Evan Lysacek was more polished and determined on the men's final figure skating competition in spite of his stomach flu the day before. At least he raised his scores with his performance.

I think the more hyped some selected US athletes are, the worse they seem to perform under pressures, except for the snowboard half-pipe team.

for Evan to come back all the way to 4th was certainly a "success," Anne, I agree

Dawn Olsen re: Jacobellis and Costas. You have absolutely expressed my feelings on the matter. Costas's legitimate credentials for calling an athlete on the carpet are, what, that he has been an announcer since adolescence? Or (perhaps I'm making this up) once managed a junior high school golf team? Who is he to take umbrage and say, "What were you thinking?" I could only wish Lindsey told him to piss off. (Or maybe she did. I confess I turned the TV off a minute or two into the interview, I found it that offensive.)
In any event, seeing your comments in writing frees me up not to feel I have to get into print on the subject. Thank you.
For the rest of the Olympics, I'll make a point of missing Costas's commentary wherever possible, as I did with Cosell's during the latter part of his career and Seamus Malin's annoying and soccer-misinformed calling of the past several World Cups. Thank got for volume controls.

And another thing. When we talk about Costas in this calling of Jacobellis onto the carpet thing, we're really talking about GE - I'm sorry, I meant to say NBC. There's a healthy tape delay from the actual time of the fall on the slope to the, um, thoughtful commentary later on (what passes in TV for a think piece), to the eventual interview with Big Bob himself. In a corporate setting like GE, I'm sorry I meant to say NBC (or any big broadcasting operation), what are the chances that Bob gets to make the call on his own, gets to decide, we're going after Lindsey on this, she can't give our, that is GE's, I'm sorry, I meant to say USA's, gold away without being held accountable? What are the chances there are no meetings with higher management on how we'll be going to air on this thing? Read Auletta's Three Blind Mice. The chances are nil. What I'm saying is that if I'm offended by Costas's latenight attack of sportscasting gravitas, its probably the company as much as Big Bob I'm pissed off at.

(Though Bob didn't exactly conduct the interview as if he'd thought for a moment, "No, I'm not going to do this..." I find myself slipping off into an imaginary interview, and this time I'm the interviewer and it's Costas who's in the chair on the left. Now it's my turn to say, in that Father Knows Best, stern-but-friendly voice, "When you dressed down a world-class athlete on national TV, as if you were talking to an underling Bob . . . what were ya thinking? Were ya thinking the sportcaster is a bigger celebrity than a competitor? Were ya forgetting who are the stars of these games? Were ya forgetting why? Were ya maybe caught up in the arrogance of your position? We'd just like to know....")

Steve, that was so much more articulate and poignant than what I said.

Really, it just bugs how over-the-top they were with this poor girl. I mean clearly, she was mortified and knew she fucked up, even if she didn't admit it right away (who would if you think about it?) "Yeah, I tweaked my board, but like I was three time zones ahead and wanted to really showboat it up - what's it to you?"

That's what Bode would have said anyway.

Sure, a little chastising was called for, but still, she won the Silver, and that's not a turd on a rope.

Thanks Steve!

And I totally agree with you Anne, I wanted to add Evan, but I just ran out of time and steam.

Oh, and Bode is still sucking out loud. How very anti-climatic of him.

Shani Davis is a jerk. I have a post on my blogabout his attitude. He just doesn't get it. He is all for himself. Him and his mother must have a very shallow life.

You bug me. What's your issue with Shani Davis? He has absolutely no obligation to support a team that wouldn't support him, and that has actively worked against him for years. Bail on "poor Chad?" What a joke. As if he is supposed to sacrifice his own chances at a gold in his best event to help Chad win five golds - even though to do so, Shani would have to lose two other races to Chad. What an incredibly short-sighted post.

