletes going into the Olympics not thinking ahead to the moment when they may be standing on the highest podium, listening to their country’s anthem being played? You’d think at the very least they’d cram for it after winning an event. Still, if you don’t know the words, there remains a simple solution: don’t sing. As a viable alternative, close your eyes and act as if you are going through an intense spiritual moment. It may look even more reverent than if you were singing.
Ambivalence
I had mixed feelings towards these things…
Ice Dancing
Charlie White and Meryl Davis won ice dancing gold! Whoo!! ...what is this sport?? Admittedly, I’m not big on dancing. You will probably never see Swedish people in this event. Moving our limbs in perfect harmony with music was never our strong suit, and because people sucked at it, they declared it a sin. I tried to watch this event, and I must admit I just don’t really understand how any of these couples distinguish themselves from the others. They all do the exact same routines, and to an untrained eye such as myself, they all appear as if they don’t screw up. Figure skating at least has a prevailing technical element to it. The jumps are extremely difficult, and it’s clear when something goes awry there. With ice dancing, I find myself scrutinizing the synchronicity of the dancers’ twizzles. ...twizzles. There also seems to be absolutely no element of surprise or chance of upset in this event, making it incredibly non-compelling. Charlie White and Meryl Davis were the frontrunners coming in, with Canada not too far behind, and everyone else light years in back of them. And low and behold, that’s exactly how it played out. It’s women’s NCAA basketball all over again. It seems like reputation drives the results of ice dancing more than any other Olympic event. I have no clue as to why our ice dancers were better than the rest of the field. Was it White’s flowing blond locks?
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| I mean...I guess. |
US Women’s Figure Skaters
Gracie Gold…
...and Ashley Wagner.
Scandal
I want to highlight two scandals of the 2014 Winter Olympics, both involving Russia and South Korea. Coincidence? Read on and decide for yourself.
Viktor Ahn
...or is it Ahn Hyun-soo? With four more medals in Sochi, Ahn has become the highest decorated short-track skater (objectively the best Olympic event, summer or winter) in Olympic history. American Apolo Ohno is the only other competitor to reach eight medals, but there is no question Ahn represents the gold standard of the sport. Ohno won his eight - two gold, two silver, and four bronze - over the course of three Olympics (2002, 2006, and 2010). Viktor Ahn has won eight - six gold and two bronze - in only two Olympics (2006 and 2014). Ahn missed the Vancouver games due to injury.
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| Huh? |
So what is so scandalous about that? Ahn competed for South Korea in the Torino games as Ahn Hyun-soo, but he competed for Russia in Sochi as Viktor Ahn. Apparently he had a falling out with his country and team in between those eight years (possibly having to do with not being able to compete in Torino). After training in Russia and gaining citizenship as a Russian, Ahn decided to compete for Russia and proceeded to win four medals (three gold) for the home nation in 2014. Was this simply an example of spiteful defection, or is there corruption looming behind all of this?
Yuna Kim
You will scarcely find anything but gold on Yuna Kim’s career figure skating resume. If you wikipedia her, you will find fifteen golds, six silvers, and two bronze. In the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, Kim shattered Olympic records and won gold by an obscene margin of twenty-three points. Though her technical program was not as difficult in Sochi, Kim still skated beautifully, seemingly to perfection. Despite this, Kim lost the gold in favor of Russian skater Adelina Sotnikova. Sotnikova’s routine did include a more difficult program than Kim’s, but she stumbled on one of her jumps in the free skate, and by all accounts her artistry does not hold a candle next to the sublime interpretation that Yuna brings to her skating.
What makes matters truly shady in this is that figure skating, a sport that has historically been maligned in being rife with corruption, still seems to have woven into its system an inordinate potential for judges to doctor the books. Within the rules of figure skating, judges are chosen from a pool of thirteen countries, with eight judges only working either the short program or the free skate. In Sochi, judges from the USA, Great Britain, Sweden, and South Korea who had worked the short program were replaced by other judges, notably a Ukrainian (formerly of the Soviet Union) who had been kicked out of judging for a year from trying to fix the ice dancing competition in Nagano, and a Russian judge who is married to the Russian federation president. This doesn’t stink...it reeks of bias. On top of all of this, the judges’ scores are to remain anonymous, conveniently doing away with any kind of accountability for the way these judges individually decide the skaters’ fates. How figure skating continues to operate under this kind of blatant neglect for sense is as mystifying as it is shameful.
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| Yuna Kim deserved better |
To review, both of these scandals witnessed the pirating of gold medals from the future host country of the Winter Olympics, South Korea, in favor of the current host, Russia. I’m not one for conspiracy theories; this may be complete coincidence. But even I have to admit this looks like a big eff you! from the Ruskis.
Glory
But much of the 2014 Winter Olympics was indeed glorious. This is how I will choose to preserve the memory of these games…
Sochi
Despite Sochi’s inadequacies, which I can blame the Russian government for, the Sochi landscape was breathtaking, of which I can credit God. Picturesque does not seem to do justice to much of what I saw. To a Swedish American prodigal residing in Southern California, seeing a camera pan across miles of snow-crested conifers that decorate a majestic mountainous landscape has a pied piper effect in calling one Home.
Skiing Slopestyle
In the event’s Olympic debut, Americans Joss Christensen, Gus Kenworthy, and Nicholas Goepper swept the podium, setting a standard for perhaps a new Olympic event which America can try to distinguish itself in.
Security
You’d have to be an exceptionally stupid terrorist to terrorize Russia, especially after the ringleader of the ring fiasco was made an example of. Still, no explosion is a huge cause for celebration. Kudos to Russian security! *I find it prudent to note here that no one was actually murdered for a failure in the rings display...to my knowledge...
Closing Ceremony (Olympic Spirit)
The Closing Ceremony on Sunday night was nothing short of spectacular. The overwhelming beauty of Russian culture was highlighted in its art, garb, music, and dance (ballet). Russian culture is incredibly unique in the themes that it shouts. A people who have toiled one of the harshest landscapes in the world, endured the political regimes of the czars, Stalin, and Gorbachev, thwarted the invasion efforts of two of the world’s most powerful dictators (Napoleon and Hitler), and who put up with communism for the better part of the 1900s have managed to seamlessly weave both agony and hope into the comprehensiveness of their culture. It is a culture that contains nearly tangible expressions of yearning so powerful that it can only originate somewhere very deep within the souls of those who create it.
Chris Collinsworth said at the close of the ceremony that with every Olympics, the world shrinks just a little bit in size. These windows into the people of our world represent the true beauty found in the Olympics. There are elements that far transcend the mere act of athletes from around the world coming together to compete against each other. That is only the alibi. The Olympic games are an excuse for countries of the world to gather together, be in awe of, and celebrate one another. We didn’t have to be in Sochi for that to occur. The Olympics are a reminder that every person in the world has a story to tell that reaches back long before their birth, and for that story to be shared and listened to is an incredible blessing.
So as that giant fluffy bear cried a single tear while extinguishing the Olympic flame, many of us felt the emotion of the moment well up inside of us as well. It was more than just nostalgia for remembering the journey of the two-week relationship we had just invested in. It was a tear shed because we’re all better people for having experienced it together. It was a tear shed because it only comes around once every two years. If you could put the tear into a pensieve, you would find that the sum of those memories is greater than its parts, and that beautiful product of sentiment is too great for the body not to respond in unison with the spirit.
Thank you, Sochi. Thank you, Russia. Thank you, world. It’s been a beautiful two weeks; indeed, an oddly beautiful harem.
Viva Rio!
