Haven’t seen any of the Olympics since mens figure skating. The night started at Doug and Jenny’s, women’s halfpipe. We were bored out of our skulls. Snowboarders spin around twice, maybe three times, then do the same thing again.
The worst part was the baggy clothes they wore. No way to see how their bodies moved. The US team uniform was similar to what hog farmers in the midwest have been wearing for the past 150 years – torn up jeans and a plaid shirt. I guess it was supposed to look grunge. Is that an important part of the Olympics?
The American commentator tore into the Chinese team, saying, effectively, that snowboarding is supposed to be done because you love to do it, not because the government trains you to do it.
That made me feel weird. I’m not sure what information the man had. Are Chinese girls taken from their families and forced to snowboard from a young age?
I was so bored with the competition, I didn’t care what the answer was. Then mens figure skating came on. Holy smokes. Those dudes spin around about 30 times in a row. They also wear really bizarre costumes. One guy, who won, had puffy snakes sewn across his leotard and little shoulder pads that made him look Romulan.
But what I loved was the back story. The 16 year old with harlequin face paint like you’d find on a drunken girl at the Ren Faire was an orphan adopted off the streets in Brazil by a French couple. Then there was the Korean kid who was part of a minority in Kazakhstan and learned to skate at a rink in a mall there. WTF?
These were kids who’d come up from some mean streets and weren’t afraid to have glitter on their costumes. None of the fake baggy jean toughness of snowboarders. None of the instant cool of the newest thing. Just people putting blades on their feet and a little something in their crotch to round things out down there.