Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)
Huldra Forsvant (Theodor Kittelsen)

Monday, August 6, 2012

The Crying Games

Seriously, what is up with the sense of entitlement Australia has about Olympic gold medals? Now, I was never at the top of my geography class, but last time I checked, there were at least several other countries in the world besides this one. Bearing that in mind, it's probably not completely unfathomable that some medals may actually be won by some of those said several other countries.

The media does my head in. Unless Australian athletes win gold, then they've failed. All we are seeing on the tele are Aussies holding silvers and bronzes, looking totally distraught. Silver? Ick, they may as well be holding a ribbon with a dog poo tied on the end.

At first I was blaming the athletes for all the boo-hooing, but E made a good point--they get interviewed straight after the event, when they are all tuckered out and emotional.  If they were interviewed a little later they may well be rather chuffed to be holding a medal of any description.

Nah, I reckon it's the dopey media, and all the pressure and advertising and junk surrounding the Games that are making this one a dud for Australia. It's not Australia lagging in the medal tally that's making it all pretty unfun to watch, it's the countries' reaction to the lagging medal tally.

I hope we can make the second week more fun, not by having to win gold, but by cheering our athletes on regardless.

7 comments:

Crazyjedidiah said...

Even some of the olympians are upset about the media and it's complaining. Check out this article. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2012-08-05/scathing-watt-tells-media-to-27wake-up27/4178492

Anonymous said...

The overwhelming sense of entitlement and ego driven, performance based,holier than thou attitudes are what's making this country an embarrassment in the sporting arena.(and frankly, in a lot of other areas too...)
This country has had it all too good for too long. no one has had to work real hard for anything here so we expect nothing but top shelf everything. Whether it be TVs, sporting results or the final word in who is allowed to live or get married here.
Makes you think twice before admitting who you barrack for...

Ruth said...

My kids were yelling at the tele during the appalling interview with that Aussie male swimmer who came second by a hundredth of a second. It was awful. She started with a 'you must be bitterly disappointed with that swim' kind of comment. Seriously?!?! It's sending everyone a terrible message.

Deb said...

Yep. Agree. Enough with the pouting already.

Anonymous said...

AGREED. I - obviously naively - thought the whole point of the Olympics was to celebrate sporting amazingness regardless of which country the amazing person/team came from.

It's too much about competition this time, and not enough about unity and cheering others on. Unless it was always like that, and I'm only just now old enough to spot it...

Stuart Heath said...

Just heard on ABC: "Tom Slingsby has done for Australia what the swimmers couldn't…"

I'm not wanting to be curmudgeonly, but could it be that the sports themselves are not that interesting (I mean, is swimming itself interesting for many people to watch? It's never on TV except at the various quadrennial events), so the only interesting thing is winning?

If we could enjoy the sports themselves, and rejoice in others' achievements, maybe we could just find some other way to drum up some national pride — pour $250 million of public funds into PhDs or arts projects or schools for disabled kids or something?

ALaird said...

Agree in part, but it's not entirely the media's fault. The media is an easy target, but there have been athletes who've bemoaned their silver medal, regardless of media questioning.

And the media in part is reflective of the wider Australian culture. As a nation there's perhaps questions to ask of our attitude to sport, which the media is simply reflecting.