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Tuesday, February 21, 2006

Is it time to wrap Bode Miller in a Shroud at Turin?

Alert: this post is not golf related.

Is Bode Miller to these Olympics what Anna Kournikova is to women’s tennis? Since he has actually won in the past, perhaps that’s a bit harsh, but he is making a swift transition from pin-up boy of skiing to poster boy for underachievement.


Oh Bode, even the balls on your sweater look attractive on you.

He can underachieve all he wants in the rest of his career, but when he takes a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, he should treat it like the honor it is. How many other skiers would have killed for that spot? The “process” and approach to competitive skiing he claims to have is likely nothing more than a rationalization for not putting more effort into it (whether he knows that consciously or not). That’s all fine and good when he’s just a hot skier out on his own trying to win titles and make a living/mint. And his events may be individual events, but he’s on a team and if he’s not going to bother to try to win then he should let someone else have the chance. It’s not that he hasn’t won that bothers me, it’s his apparent attitude about the competition in general. We don’t need to bring the best of the country if they’re not going to give their best for the country.

Then again, maybe he's not to blame at all. At least he admitted his "motives were impure." Maybe it's the even greedier corporate buggers that pump all the hype into the hottest ticket. And maybe it's all of us suckers rooting for him, slurping up their hyper-hyped product.

He's got one more chance in his last event on Saturday and I just don't think I give a hoot. If I have to spend that time watching Bode Miller, it would probably be better spent one-handing it with my mouse perusing the many Bode fan-sites on the internet.

Next post.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

GC,
I agree with you.
And i think that would be a waste of time looking up his web sites.
I like the no golf alert.

Anonymous said...

Too funny! Those balls on the shirt really do look nice though ;-)

Golfchick said...

My mom sent me an e-mail that I'm harshing on Bode (isn't she cute?) and now I feel a little guilty so here's a little follow-up comment:

I'm not just having an opinion for the sake of having one, but I guess I might have targeted my aggression on aspects of Bode's attitude instead of all the other poor U.S. representatives at the Olympics. Maybe it's a generational thing, but so many of them seem to be completely self-centered in what is supposed to be a team competition between countries. Sure, there are individual events, but so many of these "athletes" seem to be forgetting the bigger picture and what the Olympics are all about. Good for you to win an individual medal, but the point is for the country to rack up the most of those at the end of the fortnight. Yes, if you win it's a great accomplishment but more importantly, it's a great contrubution toward that larger goal.

And some of the interviews are downright embarassing to me as an American. Why must so many of our public faces be those of ultra-privileged self promoters? Off on a rant... back to Bode.

Sorry, Bode. I really do admire some of your ideas and methods outside of the Olympic arena. And I understand you don't want to compromise your integrity for anything. But being part of a team, and a team that represents a country means contributing to the greater good. And just because you might believe that winning isn't everything and might not be what you're there to do, it's what we're there to do as a country and you're taking the spot of someone else who thinks so.

Thanks for keeping me in check, mom. Or did I just make it worse?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps you should go buy and play his new game? ;-)

http://www.bodemillergame.com/