Jingoism makes me ill. I support the athletes who interest me, nationality be damned. Evan Lysacek is my hero of this games, but not because he's from the US - it's for his courage and grace. Shani Davis, I like him precisely because he is on the outside of the speed skating clique - and I LOVED his prickly post-gold medal interview with the stunned, vapid NBC helmet-haired blonde ("Are you angry, Shani?," which sounded to me like, "Stick to the script, boy!"). It SO rocked to see Apolo Anton Ohno get beaten by not one, but TWO Koreans. And I really hope Irina Slutskaya beats Sasha Cohen, Kimmie Meissner and Emily Hughes. Nothing against the young woman and the teens, but I have no reason to want them to win. Slutskaya is my second favorite modern female skater (Queen Kwan's the top); given my number-one's pullout from the competition, it's only right that I support Slutskaya. Plus, she's 27, and frankly, I usually prefer older skaters (and gymnasts too).

Don't get me wrong: I'm not anti-US athletes. If an American gives me a reason to justify rooting for her or him, I will. (Shaun White, for instance - I really like his personality and his snowboarding. I think Joey Cheeks has loads of class (Chad Hedrick, however, does not). And I've always harbored a nonsexual crushlike thing for bad, bad Bode.) It just seems illogical to support someone simply because they were born on the same shores as I was - and for many reasons, you won't catch me chanting "USA!"

I understand others see it differently, and that's cool for them. But do know that there are alternate points of view.

Awesome Olympic update. I agree - Bode Who? Shani - there's no "I" in team (Yes John, the USA does Field a TEAM, and the atheletes do get financial support to attend the Competition.) The field of sports excellence isn't a place for poli-ethnic statements.(Mexico Summer Games 1968) :o)

But there is an I in "win." And Shani Davis won. Fact of the matter is - and NBC reported this - the speed skating "team" is not a real team at all. If participating on a "team" that alienated him would lessen his energy for his individual events, decisions must be made based on priorities. Hmmm - a "team" in which he, in fact, is not appreciated and to which he does not belong in any meaningful sense OR a shot at a gold medal?

NR Davis

I like the combination of rooting for athletes who interest me AND rooting for the US by default. I think any sport is ore fun to watch and get into if you have a rooting interest, even a somewhat artificial one

I've found that having a rooting interest in athletics diminishes my enjoyment of the sport. If your team wins you really don't gain anything, and if they lose it can be depressing. It's a no win situation. On the other hand, if you are just pleased to admire the skill of the athletes you can't lose. I've been known to watch a basketball game on widescreen HDTV without even knowing who the teams are, because the HDTV reveals so much of interest about play away-from-the-ball and play development.

Natalie, it's wonderful to see "Jingoism makes me ill." I've felt that way for about a million Olympics (Olympicses? is there such a thing as an Olympic? If so, I feel sure I would do well in it. Lone Competitor Takes Gold. But I digress.) I rooted (in vain) for that Russian whose name I can't quite remember to beat Bill Toomey for the decathlon - in the original Olympics in Athens, for all I know. Something about the Russian's long loping wolf-like stride (back in those sunnier days, the announcer actually pointed it out), or something about Toomey's too-handsome aspect, I don't know. Since at least then I have been capable of backing the non-Yank. It is indeed, as you suggest in your post, as if in order to back an American athlete when I am inclined to do that I have to first throw off the weight of treacly, smarmy, one-eyed Big Network broadcasting, which in general one feels would rather give you wrist wrestling from Pasadena, California, than the finals of the downhill if no Americans are on the slope. I guess athleticism and politics have always been in tension in the Olympics as we know them (it?), but your comment helps keep alive the notion that athleticism is some way involved in the event. Muchas gracias.

(And thanks back to you, Dawn, for the article that started this discussion.)

I am "just pleased to admire the skill of the athletes," but on an emotional and dramatic level this is like kissing your sister. Forming a rooting interest even when there isn't an obvious one moves the appreciation from the theoretical to the personal.

