Opinion: Olympics reveal 2 sides to sports
Michael Ashford
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
In the past week and a half, we have witnessed all that is right and all that is wrong in our world through the lenses of the TV cameras covering the Olympic Games in Beijing.
We have cheered wildly as American swimmer Michael Phelps went for — and achieved — his quest for a record eight gold medals in a single Olympics.
Whether he was winning by four body lengths on his way to smashing another world record, or whether the outcome of his races weren’t known until the times popped up on the screen, Phelps captured our hearts as he swam into Olympic lore.
At the other end of the spectrum, we groaned as we watched the gymnastics competition, which has been marred by erratic judging and questions about the ages of some of China’s female athletes. Gold medals were given to gymnasts who did not appear to have deserved them, or in some cases, appeared as if they shouldn’t have been allowed to compete in the first place.
Clearly, greed and dishonesty have infiltrated the Olympic Games in the sports where human impartiality has been allowed to take root.
What Phelps did in the pool is undisputable. Times are finite and cannot be manipulated by a rogue judge hell-bent on making a statement, and multiple camera angles confirm that Phelps did indeed win all eight of his gold medals. Each and every time Phelps swam, there was an undeniable winner.
There truly was no room for interpretation, and because of it, Phelps could retire today and go down as possibly the greatest Olympian of all time in any sport.
Shift to the gymnastics arena. Time after time, Americans were left wondering aloud, “Why?” when it came to the judging in the gymnastics competition, especially when it involved American gymnasts against Chinese gymnasts.
Believe what you want, but there were clear signs that not only were Chinese athletes given marks greater than what they deserved, but that American gymnasts were not given scores that accurately reflected their performances. Add in that questions will remain for years about the ages of some of the Chinese female gymnasts, and the whole thing stinks.
China, with all its problems with human rights and its communist government, seems to have put winning Olympic gold over competing in the true spirit of the game — man against man, woman against woman, person against person, may the best athlete win.
The best lesson we can take from these Olympics games is that when it comes to achieving true Olympic glory, it’s preferable to be judged by a lifeless computer than a judge with a grudge.
Michael Phelps didn’t earn his eight golds with the help of execution scores or start values. One can only wonder how much lighter his haul from Beijing would have been had he been judged in the same biased light as the gymnasts.
All Phelps had to do was compete at his best to earn his glory, and for that, he’s probably the envy of every gymnast not wearing the Chinese red and gold.
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