2022 Winter Olympics

 

The Way We Were

Memories
Light the corners of my mind
Misty watercolor memories
Of the way we were

What memories should we have of the 2022 Winter Olympics?

You can say that this is the Winter Olympics of Kamila Valieva, of Mikaela Shiffrin, of Eileen Gu, etc.  I will prefer to think of this as the Olympics of Finland's Iivo Niskanen, the Netherland’s Kai Verbij, and the United States’ Elana Meyers Taylor.

·       Kamila Valieva is the poster child for doping and cheating in sports.  But she is just that, a child.  She may have taken illegal drugs but she was told to take those illegal drugs by the adults who were responsible for her.  Blaming her is blaming the victim.

·       Mikaela Shiffrin might not have won any Gold Medals for the US at this Olympics but she did win Gold Medals in two previous Olympics, is the youngest winner of an Alpine skiing Olympic medal for the US, and is tied for the most Alpine skiing Olympic medals for a US team. In World Championships, she is the most decorated American alpine skier in history, having won the most medals overall, eleven,  a record six of them gold.  She was after all skiing for herself.  As an American, I can take vicarious thrills in her victories, but I can not blame her for not giving me more vicarious thrills.

·       Ailing (Eileen) Gu was raised in the US, will attend Stanford University, and might have closer ties with the US but chose to compete for China.  As Americans, we can no more “strip” China of those medals, unless we are also willing to give  Kaillie Humphries’ Gold Medal in the Women's Monobob to Canada, because Kaillie changed her citizenship from Canadian to the United States because of a dispute with her coach.

Instead can we celebrate-

·       Finland’s IIvo Niskanen who won a Gold Medal, in the Men's Cross-country Skiing 15km and instead of going off to celebrate or recover, he patiently waited 20 minutes for every one of the 94 competitors behind him to complete the race.

·       The Netherland’s Kai Verbij who backed off on the final crossover straight in his Speed Skating run, knowing he didn't have quite enough speed to get in front of Canada's Laurent Dubreuil.  Rather than a risk a collision, Verbij popped out of his racing crouch and slowed so he stayed clear of Dubreuil, who zipped away to capture the silver medal.

·       Elena Taylor who won the Silver Medal in the Women's Monobob and the Bronze Medal in the Two Woman Bobsled and will proudly carry the flag for the US during the closing ceremonies.  Despite the shabby treatment of past minority Olympians, such as Jesse Owens, Jim Thorpe, and Duke Kahanamoku, she clearly does not hold a grudge, for which this American is delighted.  And she recently survived COVID and an emergency C section to boot.

The Olympics should not be about remembering the way we were, but striving for the way we would like to be.