Tiny Gymnasts



August 20th, 2008, a Wednesday

I pretty much made up my mind I wasn't going to write about the Olympics.  You have probably heard enough about Michael Phelps and Chinese gymnasts and so forth.  I didn't want to pile on.  I'm not that kind of bear.  Even though watching the Olympics hasn't been all that stimulating or exciting this year, I admit that I got caught up in the tears we have seen in the past few days.  Now that is worth writing about.  And it is barely about the Olympics.  Tears are a different story.  But you have to put it in perspective.

Of course all of this is framed by people who spend at the very least their last several years training for that one moment, and in some cases, less than a moment.  So when it all comes crashing down around them, it must be pretty devastating.  It's good to remember though that if they are even medal contenders, they have probably had a pretty good career at other events such as national and world championships.  We tend to think that they only compete this one time and if they screw it up, all is lost.  But still expectations can be stressful.  Take the pretty American lady who was supposed to win the hurdles last night.  She came out looking mighty confident with lots of make-up, expensive shades, and quite the hairdo.  Problem is she was leading right up to the ninth hurdle and then knocked it down, throwing her off her stride and causing her to finish out of the medals.  She dropped to her knees in disbelief, and I think I saw a tear at some point.  But you gotta wonder if that may be because she really wanted the gold, or how much that gold would mean to her in sunglasses endorsements and other such things.  You should have seen the nice house the American lady sprinter lives in.  I am old enough to remember when they were really amateurs, not pros who make a good, sometimes great, living on the circuit.  (Is that the Olympic circuit?)  I heard where the International Olympic Committee wants more and more professionals in the Games.  The flashier and more famous and more endorsed the better.  What's happening here?  Where's the struggle and the sacrifice?  The part that actually brings us to tears?

There was a story on Shawn Johnson's Chinese coach that began with his tremendous struggle.  Trouble is that the first image was of him and Shawn bopping through the Iowa countryside in his Porsche convertible.  Quite a juxtaposition there.  (Is that the right word?)  I don't think Shawn's family is worrying about that third mortgage they love to tell us about so Shawn could stay in the gym.  I think she had an agent and a PR person and lots of people paying her to use their stuff before the Games even opened.  That last minute gold on balance beam won't hurt her one bit.  What is really cool to me though is what a great sport she is.  Always happy for the one who finished ahead of her.  It seems genuine and when she valiantly holds back the tears of disappointment behind those big lashes, she could be an animated Disney character. 

But how painful was it to watch that male gymnast we've never heard of who had a chance for gold in the floor exercise finals and was having a great routine and fell on his bottom at the end of his last tumbling run.  He was stunned by his own mistake, covered his face with his hands, and cried (I'm pretty sure).  We see something like that and imagine that he will relive that one mistake forever.  Or our poor Ms. Sacramone who fell off the balance beam and then fell on her bottom on floor exercise during the team competition which probably cost the USA the gold.  She was devastated and cried.  She cried again when they gave a medal to the Chinese star who landed on her knees off the vault when Ms. Sacramone landed both hers and got fourth.  Funny though.  I heard that behind Michael Phelps, she got the most hits on the website after that.  I'm tellin' you guys, the people want to see adversity, they want to feel something.  They don't just want to see someone keep winning and getting richer.

But the saddest of all is the Chinese story.  Maybe its ok that they gave that medal to the girl who landed on her knees.  She was identified at 3 years old as a prospect, taken from her family, and sent to the national training facility where she has been all her life.  They say she hated it and wanted to go home.  She called her parents and begged them to come get her but they refused, saying they would all have a better life through her gymnastic success.  Her father used to ride five hours on a boat to visit her and watch her train.  But only once a year.  We should all cry about that story.  I mean its nice that she won medals and got so good at what she does.  But what about the thousands of little girls who are "identified" and never make it.  What happens to them?  I have heard how China abandons their potential elite athletes if they get injured because they are of no use if not healthy and these people have absolutely no other skills and get forgotten and end up impoverished in their society.  No medal count is worth that.  You can't help thinking about the little girl (was any of the Chinese girls actually 16?) who was groomed to be the balance beam specialist and put on the team just so she could medal on the beam.  Last night, final competitor, she fell off.  I wonder what will happen to her now that she has failed.  Maybe that's why she was crying.

Some said that China should not have the games because of these types of problems and many that are worse, no doubt.  But I don't agree.  I am glad we know about it, that it has seen the light of day.  But I would much rather just be a Shawn Johnson or Michael Phelps, struggling in my sport, hoping for a gold or two or eight.  I am sure they can find some way to make a living after the Games are over.

GR