Yes, Eric, but you can (and I think will) form your rooting interest on grounds other than nationalistic if nationalism (jingoism) isn't your main motivation. The personality, the level of sportsmanship (there's a odd concept these days) of the athlete can often be sensed from watching the performance. Those can get me rooting for one competitior rather than another. And if they couldn't, certainly the more classic thrill of the competition can, that can still trump anything. I take you back to Franz Klammer's run in the downhill final in 1976 - the Austrian Klammer the 25th and last man down the hill, Bernard Russi, the Swiss, the first place holder who went first down the hill - and Klammer's hanging it all out on the edge. Well, call that what you like, athleticism or whatever, but we in the U.S. of A. watching that event were perhaps blessed not to be, say, All-The-Way-Switzerland, and even if Russi had been American, you'd have to be have been a fool not to yell out with joy when Klammer pulled off the upset.

You could call that moment a vicarious appreciation of pure athleticism, if you like. (I'm not sure where that leaves the dreaded sister-kissing argument in this, but there it is.)

I don't have a problem with any of that, but I am saing "nationalism" is the default rooting interest the way regionalism is the default for pro sports

Jingoism is the default for some. Others use thought. That isn't to say that some joingoists don't employ thought, but I would wager that most don't.

And now, I officially hope Chad Hedrick loses in his next medal bids. Yesterday he dissed Shani Davis after making a statement, just after he won the 5000-meter, that Team Pursuit was not his number one priority - his individual events were. Fucking hypocrite. Sounds like both he and Davis were focused primarily on the I in "win."

I think I agree with you. I also confess that, for all the purism in my comments, and almost despite what, for me at least, is heavyhanded America-First broadcasting - in default of other inclinations I'm liable to root American. I suppose it's natural that the group you identify with, you want to win. Maybe it's only the tone of broadcasting that has me want to add that I would just hope this natural default rooting interest doesn't stop a person from applauding an obviously super performance by a non-American. That would throw away some of the key beauty of international competition.

Good thing I don't feel the need to write about any of this...

Shani is perfectly welcome to disengage himself from his teammates, but what I find most disturbing is his general pissed off attitude and lack of graciousness.

Lots of athletes can be really talented. But if you don't have a bit of charisma to go with it, you just won't go anywhere.

Look at Albert Belle - great ballplayer, big freaking jerk. Same can be said about Ty Cobb. I don't care how great you are, if you are an asshole off the playing field, people will just stop paying attention to you, and that will only hurt that person professionally and personally in the long run.

And I root for Americans for the very simple fact that they are the ones I know the most about. Anytime they profile a great foreign athlete and I get to "know" their story, I instinctively root for them as well.

I just like to watch the athletes compete - rooting for Team USA just makes it more personal.

And Natalie, let's face it, you don't like anything with the name USA after it.

As for Ohno, well the guy was gracious and always has been. He was plenty happy to win the bronze knowing that he lost to the two greatest men in his sport. Good for him, good for them.

i dont know if bob costas ever played or was proficient at any sport.now he is able to comment on any sport.he and others think he he can judge all sports. the things i remember about bob, is when oj went on his cruising escaped. bob was incensed when he had to fulfill his obligation to cover the nba playoffs. his next was when he was begging michael jordan not to retire.to have another repeat. i was embarressed for both of them . bob can you say (delusions of grandeur)?

Dawn, that's colossally unfair. There are American athletes I support (hey, how about the US ice-dancing duo?), but it's support that has, IMO, meaningful and tangible justification. Someone made the point about identification; it's true that I don't identify with the US. But it simply is not cricket to dismiss the demonstrated praise I have given to a number of athletes from your country.

And about Shani Davis' attitude: First, I don't see how he is a jerk or an asshole. There is no reason for him to have to conform to whatever standards of "charisma" you or Bob Costas demand. And of course you and NBC have every right to dislike or disapprove of him for it, but I doubt he cares. I suspect he isn't there to be loved. He's a serious (and, I suspect, somewhat shy) guy and a loner (who does have a lovely smile that is all the lovelier because on the few occasions when he flashes his pearlies, you know it's genuine). Being a loner, I tend to appreciate those who trod their own paths and march to their own tunes.

