The Olympic Games have been crippled by the pandemic, yet it’s the media that seems intent on delivering the deathblow. For years they have been criticized for showing less sport and more fluff. Personal interest stories seem to dominate the coverage with the actual event a brief interlude between the requisite pre-game sob story and the post-game celebration. And its win-win for the mediaeither way. If their chosen competitor fails to achieve glory, then the story becomes all about their failure to win, their losing with dignity or the ascendency of the young heir apparent. It’s been trending for decades and its getting worse. With one network winning the rights to the games, the helpless viewer is left enduring the coverage or laying down some cash to purchase a premium Olympic channel to actually get a choice on what to watch, rather than stay up all night enduring Greco-Roman Wrestling while waiting for the promised coverage of the trampoline finals. This year we saw the huge amount of media attention piled on gymnast Simone Biles with headlines trumpeting her as the GOAT, expected to win as many as six gold medals. With that kind of media pressure, exerted round the clock by social media, it is not unexpected that the talented Ms. Biles had a mental health crisis of sorts and withdrew from all but one event. Similarly the US Women’s Soccer Team, defending World Cup Champions and media darlings for their fight for equal pay and their outspoken, gay, anti-Trump, team captain, veteran Megan Rapinoe, were overexposed in the press with expectations for overcoming their history of lackluster Olympic performance by adding a gold medal to their world championship. The result was an opening game thumping by Sweden followed by a pedestrian performance that led to them squeaking by the Netherlands on penalty kicks to gain a spot in the elimination round. This of course was followed by a match with Canada, a matchup that the media was quick to dramatize with a history of the US having snatched victory from them in London and the fact that they had never beaten the US in a major tournament. Ever. Until yesterday, of course.
But throw into the mix the current environment of woke activism and the coverage starts to get skewed towards that agenda with the media whipping it into a froth. Witness Raven Saunders, the gay, half green-haired US shot-putter who, after winning a silver medal, chose to remain after the medal ceremony and hold her arms in an X over her head, symbolic of the intersection at which oppressed people meet. Or some such obtuse nonsense. She apparently didn’t violate the specific Olympic policy and fortunately didn’t detract from the other medalists. But how do I know what that display meant? Because the media snakes stuck around to give her the airtime she was hoping for. Complete with an interview. And later that night, the rainbow-haired Canadian runner Gabriela DeBues-Stafford, who went on to win the slowest of the three Women’s 1500 meter qualifying heats, held the camera like a magnet for an eternity while the announcer explained the LGBTQreason behind her recent changes in hairstyles. Newsflash: nobody cares. The camera then blew past the next couple of apparently uninteresting and not black or gay enough competitors before coming to rest once again on someone who was either a real contender or who checked all the woke boxes for backstory. Not nice. A white Dutch runner who actually was a contender got the bum’s rush as well,with the announcer dismissing her as having had a lackluster year. Incidentally, she qualified. Take that.
The pot smoking, suspended US women’s sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson got some more press for her “miss me yet” tweet after the US failed to place in the 100 meter event, and was praised for her sportsmanship in congratulating the Jamaican sprint trio for sweeping the 100 meter final adding “powerful strong Black women dominating the sport”. Wow. Can you imagine if an athlete tweeted out “powerful strong white women dominating the sport” after, let’s see, how about water polo, synchronized swimming, virtually any long distance swimming event or maybe dressage to name a few? There would be outrage directed at someone daring to suggest anyracial dominance in a sporting event. But nope, not Blackdominance. That’s to be celebrated. In the meantime, you white folks shut up and get back in the pool or on your little horsies. We will be coming for those sports eventually too.
As for me, I do my best to carefully choose my events for viewing. Gymnastics has become all about the backstory and now, Simone’s state of mind in anticipating a return to the beam event. Men’s gymnastics has taken a back seat to the media obsession with the Biles drama, so that has remained a safe option to avoid a woke lecture. Swimming remains a relatively safe choice, but track and field, the summer Olympics’ showcase, is more of a woke minefield. Give me the events the media isn’t interested in, where I don’t need Turrico to fill me in, or just plain bungle the coverage altogether like he did with the Italians celebrating winning gold in the 100-meter and the high jump. Equestrian events are obviously safe and it’s always a good day on the water with rowing, kayaking, canoeing, and that crazy whitewater thing. Cycling is also a relatively woke-free zone, especially the poorly covered but exciting track events. The BMX nonsense they can keep, with thoseadults on children’s bicycles. No thanks, back to the X-Games you go. And don’t get me started on what should and should not be included as Olympic events. I could go all Greek on you and pare this behemoth down to a week. Fencing, shooting and archery, is generally free of liberal intrusion but you may need to actively hunt for both coverage as well as stronger coffee pods given the time slots they’re telecast in. In the final analysis the events that have become encumbered with woke backstories and garish displays of progressive groupthink are those in which Americans of color participate or in which LGBTQ members choose to wave their flag. And the media obligingly gives them the airtime. As opposed to say, showing us another more interesting sporting event. This coverage has turned the games into the PEOPLE Magazine of sporting events. And that’s a shame. It’s the media that is turning viewers away from those sports, perpetuating their racist narrative. So go ahead, call me a sports racist. But I tune into the Olympics to actually watch sports, regardless of the color of the participants, and I want to see the sports you don’t get to see that often. Just spare me the whole woke backstory.
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