Backing Bode

Watching the Torino Olympics has reinforced a belief that I've had for quit some time. I hate sports where the sole component to winning is judging. I've been an athlete all my life and subject to all manner of bad referees or tenuous judgment calls. For that reason, I've always been drawn to sports where there exists a decisive element to victory. I've always looked for sports where I could, as a coach told me so many years ago, "take the power out of the judges hands."

I've competed at a professional, World-Class level in 3 separate sports. What they were is unimportant but I'll say that two were different in degree while the other was in kind. Every one of these sports allowed me the ability to control my destiny. If I lost, and I did lose, I could not blame the umpire or other circumstances. I simply failed to find a way to win. And I think that attitude is really important for any young person growing up because it is too easy to blame other people or extenuating circumstances. Even now, I am continually stunned by how easy it is to "pass the buck" or for how so many people, doing so has become such second nature that they don't even realize they're doing it. For most, the desire to avoid accountability has been habitualized to the point of invisibility. And how difficult is it to fix what we cannot see.

Once, when I was young and brash, I had a man approach me and say after watching me train, "I wish I could do that." I looked at him coldly and glared, "No you don't. You couldn't handle the life." Completely uncalled for on mypart- treating a fan in that manner- but in my defense, I was sore, injured and fighting a cold. I couldn't remember the last time I felt somewhat human. I know what he meant. He admired my skill. But I don't know if he knew what I meant. Sure he saw the fancy uniform and the high-priced equipment. What he didn't see were the injuries that ensured old age would be painful. He didn't see a stress level so high that I often puked blood before a competition. He didn't see the willingness- no desire- to push my body past its limits for that 1% increase in performance. One cannot become a world-class athlete and not do permanent damange to his body. If you think you have, you've only let yourself off the hook. How can you know where edge truly is unless for forcibly exceed it and get cuffed in the process?

For all those reasons, I'm inclined to cut Bode Miller slack. The guy's a world class athlete that just peaked at the wrong time. And there is a part of me that admires his willingness to shun the safe, easy route. True, what he said at the end of the Olympics after his 5th failed attempt to get a medal was in poor taste. But that's just because he's young and inexperienced. I'm quite sure Bode didn't live up to his own expectations. He'll suffer on his own and in silence for the rest of his life for the words he spoke out of pride. So Bode, fuck everybody else. I'm on your side, brother. And if you choose to subject yourself to this spectacle again, I'll root for you still.

When you make excellence its own reward, no one can punish you as cruelly as you can. The mediocre never get it and they never will.