The Crying Games

National Journal ^ | Feb. 8, 2002 | William Powers

[bleudevil]

The Crying Games

By William Powers, National Journal

© National Journal Group Inc.

Friday, Feb. 8, 2002

"New Lease on Life," announced the headline on The Times-Picayune of New Orleans sports page one day last week -- and it had such a familiar ring, like the beginning of a thought you've had ten thousand times before. You could almost close your eyes and write the subhead yourself: "With the aid of a liver transplant, American snowboarder Chris Klug is able to overcome a debilitating disease and continue his quest for Olympic gold."

Olympic journalism pretends to elevate the Games by discovering their deeper human meaning, but the sob stories wind up robbing the contests themselves of much of their power and drama.

The next day, it's a different headline across the top of The Washington Post's sports section, but the same eerie sensation: "Overcoming Tough Sledding; Hungarian Driver Matches Determination Against Inexperience, Underfunding -- and Cancer."

The Olympics are back, and American sports journalists are working around the clock to unlock the mysteries of athletic greatness. Which means news consumers are learning once again that behind every Olympic hero is something that matters much more than talent, more than discipline or tenacity or pluck or any of the other extraordinary qualities that long ago, back in the ancient Games (say, pre-1980), were sufficient to explain the amazing feats of real champions.

This crucial new factor, and the key to modern athletic fame and fortune, is a Really, Really Sad Story. As every Games-watcher knows, in the past few decades, the U.S. media have transformed the Olympics into an enormous public therapy session, in which athletes sit down with their journalist-shrinks and share all the details of their most anguishing personal experiences, particularly any trauma linked to the three D's: disease, death, and divorce. Jock and journalist work together, and sometimes cry together, as they struggle to understand these hardships and integrate them into an athlete's understanding of his or her journey. Without fail, by the end of these sessions, something amazing has transpired: the Really, Really Sad Story turns out to be the essence of the athlete's quest for Olympic gold and a clue to the meaning of existence itself.

Thus, The Times-Picayune reports: "Today, Klug calls his story a miracle. 'I was out of the hospital in four days and back on the snowboard seven weeks later,' he said. 'That is nothing less than a miracle.' Yet it also was a life-altering experience, pointing out the fragility of the human condition and the insignificance of athletic dreams."

And here is the really striking thing about the stories that have come to define Olympics journalism. While they pretend to elevate the Games by discovering their deeper human meaning, the sob stories wind up robbing the contests themselves of much of their power and drama. As the above passage all but says, how can a lousy snowboard race compete with a liver transplant? It can't. And come to think of it, who cares about snowboards anyway? Let's forget about this pointless ritual, this festival of transience called the Olympics, and go outside and enjoy the things that really matter in life -- before we, too, need a liver transplant or lose our best friend in a tragic car accident.

The notion that any genuine human connection is being forged through these stories is pretty much destroyed when you see the same athlete rehearsing the same pain, on cue and on deadline, for dozens of different media outlets. How many times will we have to hear about the motherless childhood of American speed skater and recent Sports Illustrated cover boy Apolo Ohno? If you don't know his story yet, get out your handkerchief. As you'll soon know all too well, he's the "latchkey kid," the wild child who, after many lonely runs on a rocky beach, got a fateful blister. And the blister told him that, yes, he would go the distance, do whatever it takes to be an Olympian.

Why do the media run from their core duty at the Olympics -- telling the authentically dramatic story of the Games themselves -- to chase bathos and plastic empathy? Critics have pondered this question for years and have come up with all kinds of answers. It's about filling valuable airtime and news holes with content, a job for which those "Up Close and Personal" bios that ABC invented, and that NBC inherited and further mawkified, are perfectly suited. It's about the "feminization" of the Olympics, the effort to pull in more female viewers by giving them the soft, emotional content that women supposedly need in order to enjoy sports. And it's about the rise of the confessional culture, the relatively new American belief that baring the soul on a major television network is the highest form of redemption.

There's one more factor that goes unmentioned: In a country as rich and successful as ours, where medicine works wonders, most people are comfortable, and life is generally good, personal hardship is increasingly rare -- and thus, a kind of news.

Watching the Olympic tearjerkers, it's tempting to kvetch that everyone has their problems, because everyone does. But it's also an inescapable fact that Americans live longer and better, and simply have it easier, than any other major civilization has ever had it. This remains true even in a time of terrorism and war. In some ways, the war has actually served to underline our own good fortune: the shots of life in Afghanistan, the constant reminders that the world is full of desperately unhappy people.

Maybe by playing up the ordeals of our athletes, the U.S. media are trying, in their ham-handed way, to suggest that life in America is not really all that different from life around the world. It's a very Olympic notion. But that doesn't make it true.

[bleudevil]

I know there's a lot of commentary on the Olympics on FR, but I thought this one was really good. I've noticed more and more "sob stories" in the mainstream media lately, not just Olympic-related. This guy makes some good points, that we Americans really have it good compared to the rest of the world - we aren't helping the poor people of the world by gorging ourselves on sad stories.

[thucydides]

At a deeper level, this is a narcissistic phenomenon in our very self-regarding culture. It is about feeling good about oneself for having such wonderfully compassionate feelings - but there is no follow up. It is a moral preening.

