26th
Olympics: sympathy
Since I’m an Olympics nut, I can’t just let them go when the Closing Ceremony ends - I need a few days afterward to ramp down. So, I’ll be posting a few closing thoughts over the next few days - about the Games in general, favorite moments, NBC’s coverage, etc.
Today’s is the “downer” post. Proverbially, defeat’s agony must accompany victory’s thrill, and every Games produces sadness. Now, let’s be clear: I’m not talking about senseless tragedy, like the murder of Todd Bachman, or frightening accident, like the weightlifter who dislocated his elbow. I’m talking about athletes who experience incredible disappointment - athletes like Mike Powell, who had, by any measure, an amazing career: three Olympics, two silver medals, a 34-meet win streak in 1993 and 1994, and, of course, the long jump world record, which he set in 1991 and still stands today.
Yet, he never won the Olympic long jump (even as the favorite in 1992), and, after failing to medal in 1996, he told an interviewer, “I trained my entire life for one thing, and I came up short”.
Dan Jansen was almost in this category - before winning his final Olympic race in Lillehammer, after 10 years of slips and near-misses.
So, my heartbreak list from Beijing 2008:
1. Tyson Gay. Expected to compete for three gold medals and possibly a 100m world record when the Olympic Trials started in June, he didn’t make a single Olympic final. When interviewed, he looked… lost in a fog, as if he just couldn’t understand what was happening to him. He didn’t make excuses (though his injury from the Trials was clearly affecting him) and he tried to represent himself well, but it just didn’t happen for him - at all. That’s disappointment of the highest magnitude.
2. Alicia Sacramone, the US gymnast who, after inopportune falls during the team competition, executed a pair of pretty good vaults during the event finals but came a close fourth to a Chinese gymnast when the judges failed to deduct for a crucial, clear mistake early in the vault (in addition to deducting for the fact that she landed on all fours). Alicia, you deserved a bronze medal.
3. Lolo Jones. Like Tyson, she refused to make excuses and comported herself admirably, but she was crushed by her stumble on the second-to-last hurdle when she was clearly leading the 100m hurdles final. Her disappointment is of a different flavor than Tyson’s - she came oh-so-close, whereas he plummeted far short of expectations - but surely similar in depth.
Honorable mention:
Christine Thorburn, US women’s cycling - 5th in the time trial, missing bronze by less than 3.5 seconds, after placing 4th in Athens. (As mentioned before, she’s a doctor for my wife Melissa.)
The US women’s softball team, shockingly upset by Japan in the final game before softball takes at least a 8-year Olympic hiatus.
Lu Xiang, the defending gold medalist in the 110m hurdles. Only honorable mention because my gut says that he had known for a while that he was too injured to compete, and only showed up at the starting line to honor his country, before scratching on the first false start.
The US men’s soccer team, 1-0 and leading the Netherlands 2-1 on their way to the medal round, before giving up a crazy equalizing goal with about 30 seconds left and eventually not making it out of pool play.
Aleixis Vastine, a French boxer who, in a close semifinal match, had 4 highly questionable points given to his opponent on warnings from the referee - the biggest screw-job in a boxing competition utterly rife with screw-jobs of the highest order.
Matt Emmons, a US shooter who for the second Olympics in a row was clearly leading with one shot left in the 50m rifle, 3 position event. In 2004 he fired his last shot at the wrong target; in Beijing, his rifle accidentally went off as he was lowering it into position. He’d be a lock for the top 3 if it weren’t for the fact that he did win a silver in Beijing and a gold in Athens in other events, and he met his wife (a Czech shooter, who won a gold and a silver in Beijing) in the Athens Olympics.
