Leave Bode Miller alone
"Bode Miller says he's not disappointed by his fifth-place finish, but he should be." - SJ Mercury-News
The media is building this up like Bode Miller has some huge responsibility to America, instead of being an individual athlete in a sport that most Americans only care about for two or three days at a time once every four years. So he went out and had a couple of beers before the race and then finished fifth, only .11 out of the medal stand. SO FUCKING WHAT.
He wasn't even really one of the favorites in the downhill. We just expect Americans to win everything if they're even marginally favored, so that when an American doesn't medal it becomes a huge letdown. In case you hadn't noticed, this Winter Olympics isn't exactly packed with media-friendly athletes, so the media has to manufacture heroes and villains wherever there's even a morsel of personality. That way the press can hand-wring over Miller's apparent "failure" when the real story should be France's Antoine Deneriaz, who went from being the last qualifier in the finals to winning the gold by almost a full second.
Yeah, I guess he really let us down, considering he's still the only American alpine skier to medal in the last two Olympics. You suck, Bode.
The media is building this up like Bode Miller has some huge responsibility to America, instead of being an individual athlete in a sport that most Americans only care about for two or three days at a time once every four years. So he went out and had a couple of beers before the race and then finished fifth, only .11 out of the medal stand. SO FUCKING WHAT.
He wasn't even really one of the favorites in the downhill. We just expect Americans to win everything if they're even marginally favored, so that when an American doesn't medal it becomes a huge letdown. In case you hadn't noticed, this Winter Olympics isn't exactly packed with media-friendly athletes, so the media has to manufacture heroes and villains wherever there's even a morsel of personality. That way the press can hand-wring over Miller's apparent "failure" when the real story should be France's Antoine Deneriaz, who went from being the last qualifier in the finals to winning the gold by almost a full second.
Yeah, I guess he really let us down, considering he's still the only American alpine skier to medal in the last two Olympics. You suck, Bode.
posted by Dan at 6:38 AM
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