Olympic Feats

Before we went to Florida, we watched quite a lot of the winter Olympics. Two things struck me about it. First, there are a lot of events I didn’t know existed. I don’t think I’ve watched the winter Olympics in many years. I knew about the half pipe snowboard event but I didn’t know there was a half pipe ski competition. Skiing backwards down and then up a massive U, flinging yourself skyward, twisting turning flipping until you re-enter the giant U, and doing it all again is, by turns (ha!), incredible and boring. It’s incredible to me that this is possible and, after watching a few of these acrobats, I lose interest. It’s tough to see much difference between the various twisty flingy flippy runs.

Another new sport to me is the ski jump where the competitor is on a snowboard instead of skis. Again, very twisty and floppy—and somewhat repetitive. I feel bad selling short their amazing feats, I just don’t find the viewing experience very rewarding.

I remain a sucker for couples ice skating. Here we have beautiful costumes (snowboarding, not so much); we have music, we have artistic interpretation of music, we have two people partnering to achieve precision and heart-stopping leaps on a hard, slippery surface, and—because of all of these factors—more variety.

My second observation is that I was confused by all the non-nationals competing for different countries. It appears that, if you can’t make the cut in your country of origin, you can compete somewhere else if you have a tenuous link there. I found it a bit disorienting. Couldn’t some marriages, for instance, be a marriage of Olympic convenience? Creepy.

Similarly, I watched an ice hockey match (not part of the Olympics) between a Washington DC team and a Canadian team. Most of the Washington players were Russian—also very disorienting. Particularly given that the match was at the U.S. Navy’s ice rink in Annapolis. I found the degree of militarism frightening (a four-star general dropped the puck, much attention to Navy iconongraphy, the Navy band played, rapturous applause for anything related to the military). I think I’ve read somewhere that one sign of nation transitioning from democracy to dictatorship is worship of the military.

While watching the Russians play for the U.S. Capitals, it is hard to ignore the subtext of Russian interference in U.S. elections. Maybe you think I’m on thin ice on this point (ha! again), but what is being normalized here? The Russians are very happy to, in any way they can, subvert our democracy (or what’s left of it). If Americans are happy enough to have Russians play for the U.S. Capitals at the home of the U.S. Navy, WTF? One final question, why does the Navy have four ice hockey teams? What is the cost to taxpayers of maintaining these teams, their massive ice rinks, their equipment, their health care? My mom went to hear a famous Navy choir in Annapolis last year. Again, what is the cost of this choir traveling all over the world and why is the Navy in the entertainment business?

March 3-5