I know I am in the minority, but romo is the worst. He talks too much and too fast. Needs to learn how to let the game breathe. Aikman and Collinsworth much easier to listen to.
All Things 2022 Winter Olympics
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I know I am in the minority, but romo is the worst. He talks too much and too fast. Needs to learn how to let the game breathe. Aikman and Collinsworth much easier to listen to.
Full Speed Ahead
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A nice write-up from Slate on Minnesota's Jessie Diggins.
... Diggins is my favorite contemporary American Olympic hero. She excels in a sport that Americans dislike and are bad at. As a competitive sport, cross-country skiing just isn’t as popular in the United States as it is in countries where the weather is consistently cold and snowy enough to make cross-country skiing an optimal mode of transit. It’s also unpopular because it is tremendously difficult: like running a marathon, except much more painful, and also you can’t wear shorts. Diggins has said that, when she races, she inevitably enters what she has termed “the pain cave,” a space in her mind that’s been carved out by the combined force of her suffering and her willpower. Americans do not generally want to go into the pain cave! Americans tend to want to pay other people to enter the pain cave for them....
....The pain cave was at its deepest on Sunday. To begin with, it was miserably cold—cold enough that, at the conclusion of the men’s race that same day, a Finnish skier had to seek medical attention to treat his frozen penis. (In the immortal words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up.) Diggins had her own special problem to contend with: 30 hours before the race began, she had contracted food poisoning. It was perhaps because of this that her legs started to cramp up after 13 kilometers, forcing her to ski the final 17 kilometers in physical agony. After the race, she said that, when she collapsed across the finish line, she felt like she was going to die.
And yet Diggins didn’t die, and Diggins didn’t quit, even though you or I, had we been in her skis, would likely have both quit and died. (Cross-country skiing is very hard.) That’s the difference between Olympic heroes and people like you and me: They choose to head straight into the pain cave, again and again. Diggins kept going, and she skied so well that she crossed the finish line less than two minutes after winner Therese Johaug of Norway. Her silver medal was America’s highest-ranking individual cross-country finish since 1976. And it reminded me of the real reason why the Summer and Winter Games might still be worth it.
... Diggins is my favorite contemporary American Olympic hero. She excels in a sport that Americans dislike and are bad at. As a competitive sport, cross-country skiing just isn’t as popular in the United States as it is in countries where the weather is consistently cold and snowy enough to make cross-country skiing an optimal mode of transit. It’s also unpopular because it is tremendously difficult: like running a marathon, except much more painful, and also you can’t wear shorts. Diggins has said that, when she races, she inevitably enters what she has termed “the pain cave,” a space in her mind that’s been carved out by the combined force of her suffering and her willpower. Americans do not generally want to go into the pain cave! Americans tend to want to pay other people to enter the pain cave for them....
....The pain cave was at its deepest on Sunday. To begin with, it was miserably cold—cold enough that, at the conclusion of the men’s race that same day, a Finnish skier had to seek medical attention to treat his frozen penis. (In the immortal words of Dave Barry, I am not making this up.) Diggins had her own special problem to contend with: 30 hours before the race began, she had contracted food poisoning. It was perhaps because of this that her legs started to cramp up after 13 kilometers, forcing her to ski the final 17 kilometers in physical agony. After the race, she said that, when she collapsed across the finish line, she felt like she was going to die.
And yet Diggins didn’t die, and Diggins didn’t quit, even though you or I, had we been in her skis, would likely have both quit and died. (Cross-country skiing is very hard.) That’s the difference between Olympic heroes and people like you and me: They choose to head straight into the pain cave, again and again. Diggins kept going, and she skied so well that she crossed the finish line less than two minutes after winner Therese Johaug of Norway. Her silver medal was America’s highest-ranking individual cross-country finish since 1976. And it reminded me of the real reason why the Summer and Winter Games might still be worth it.
Full Speed Ahead
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The silver medalist was crying hysterically because she didn't win gold, she was a wreck because her teammate won it instead of her. The Russian favorite, the 15-year-old with the failed drug test, was indeed a wreck during her performance falling several times only to have her coach chew her out when she came off the ice because she didn't fight hard enough. And like you said, the gold medal winner who just won the prize of a lifetime has no one celebrating with her. There's nothing that says "team" with those three and their coaches.
Contrast that with River Radamus, who's on the U.S. men's ski team, so another "team" where it's basically an individual contest. I caught an interview with him (on the "Next Turn" podcast) where he talked about everyone on the ski team actually being a teammate. His words were to the effect that if he can in some way help a teammate improve (specifically he mentioned in rehab and off--season training) then in a real sense he feels that he wins when that teammate wins - he was a small part of making that win happen. And thus in that way he's part of RSC's medal-winning run, and RCS feels a part of River doing great in the GS.
Two very different team approaches. I'll take the U.S. approach versus the Russians, sometimes the results do not merit the means of getting there. River will be competing for years to come, and is getting better. The Russian Silver medilist says she'll never skate again, and I'm not sure what will happen to that 15 year old that finished fourth...