I don’t know about you, but I completely ignored the Olympics.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, turns out most of you skipped them too.\u00c2\u00a0 What with the anemic ratings.\u00c2\u00a0 Actually, a bigger story than anybody winning a medal was what a loser that Bode Miller was.\u00c2\u00a0 A partying jerk who couldn’t play by the rules of American society when everybody was watching.<\/p>\n
America doesn’t give a shit about alpine skiing.\u00c2\u00a0 America just likes to win.\u00c2\u00a0 To dominate.\u00c2\u00a0 To show everybody who’s boss.\u00c2\u00a0 If we’re not winning, we’re not interested.\u00c2\u00a0 And god forbid one of our hopefuls under-delivers.\u00c2\u00a0 They’re scapegoated.\u00c2\u00a0 For not living up to an inhuman nationalistic ideal?<\/p>\n
Let’s delineate Bode’s crimes.<\/p>\n
He skied hungover.\u00c2\u00a0 What did Frank Zappa say so many years ago, "America drinks and goes home?"\u00c2\u00a0 How hypocritical.<\/p>\n
Bode had fun at the Olympics.\u00c2\u00a0 He drank and partied.\u00c2\u00a0 Turns out the world cup skiing circuit is alcoholia.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s just that most times nobody is watching.\u00c2\u00a0 As for having a good time…isn’t that what the Olympics are ABOUT?\u00c2\u00a0 The EXPERIENCE?\u00c2\u00a0 Hanging with athletes from other countries, competing, participation being paramount, not winning?\u00c2\u00a0 Who’s got it right, Bode or the American press?\u00c2\u00a0 Is it about going through this life having a good time or pure achievement?\u00c2\u00a0 The kind of pressure that drives teenagers to suicide when they don’t deliver the grades their parents think THEY’RE entitled to.\u00c2\u00a0 What did James Taylor say, "The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time?"<\/p>\n
The Sex Pistols thumb their nose at convention and they’re admired.\u00c2\u00a0 Bode Miller speaks his truth and he’s a pariah.<\/p>\n
So, why didn’t Bode win?<\/p>\n
It’s HARD!\u00c2\u00a0 In one race, he hit a rock.\u00c2\u00a0 He speaks of being pumped up on adrenaline, causing him to miss gates.\u00c2\u00a0 He is skiing with a bad knee injury, which NOT ONCE did he trot out in the wake of his losses as an excuse, like crybabies in the government, in the American workplace and sports stadia.\u00c2\u00a0 In ski circles the Olympics are seen as a fluke, on any given day anybody can win, which is why so often the best skiers DON’T win the medals.\u00c2\u00a0 Furthermore, Bode didn’t do that badly.\u00c2\u00a0 What about his fifth in the downhill?\u00c2\u00a0 Daron Rahlves was another poster boy who completely tanked and HE wasn’t excoriated.<\/p>\n
Still, for us Bodeites it was disappointing.\u00c2\u00a0 We wanted him to deliver.\u00c2\u00a0 As a giant middle finger to the establishment.\u00c2\u00a0 Because Bode plays by nobody’s rules.\u00c2\u00a0 Other than the one that says you’ve got to ski around every gate.\u00c2\u00a0 And the reason he gets away with this is his TALENT!\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, Daron’s got the work ethic, like all those boy bands, but it’s the pure INSPIRATION, the ability to reach down and extract something that no one else possesses and WOW us, that THRILLS us.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s the difference between the Beatles and Gerry and the Pacemakers.\u00c2\u00a0 Oh, the latter were good, but the former were TRANSCENDENT!<\/p>\n
Now that the whole world is not watching.\u00c2\u00a0 Now that Bode’s leg is atrophied and he’s got a ready-based excuse.\u00c2\u00a0 He’s completely delivering.\u00c2\u00a0 This week in Are, Sweden, on the final World Cup weekend, an affair that doubles as the World Championships in odd-numbered years, Bode is delivering the kind of performances NO ONE expected.\u00c2\u00a0 Other than his fans.\u00c2\u00a0 Who know that Bode is one of a kind.\u00c2\u00a0 Not a Herminator, not a Tomba, but a skier who can win in EVERY discipline.<\/p>\n
Yesterday Bode finished second in the downhill.\u00c2\u00a0 Today he won the super-g.\u00c2\u00a0 These are LEGENDARY performances.\u00c2\u00a0 Along the lines of those he delivered last year at this time to clinch the world cup.<\/p>\n
Oh, you’re not watching and you don’t care.\u00c2\u00a0 He didn’t do it when he was SUPPOSED TO!\u00c2\u00a0 Ain’t that America.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s about doing it in front of those who aren’t really interested, who won’t give a shit about you in minutes, as opposed to those on your regular turf.\u00c2\u00a0 Bode Miller is the biggest skier on the world cup circuit.\u00c2\u00a0 The one with the biggest fans, the one who makes the most money.\u00c2\u00a0 Because not only does he deliver Jordanesque performances, he does so without compromising his identity, without kowtowing to the system.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody in America must play the game, must play by the aforementioned rules.\u00c2\u00a0 But then there’s the rare specimen who’s SO talented that he exists OUTSIDE the game.\u00c2\u00a0 He sits above it.\u00c2\u00a0 We call these people heroes.<\/p>\n
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