Yo! Winter Olympics. Well, Bye
Top 10 amazing moments from an overall ho-hum competition
There’s a scene in Tombstone where Wyatt Earp (Kurt Russell) approaches bad guy William Brocius (Powers Boothe), who is rocking cooly on a front porch, and warns Brocius calmly that his days of running the town as outlaws are over.
Waiting for a response, Brocius pauses and then even more calmly and subtly responds, “Well. Bye.”
Sadly, that’s the attitude I took towards this year’s 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics during the COVID pandemic (they did do a great job keeping everyone safe in the bubble).
Winter Olympics, we hardly got to know you, now it’s time to say goodbye.
Don’t say I didn’t try. I did. I had the TV turned to it every single night (though often trying to find events on other networks was more than challenging). I wanted more hockey. I wanted more curling. We begged for more human interest stories.
Ah, yet there were still some great stories. So, I present to you the top 10 moments from the 2022 Winter Olympics:
10. The politics of these Olympics: Sorry to start on a sour note, but these Olympics will be tarnished by the mere fact several countries, including the U.S., chose not to send any delegates. Both the China government and the National Olympic Committee warned all athletes that they would take action and punish any Olympic athletes criticizing China and its political views. Harsh. The lone wolf in making a statement was a Ukrainian skeleton racer, who held a sign, saying, “No War in Ukraine.”
9. USA hockey falls to Slovakia: Our USA men’s team of college kids were undefeated in pool play, garnered the top seed, and received a first-round bye. The team was ahead 2–1 in its quarterfinals to Slovakia with 43.7 in regulation. That’s when the puck hit the fan, er, the back of the USA net. Slovakia’s Peter Cehlakrik finished the nightmarish night, becoming the only skater to score in the shootout. Thrilling edge of your seat sports drama stuff, but the wrong guys prevailed.
8. Epic performance from Chinese pair: Sui Wenjing and Han Cong of China were up for redemption, having skated to silver in the 2018 Olympics due to some minor wobbles. Lo and behold, they again, had a few wobbles, but this time they were able to prevail and win the gold. Another dazzling performance and to see their faces of sheer joy when the scores were posted was priceless.
7. Shaun White: Talk about legends. This dude — The Killer Tomato — has been competing since 2006. This year he had one single event, the halfpipe. He was an underdog, yet still was in fourth, heading into the final run. He fell short, literally and figuratively, then gave an emotion-filled speech with a lot of tears. “A lot of emotions are hitting me — the cheering of the crowd…words from my competitors at the bottom. I’m so happy. Snowboarding, thank you. It’s the love of my life.”
6. Suffering Gracefully: Sadly, it’s another story without a happy ending. U.S Alpine skiing superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, who has won more World Cup races than anyone in history, couldn’t even finish three of her five races in Bejing. The last image is of her sitting by a safety net by a slope, head down. All alone. “I don’t know if anybody’s failed that hard with so many opportunities — maybe in the history of the Olympics.”
5. Bobsledder Elana Meyers: Meyers became the most decorated African American athlete in the Winter Olympics by winning her fifth Olympic medal on Saturday. Her bronze medal in the two-man bobsled allowed her to become the fifth bobsledder to win two medals in a single Olympics.
4. Two for Eileen Gu: The “Snow Princess,” who was born in San Francisco to a Chinese mother and American father, chose to represent China. All she did was win gold in the Freeski halfpipe, gold in big air, and silver in slopestyle to establish herself as the biggest breakout star from these Beijing games.
3. Erin Jackson wins gold after almost not competing: That’s right the first Black woman to medal in speedskating almost didn’t even race! After stumbling and not qualifying at the U.S. trials, it took Brittany Bowe’s surrendering her spot to allow Jackson to compete and make history. True sportsmanship and true unselfishness at its finest.
2. The whole Kamila Valieva controversy: Were kinda back to the whole Tombstone/bad guy analogy. The 15-year-old Russia sensation was a favorite to win, but tested positive for a banned drug in December, and somehow, someway, the International Olympic Committee allows her to skate? Ridiculous. Why even have rules? Ah, justice prevailed, however, as she fell in her routine and didn’t medal. Boo hoo. Karma.
- Nathan Chen grabbing Gold: Unsuccessful four years ago in the 2018 Pyeongchang Games, Chen skating was sheer perfection intertwined with beauty, and he couldn’t have picked a better musical selection than the Elton John vibrant medley of “Rocket Man” (totally inspirational) and then “Benny and the Jets” to kick things up a few decibels. I think our household watched it at least five times.
Thank you for reading.
Tagging a few of my sports buddies: Scot Butwell, MarkfromBoston, Ning Choi, Sreese, Lu Skerdoo, Jameson Steward, Gerald Sturgill, Scott Younkin, Christian Emeka, Michael Dolan, Kristine Laco, Janet Meisel, Julian Cosky.
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