[glock rocks]

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[garbanzo]

Actually it's because network executives are stupid - they think it's what the public wants. They can't actually understand why people might watch figure skating or luge only during the Olympics and they think it's because of the sob stories - not cheering on the home team or novelty or anything like that.

[meowmeow]

The most pathetic one I ever saw was in some summer games awhile back. NBC was trying to create a dramatic human interest story covering the long tough road of the equestrian team. I forget if it was the Brits or American or what, but it was obvious that they were a bunch of spoiled rich kids whose “terrible trials of life” could have easily been prevented by simply using sound judgment (e.g., maybe sleeping with the trainer’s wife is a bad decision). At least people who overcome some terrible disease give others in the same situation a bit of inspiration. I had a hard time generating any sympathy for Buffy’s pain when she learned of Biff’s sordid love triangle or whatever it was.

[tbg681]

Good article.

The Olympics suck.

So does television, women, Lifetime cable movies about breast cancer, women, Social Security, confiscatory tax rates, sappy soft focus interviews by bubble headed news babes, CNN, affirmative action, women, the Clintons, Lifetime cable movies starring washed up '70's actresses, Maureen Dowd -- and this nasty hangover!!!

[MarkWar]

>The Olympics suck. So does television, women, Lifetime cable movies about breast cancer, women, Social Security, confiscatory tax rates, sappy soft focus interviews by bubble headed news babes, CNN, affirmative action, women, the Clintons, Lifetime cable movies starring washed up '70's actresses, Maureen Dowd -- and this nasty hangover!!!

Yikes. Perhaps it would make you feel better to look at some pretty pictures painted by a woman who had her own share of hangovers: A Life of Deco and Decadence (That's "deco" not "disco" -- it's safe...)

Mark W.

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

I disagree with the whole premise of this article.

We will never forget Dan Jensen trying to overcome the death of his sister while being a medal contender.

He is just one of many stories that show the strength of the human spirit. This isn't Monday night football!!

I can't imagine a person being back in his or her sport in the first YEAR of a Liver Transplant!!! That is just amazing.

Or competing after a bout of cancer. If any of the athletes win, after facing the tremendous challenges they have faced (the training they faced to just get there is amazing, and in and of itself deserves a medal!!)

Guess this article shows how true it is, that some see the glass half empty like the author of this piece, while others like the people he mentions, who face diversity and under extreme conditions.. see it half full.

For me and mine.. we'll take the glass half full crowd.

We also enjoy having a "face" put on all of this. Some of the stories are truly inspiring. They show kids that you can DO anything if you set your mind to it.

Without these stories.. only rich kids would try to be Olympic Mmedalists. Only those in perfect medical condition would ever try.

The inspiring stories of past.. are what have made the Olympics become such a wonderful venue to show how any of us, can and do overcome adversity.

I say "YEAH WAY TO ROLL!!!!"

USA, USA,.. USA!!!!!! :o)

(PS. Thanks to this story, I will be watching with great interest the Liver Transplant patient!!!) So THANK YOU for posting it!!! It "inspired me".. though I know that wasn't your intent!

[stainlessbanner]

I agree - they get too carried away with personal stories in general. I would prefer to see more sports, less stories.

I really don't care that a Olympian from Zimbabwe lost his pet hamster when he was 5yrs old.

[Pay now bill Clinton]

MPEG video: The Taliban Olympics (2.7 MEG)

[unamused]

...we aren't helping the poor people of the world by gorging ourselves on sad stories.

And we are obligated to "help the poor" for exactly what reason?

[bleudevil]

Well, we're not obligated...I just think sometimes people think that feeling bad for someone is helpful to them, when feelings in and of themselves don't help.

And BTW, in response to another poster, I'm all in favor of people who overcome adversity to triumph at the Olympics or anywhere else. I just don't like the feeling I get from some media that they're looking for something sad in everyone's life.

[bleudevil]

Thanks for the post about the artist - nice style.

And tbg681, here's one woman who's hoping you're over that hangover. :->

[Tall_Texan]

((**sniff**)) That's beautiful, man! (sob)

Pass me an Olympic condom. I think that speedskater is hot!!

[Snow Bunny]

Vets_Husband_and_Wife , I agree with YOUR post completely! This stupid article is awful and I disagree with it! Good thing I will never meet the idiot that wrote the article.I would not give two cents for a person like this in any way shape or form.

I love the Olympics and it is important to learn of the lives that have worked so hard to overcome things in their lives to commit to their dream. It is the hope, the glasd half full the wanting to better themselves and be all they can be.

ONLY liberals hate people that want to succeed and better themselves and be the best they can be in any chosen field, even sports.

This article makes me sick! Thank God America is NOT about being negative,but being positive and to reach for the brass ring, the better life and to better oneself.ONLY liberals want handouts and things handed to them .

[bleudevil]

Do you really think the author hates the liver-transplant athlete? Think.

[IVote2]

Thanks for the ping. I found myself wishing last night that ABC still covered the games. They were inspiring and fascinating to watch. We have yet to see how well NBC does.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

You forgot to mention women.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

pingen

[Tennessee_Bob]

Danke,

Hey...I had a hangnail once - and another time, I had about a gallon of JP-4 dumped over my head by a newbie troop. Had chemical burns in both eyes. Reckon I can get in the Olympics???