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Defining the Olympic Spirit
Posted: Friday March 03, 2000 02:43 PM
Welcome to the first Sydney 2000 Mailbag, where we'll discuss anything and everything relating to the Summer Games. The frequency of this venture depends on you, the user, so keep those questions coming! As you are not from Australia, and specifically Sydney, what are your
expectations of the Sydney Olympics and how Australia will host/support the
Games?
If you're asking whether I expect the Olympic scandals of the past two years to dampen local support for the Games, I doubt that it will. Do you remember the local furor over the Los Angeles Games? The violent student protests in Seoul? The Parliamentary nonsense over funding obligations in Barcelona? If you don't, it's because the Games have a way of overcoming even the most vocal opposition and turning apathy into support. I haven't been back to Australia in a few years, so this is an outsider's view, but it is a spirited sporting country whose people: a) understand the Olympic events; b) are financially well-supported and positioned to hold the Games; and c) will actually make use of the venues left behind. I doubt Sydney will repeat the numerous mistakes of Atlanta organizers and overcommercialize its Games. When Michael Knight was in our office a few months ago, he told us that SOCOG was being inundated with requests by people wishing to volunteer during the Games. That should tell you all you need to know. What is the ultimate accomplishment at the Olympic Games: winning the gold,
knowing you beat the best at your sport or something else? What motivates these
athletes to put in so much time, effort and training for a brief moment in the
spotlight?
I'd like to say it's something pure and immeasurable rather than something financial, but it depends on the athlete. If you're talking about a 30-year-old rower who gets up at 5 in the morning so he and his three roommates can endure a few hours of pain huffing it on the Charles River in 40° temperatures as his Harvard law degree gets rusty and his student loan debt reaches $80,000, well, maybe there is some truth to it. I remember Phil Mahre, the Olympic skier who was interviewed shortly after winning a gold medal at the '84 Sarajevo Olympics. Mahre had a fairly busy 24 hours on the last day of the Games. After he skied off the slopes, he met with a USOC official who told him: a) His wife had just given birth to healthy baby girl back in Washington; b) The president was on the line waiting to congratulate him; and c) Would he mind carrying the U.S. flag at the Closing Ceremony later that day? When asked what all of this meant to him, Mahre said: "I can finally do justice to all the passion I put into skiing when it shaped my life into what it is." Sappy, yes, but it's something only an Olympic athlete can understand. Mahre never professed to be competing for his country, his family or his friends. It was something he did for himself, to justify the sacrifices he made and atone for the things he missed because he wanted to be at his best for two runs of 70 seconds. I think since most Olympic athletes will never come near an awards stand, their ultimate prize is an indefinable moment when it hits them that they couldn't have been any better than they were and couldn't have honored their 5 a.m. commitments any better. Some sports seem to never get attention, even a few more mainstream ones like
indoor volleyball or wrestling. Granted, these are not necessarily the U.S.'s
strongest events, but because of the time difference in Sydney, will they get
even the minimal coverage they have gotten in the past? Or are the fans who
appreciate non-mainstream sports going to get shunned even more? That would
certainly put a damper on the Olympic
spirit.
You're right about certain sports having a tough time finding airtime. Consider that commercials take up 15-18 minutes of each hour. Add a few obligatory minutes of studio drivel, a few more for the Up Close and Personal tearjerker, and you're lucky to get 30 minutes of competition in an hour of coverage. Given the emphasis on track and field, gymnastics and swimming, it's easy to see how some sports get left out. You will be able to count the minutes of live coverage in judo, fencing and shooting on a broken stopwatch. If it seems harder for tenured sports like wrestling, rowing and indoor volleyball to get coverage, consider this: Go back 20 years. Not only are there more commercial spots to fill these days, but think of the sports and events that weren't even around then: synchronized swimming, taekwondo, beach volleyball, softball, women's soccer. Simply, there is less room and more to fill it with. This is not all bad, either. The Olympic Games are better for the advances of women athletes. Female competition even draws good television ratings. However, the viability of televising women's events means that there is more competition for airtime. Look for NBC to try to vary its programming only a little -- would you believe live coverage of the 50K race walk? -- in Sydney. Since most of the events will be "live on tape," because of the time difference, the network will also be able to fill what would otherwise be an occasional lull in its coverage. But unless Americans are in the hunt for gold medals, rowing and wrestling fans shouldn't expect to see much beyond the eights and the heavyweights. Who do you think will be the Queen and the King of the swimming pool this
time?