Eddie Murphy got lots of shit from Baltimore media because he did not like talking to reporters. Behind the scenes, however, he worked for the community, established a still-running summer camp for inner-city kids, helped in literacy programs. On top of that, he was an amazing first baseman and now sits in the Hall of Fame. And what did reporters and sportscasters focus on when it came to Murphy? "He's a dirty dog because he won't do press, and when he does talk to media he isn't jolly enough for our liking." Screw the press. Some athletes don't follow the script, and goddess bless 'em for it.

You're right about Ohno; he was quite gracious after winning the bronze. That still doesn't constitute a reason for me to be a fan. I'll give him this much: At least he isn't a hypocritical jerk like Chad Hedrick.

Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis are polar opposites, you can't compare the two really. Like you said, Shani is shy - that's fine, you can be shy without coming across as really creepy.

I am going by Shani's attitude, not his deeds. It's not unreasonable that he choose not to compete in the Men's Pursuit, it's a free country. It's what he said, not what he did. His quote was "I don't care what anyone thinks about me....I didn't come here to compete in the Men's pursuit."

He could have easily said, "I felt it was important for me to focus on accomplishing what I have set out to do, win the gold in the events I have trained for."

Period, no problem. If people thought he was a selfish jerk, that would have been their problem, but by putting words of selfishness to the media speculation it gives insight into what lurks beneath his heart, an angry, resentful young man.

Chad's comments were totally lame and uncalled for. He clearly is as outspoken and undiplomatic as Shani is shy. I lost a great deal of respect for him after hearing his reaction to Shani winning the gold.

But that doesn't mean Shani isn't shooting himself in the foot by being a creepy guy.

Smile, be happy, be proud, talk about your mom, whatever, but don't be a sullen jerkoff because that's no kind of role model I want to look up to.

Honestly I wasn't unfair to you at all Natalie. On a personal level I think you have a brilliant mind and want to be kind-hearted, but sometimes you just come across as mean-spirited and hateful.

I don't hate the USA and I really find it offensive when people do. My children are citizens of this country and all the people I love live here. I don't hate it and I just get tired of the same old rhetoric of USA bashing.

Fairness must be in the eye of the beholder.

Meanspirited and hateful because I don't wave your flag? Rich.

And you perceived Davis as creepy and a jerkoff; not everyone perceived him the same way.

Another great non-U.S. story is the Italian curling team, who nobody gave a chance to do anything, yet they went 4-5 behind the leadership of 23-year-old Joel Retornaz, who has practically become a rock star in his home country, especially when they beat Canada.

Yeah, that was a great story! Also, seeing Germany's Anni Friesinger lose her chance to repeat her 2002 speed-skating gold just broke my heart. Most compelling.

I saw that last night. Following the splits in the final stretch, I thought she had it won. Talk about a close 1-2-3.

The post is hilarious and jam packed with information, Dawn. Nice job!

I haven't watched a single minute of the Olympics, and this post explains exactly why: the fucking assrotten media coverage. Bob Costas is a blowhard. All the other talking heads are a waste of time and space, too.

The entire thing is unwatchable. THe US networks have killed the Olympics. They suck.

but that's around the edges of the actual competition, which remains as compelling as ever - and there is no question that there are always plenty of compelling non-US stories, I was simply saying my default position is to root for the US all things being equal

Did anyone see the women's skating tonight? I have never liked Sasha Cohen's work before, but tonight she impressed the heck out of me, as did Meissner and Hughes. And my Irina... in second by .003, but a deserved close second. Thursday's long program should be awesome. Of course, I'm rooting for Irina Slutskaya, but if Cohen wins it, that will be cool. So far, she has earned it.

And how about Italy's Enrico Fabris beating speed skaters Joey Cheeks, Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick in the 1500 meters? I loved that - and the fact that Davis beat Hedrick. Message to Chad H., who boasted prior to the race: I guess we know who the fastest man (at least on this day) is now.

Actually I caught Sasha in mid-axel, but yeah she flew through that program.

And yes, I watched Enrico Palazzo Fabris skate for gold, but it's all just an appetizer for the curling medal around tomorrow.

(Shani-Hedrick rivalry? Worn out storyline.)

I just linked to this post from my piece on
the disappointing Olympics.