The Winter Olympics are filled with some great stories of perseverance and triumph. Romanian girls who escape the ghetto and win figure skating bronze. Downhill skiers who overcome horrific injuries to finish first. And curlers, who prevail over the millions that believe that their activity hardly constitutes a sport.
These are the true tales of the Olympic Games, the ones that should fill up sports pages, blogs, and water cooler discussions. If only sport was that pure. Instead, the headlines at Torino have almost entirely consisted of two people: Wayne Gretzkey and Bode Miller.
This says a lot about the American Media, and, in turn, the American public. If you read US Weekly instead of Newsweek, you might be a typical American. If you rely on Entertainment Tonight as your primary news source, then you might be an American. If you love Pat O’Brien and think that I Love the 80s is the greatest miniseries of all time, but don’t know who Anderson Cooper is and have never seen Roots, then you just might be a typical American.
Since it is this typical portion of the population that spends the most at newsstands and watches the most television it is not surprising that Bode and The Great One are the two characters at the center of the Torino Show. And there is a good reason for it. I will never be able to ski competitively, let alone at the Olympics, and I will certainly never play in the NHL, let alone be the best ever. I can, however, drink excessively, as well as gamble addictively. That is why these two men are the ones garnering all the attention; they are part of stories that make them human. The public wants to see and hear about iconic stars doing Joe Schmo things. Whether it is Miller drinking, Gretzkey being involved in a gambling ring, Jessica Simpson eating chicken wings, or Britney Spears entering a gas station bathroom barefoot, we eat this stuff up.
Do I feel bad for these athletic celebrities? No. Do I wish that the media focused more on their athletic achievements and less on their personal woes? Not at all. Lets face it, these guys brought all this on themselves. Bode Miller went on 60 minutes and admitted that many times he is skiing wasted, which gave him instant fame and celebrity credibility outside the world of skiing, Time Magazine cover and all. Just for drinking too much and admitting it. I might hold a press conference to admit that I have, on occasion, been wasted when I was bowling, and see if I get a cover too. If it doesn’t work I’ll go on ICTV and come clean about the fact that I have also played golf and wiffleball under the influence. The fact is Miller wanted the press because media coverage leads to endorsement deals, and he was smart enough to give the typical American a story that they could sink their teeth in to.
As for The Great One, who wants none of the attention that he has received over the last few weeks, I have slightly more sympathy but can’t say that I really feel bad for the guy. Gretzkey loves his fortune, so have has to deal with his fame. Part of fame is the fact that every little thing that you do will get exaggerated and covered by the press. Gretzkey has never shied away from the spotlight, a man who loves his endorsements and loves being the face of hockey. If he wasn’t comfortable with the fame then he would have just pulled a Barry Sanders, and led a quite life after athletic dominance. Instead, he stayed involved with the sport, as the executive leader of Team Canada, and now an NHL head coach. His other career move that suggests his need for celebrity occurred years ago, when he married movie star Janet Jones (by “movie star” I mean she was in Police Academy 5).
It is ironic that it is this union that is landing Gretzkey in hot water with the gambling ring. It just shows that the typical American likes to idolize people, but loves to see them crash and burn. This would explain why the ratings for American Idol (which double those of the Grammy Awards and the Olympics) are higher when the episodes focus of the idiots who can’t sing, and less on the stars who shine.