I'm not even sure Ian Thorpe is old enough to be crowned King. So we'll call the 16-year-old Australian the likely Prince of the Sydney swim competition. I'll pick Jenny Thompson as the Queen. The American will be 26 during the Sydney Games. She's a classy competitor who has won five gold medals in relays but never a gold in an individual event. Even now as she's being pushed at Stanford by her 32-year-old teammate Dara Torres, Thompson is getting faster and should bring back some medals in the freestyle and butterfly events. Do you think that the Aussie swim team will will all the swimming events? I
hear that Susie O'Neill can take all seven golds. What is your take on
this?
You must have been speaking with Australia's head coach, Don Talbot. He's a pretty confident man these days and has good reason to be. When I spoke to him a few months ago, he mentioned that medal prospects in certain events would actually be left behind after the Australians pick their team. Michael Klim is in good shape in the shorter men's events, but with Thorpe, Grant Hackett, Daniel Kowalski and Kieren Perkins still swimming for two spots in each event, someone will be left out of the longer freestyle picture. Perkins is a sentimental choice, but it may also be his last stand after a great career. Now, seven golds for Susie O'Neill? You must have been talking to a member of the O'Neill family. I like her chances in the 200 fly and 200 free (perhaps also the 100 fly, if those are the races she chooses to swim), but the Australians are not going to sweep the relays. Watch for Elli Overton in one of the medley races. Does the U.S. badminton team have any medal hopefuls this year? It's such a
fascinating and exhausting sport, but gets little
attention.
I imagine watching the Indonesian national badminton championships would be a bit like watching U.S. sprinters, Cuban boxers or Japanese judokas. It is an amazing thing to see when it's done by the best of the best: fast, calculated and very artistic. Don't bet on the U.S. coming close to a medal in Sydney. On the men's side, Kevin Han is our best singles player and has been for several years. He is a good story. He came over from Shanghai and worked in a Chinese restaurant in New York before making his way over to Colorado Springs, where he trains now. Kevin will likely go to Sydney -- and may be the only U.S. male once qualifying spots are finalized on April 30. Mark Manha and Howard Bach may also go either as singles players or as a doubles team. The women will send one representative, at most. She is also a Chinese native, named Yeping Tang. She would be America's only possible singles player, and the U.S. will not send a women's doubles team. Who are the top American picks for making the Olympic team in women's
gymnastics this year? Are there any new stars in the near
future?
The women's gymnastics team should fare better than its sixth-place showing at the World Championships in China, but it will be a tough haul for the U.S. to win a team medal. Count on Vanessa Atler, Kristen Maloney and Elise Ray to be on the squad, probably winning the top three spots at the Olympic trials in Boston this August. Atler is coming off a pair of surgeries to remove bone chips from her ankle, so she's a question mark, but she's also the country's best hope for individual medals, especially on vault and floor. Maloney is less spectacular but perhaps a bit more even, and has won the last two U.S. all-around titles. Other candidates to make the team include Jennie Thompson, Alyssa Beckerman, Jamie Dantzscher and Morgan White. Of the Magnificent Seven, the '92 Olympians trying to make a comeback, Stanford student Amy Chow is furthest along in her training and will be in the hunt for an Olympic berth. Dominique Moceanu and Jaycie Phelps have gone back into the gym but are longshots to make the team. Does the Canadian national team have a chance to medal in men's
basketball?
Does the phrase snowball's chance in Sydney mean anything to you? You mean there isn't much snow in Sydney? Well, then that's about right. Actually, the first task for the Canadian men is to get through their six-team preliminary-round play in Group B to qualify for the quarterfinals. Canada's first game against host Australia is the key contest. It then should beat Angola in Game 2, but victories against any of Spain, Russia and Yugoslavia in the next three games will be tough. The B pool is the tougher of the two pools. Only the United States and Lithuania (and perhaps Italy) are worth talking about in Pool A. If Canada makes it through in the fourth spot, its first game would be against the top seed in the opposite pool (likely the U.S.), so it will take three victories to avoid that. If you know any good snowmakers, I'd give them a call. Sports Illustrated's Brian Cazeneuve is the magazine's resident Olympics
guru. He'll answer your questions on the first Wednesday of each month leading
into Sydney. Click here to send him a
question.
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