Are the Olympics not over yet? Can I locate the grave of P.T. Barnum and crush some sour grapes on his headstone? It was Mr. Barnum who said no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. He was right, too. Viewership of the games from Sydney is off, but everyone blames it on tape delay, not on the gallons of treacle that ooze from Bob Costas every time I turn on the set. I remember a time when there really were great stories at the Olympics – Olga Korbut, the 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team – but now the network has everything so programmed in advance that an authentic, spontaneous, athletic moment can’t compete against the canned music and the sappy backstories.
I suppose, however, that the decline of sports journalism is commensurate with the decline of sport. The modern Olympics were founded as a monument to clean competition and good sportsmanship. That’s all gone, if it ever existed, in a wave of drugs, corporate sponsorship and body-hugging speed suits. Ever wonder why India, a country of over 700 million people never figures prominently in the Olympics, but the U.S. and Germany do? I guess we’re just naturally superior, right? Uh huh.
And since I’m on a roll, let me say this: ballroom dancing is not a sport. Bouncing on a trampoline is not a sport. Synchronized diving, like its counterpart, synchronized swimming, is not a sport. In fact, no form of diving should be considered a sport. A spectacle, to be sure, but not a sport. The same goes for gymnastics, figure skating and snow dancing.
To my mind, any endeavor whose outcome depends on the subjective judging of individuals is not a sport. In sports, spectators don’t need an expert to tell them what they’ve just seen. The winner is the athlete who crosses the line first, or jumps the highest or belongs to the team that scores the most points. Sure, there are umpires and referees and judges in every sport, and sometimes the outcome of an event swings on their ruling, but their role, by and large, is secondary.
So, what does that mean? That figure skating and gymnastics are not worthwhile pursuits? No, not at all. Those pursuits require discipline, practice and athleticism, but so do many other things and I don’t think we should make ballet an Olympic event – even though it requires the same skills, nor should we let the acrobats of Cirque du Soleil send a team to the 2004 summer games.
At the other end of the spectrum, wrestling at the Olympics is a sport, while professional wrestling is not. Not even a little bit. Similarly, boxing is an Olympic sport, but professional boxing, at least in the U.S., cannot be considered a sport.
It is true that in the ring, by the end of the bout, the question of who won and who lost is often clear, especially if who lost is face down on the canvas. The problem with boxing, and what takes it out of the category of sport in my mind, is the way the fights are made. For boxing to be a sport, each boxer needs to have a sporting chance and boxing fans need to have some minimum of faith that the two people inside the ropes are of approximately equal talent. That is not the case in America, nor has it been for some time. The only substantive difference between professional wrestling and professional boxing today is that professional wrestling is safer for those who step into the ring. In professional boxing, a few greedy, corrupt criminals are making piles of money from gullible pay-per-viewers at the expense of young men who have few other options in life.
If you think what I’m saying is wrong or controversial, take a good look at Mike Tyson. I feel genuinely sorry for Mr. Tyson, a man who has been exploited and driven to emotional breakdown and madness, heavily medicated, raging about drinking blood and killing children and yet, we have states that will issue him a license to enter an arena and physically attack another human being and we have newspapers and television networks that will cover it as if it’s a sporting event and not a national disgrace.
Not a Sport
Are the Olympics not over yet? Can I locate the grave of P.T. Barnum and crush some sour grapes on his headstone? It was Mr. Barnum who said no one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public. He was right, too. Viewership of the games from Sydney is off, but everyone blames it on tape delay, not on the gallons of treacle that ooze from Bob Costas every time I turn on the set. I remember a time when there really were great stories at the Olympics – Olga Korbut, the 1980 U.S. men’s hockey team – but now the network has everything so programmed in advance that an authentic, spontaneous, athletic moment can’t compete against the canned music and the sappy backstories.
I suppose, however, that the decline of sports journalism is commensurate with the decline of sport. The modern Olympics were founded as a monument to clean competition and good sportsmanship. That’s all gone, if it ever existed, in a wave of drugs, corporate sponsorship and body-hugging speed suits. Ever wonder why India, a country of over 700 million people never figures prominently in the Olympics, but the U.S. and Germany do? I guess we’re just naturally superior, right? Uh huh.
And since I’m on a roll, let me say this: ballroom dancing is not a sport. Bouncing on a trampoline is not a sport. Synchronized diving, like its counterpart, synchronized swimming, is not a sport. In fact, no form of diving should be considered a sport. A spectacle, to be sure, but not a sport. The same goes for gymnastics, figure skating and snow dancing.
To my mind, any endeavor whose outcome depends on the subjective judging of individuals is not a sport. In sports, spectators don’t need an expert to tell them what they’ve just seen. The winner is the athlete who crosses the line first, or jumps the highest or belongs to the team that scores the most points. Sure, there are umpires and referees and judges in every sport, and sometimes the outcome of an event swings on their ruling, but their role, by and large, is secondary.
So, what does that mean? That figure skating and gymnastics are not worthwhile pursuits? No, not at all. Those pursuits require discipline, practice and athleticism, but so do many other things and I don’t think we should make ballet an Olympic event – even though it requires the same skills, nor should we let the acrobats of Cirque du Soleil send a team to the 2004 summer games.
At the other end of the spectrum, wrestling at the Olympics is a sport, while professional wrestling is not. Not even a little bit. Similarly, boxing is an Olympic sport, but professional boxing, at least in the U.S., cannot be considered a sport.
It is true that in the ring, by the end of the bout, the question of who won and who lost is often clear, especially if who lost is face down on the canvas. The problem with boxing, and what takes it out of the category of sport in my mind, is the way the fights are made. For boxing to be a sport, each boxer needs to have a sporting chance and boxing fans need to have some minimum of faith that the two people inside the ropes are of approximately equal talent. That is not the case in America, nor has it been for some time. The only substantive difference between professional wrestling and professional boxing today is that professional wrestling is safer for those who step into the ring. In professional boxing, a few greedy, corrupt criminals are making piles of money from gullible pay-per-viewers at the expense of young men who have few other options in life.
If you think what I’m saying is wrong or controversial, take a good look at Mike Tyson. I feel genuinely sorry for Mr. Tyson, a man who has been exploited and driven to emotional breakdown and madness, heavily medicated, raging about drinking blood and killing children and yet, we have states that will issue him a license to enter an arena and physically attack another human being and we have newspapers and television networks that will cover it as if it’s a sporting event and not a national disgrace.