Damaged Games

Don't let emotion obscure the Olympics' many flaws

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor touches on a Hot Button issue each Monday on CNNSI.com. After you read Phil's take, give us yours.

I tend to get all sentimental over the Olympics. Sarah Hughes' wide-eyed elation after the ladies figure skating final made my eyes misty, and I got a lump in my throat when Jim Shea Jr. won the skeleton and held up a picture of his late grandfather in celebration. I even felt a little chill go down my spine when the Canadian men beat the U.S. in hockey, because let's face it, that gold medal means a lot more to their country than it would have meant to ours. I'm also a sucker for those video-clip montages of special moments from the Games that are set to music. Did you see the one with the R. Kelly song World's Greatest as the soundtrack? (I'm that star up in the sky/ I'm that mountain peak up high/ Yeah I made it/ I'm the world's greatest...) Love that stuff.

But I don't get so emotional that I can't see the Olympics for what they are. Despite all the heartwarming moments, despite the picture-postcard splendor of Utah, despite the sky-high television ratings, no one can tell me that these Winter Games were a success. There was too much rancor, too many allegations and threats, too much bald-faced dishonesty for that. The ideal of sportsmanship dies a little at every Olympiad, and it suffered at this one even more than most.

If there wasn't cheating in every corner of the Games, there was at least the suspicion of it. Forget the athletes who were either stripped of medals or not allowed to compete because they failed blood tests. That's almost quaint compared to the other rule-breaking that went on in Salt Lake City. These Olympics graduated to a new form of scandal. The judging of the pairs figure skating was a fiasco, with the French judge having been pressured to show favoritism. Wait, no she wasn't, she says. Oh, yes, she means yes, she was. The South Koreans thought they were robbed in speed skating, suggesting that one of their skaters was disqualified unfairly so U.S. favorite Apolo Anton Ohno could pick up the gold. The Russians complained that Irina Slutskaya was shafted in the ladies final, and after what we had seen in the pairs judging, who could blame them for their suspicions? The only truth is that there is no truth anymore. There is not a single judge's decision, whether in the long program or the short track, that we can totally trust. How are we supposed to believe in the integrity of the Games when the competitors and the athletic ruling bodies of their countries do not?

The motto of the Olympics -- Faster, Higher, Stronger -- is in danger of being replaced by Protest, Appeal, Boycott. Thanks largely to the double-gold-medal decision in the case of the pairs competition -- a gesture with admirable intent that nonetheless set a dangerous precedent -- these Games may be remembered as the ones that began the trend of athletes trying to win in hearings when they fail to win in actual competition. No result is final as long as there is another federation, committee or other ruling body that can hear an appeal.

The problem with this isn't that it robs sports of one of the major elements that attracts us to them -- the certainty of a result, the clear winner and loser. Beyond that, it turns losers into something far worse -- whiners. Even a valid complaint tarnishes the accuser along with the accused, because it requires one to admit that, as the Olympic ideal would have us believe, the competition is not the thing. It's the result they're after, the hardware.

It's hard to say which is worse -- having a loser make a ludicrous charge of cheating or a valid one. Either way, it damages the Olympics. We may get all teary-eyed at the Games, but that much we can still see clearly.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Phil Taylor writes about a Hot Button issue every Monday on CNNSI.com.

The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

 

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