With the Sabres slumping, the break for the Olympics is an absolutely welcomed one. I need to recharge my batteries. It will be nice to cheer for some new colors and some new faces.
As I watched the Americans get introduced during the Opening Ceremony in their God-damn turtlenecks – as if the world doesn’t hate us enough already – I realized how few athletes I recognized. Shaun White, The Flying Tomato, with his long flowing red mop was obviously identifiable. But out of the 215 people competing for the USA, he was about it.
Seeing all these unfamiliar faces, I was reminded of what Chuck Klosterman once said if reference to college sports. I don’t care to spend time looking for his exact words so I’m paraphrasing. Throw me in blogger jail. As I remember it, his take went something like this:
Much of what makes college sports so interesting, especially in the more obscure conferences, is that often a person will suddenly have to take up this important role, in an important moment, like say if a starting quarterback were to get injured in a championship game, and this unknown person who has no realistic shot at becoming a professional athlete, this unknown person is faced with the biggest moment of his life, the moment where his actions will be seen and remembered by more people then during any other time in his life.
Klosterman was trying to point out the excitement and tension of witnessing someone, an unknown, pen the story with which the world will likely forever remember them by. Five years later, this person could be an engineer or a teacher or whatever. By that time, their moment in the spotlight is over. They’re just ordinary citizens, homogenized into society.
I pass on MAC football and MAAC basketball because the stakes just aren’t high enough to really pull me in. Those leagues are filled with unknowns just waiting for their opportunity but even when they get it, no one’s watching. In the Olympics, athletes have more attention on them than at any other time in their lives. The viewing audience is unparalleled. Isn’t it fascinating watching how unknown athletes handle these situations? Who will battle through the pressure? Who will rise up to the challenge?
The best part is, unlike professional athletes in major North American sports leagues, Olympians don’t get another game in a couple of days or another season in a couple of months. Individual competitions begin and finish in a matter of days. The entire Olympics experience is over in a few weeks. Second chances are four years away and that might as well be a lifetime.
These athletes have more on the line than just two points. This is their personal legend that’s at stake here. How will history remember them? I can’t wait to find out.