The Olympic Race

Perhaps you heard by now Bryant Gumbel's grumble last week about the Winter Olympics. Part of his complaint was that the events are in no way related to the ancient Greek events. Which is true. But does that make them any less interesting as sporting events?

Except maybe for Ice Dancing. Nothing against the folks that worked their tails off - or the guys with their tails on - to get to the Winter Games. But that event, and really all ice skating, doesn't do much for me. Although it was very interesting, almost disturbing, to see how many people fell during Sunday night's competition. As someone who has fallen on the ice before, I know that ice doesn't have any "spring" to it at all when you hit it. Nothing at all like falling on the grass.

But my real beef with Gumbel was this quote:

So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention.

So Bryant is complaining about the number of blacks at the Games? I don't see him lacing up his skates, or hitting the ski slopes. It isn't up to the organizers to try to keep up with what percentage of which race competes in the games. Whoever participates and is the best gets a spot on the team, as it should be.

Perhaps everyone is smart like me and enjoys Summer Game sports so that we don't freeze our Bode off. Can't blame anyone for that.

And then a few nights ago in speed skating. Before the 1000m Speed Skating final, NBC ran a profile piece on Shani Davis, about his background and such. But they gave special emphasis to the fact that he could be the first African American to win an individual medal at the Winter Olympics, which he did do by winning the gold. I found the post-race interview with Davis to be quite interesting. It went something like this:

Interviewer: So how do you feel about being the first African American to win a medal at the Winter Olympics?

Davis: I feel happy. (Said with a completely straight, smile-free face)

Interviewer: That's it?

Davis: Yeah, that's it.

You could tell from Miss Interviewer's disappointed tone that she was hoping to pull more from Davis on the issue, but he avoided it. Almost as if to say - to me at least - race has nothing to do with it. I won the gold medal because I skated the fastest time, because I'm the best.

Do you get the feeling that often times the media tries to make a bigger issue out of race than most of us common folks make it? Sure, there is still some racial inequality in our country. I've seen that firsthand. And my family situation over the last few years has made me keenly sensitive to race issues.But often, the media does nothing to help it, even when they may think they are doing some good. Which I don't think Gumbel was thinking when he made his crack.