Here, they need snow. Instead, they’ve got woe.
It is warm and rainy here, so snow is being trucked
up the mountain highways to give the world’s greatest skiers a place to
work. Snowboard training runs are in jeopardy because there isn’t yet a
whole halfpipe. Throw an Olympics in a place where one of the hippest
eateries is called
Meanwhile, before a single pixie has been spun, there is already talk of a figure-skating judging controversy.
But all of that slipped into footnote status when
The best woman skier in the world rained on the
torch-relay parade by arriving at Vancouver’s modern airport with a
limp. Vonn dropped the bombshell on the “Today” show — she seriously
injured her right shin last week while training — and then came to the
Flanked by her teammates, Vonn described the injury,
vowed to press on, denied that the injury was a ruse to remove some of
the stifling pre-Games pressure, and defended her decision to pose for
the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue.
Where to begin?
Vonn is among this Olympic cycle’s Pre-Packaged
Olympic heroes, a product of marketing and hype and image consultants
as well as athletic ability, training, and coaches. It used to be that
the Games produced stars who cashed in with endorsement deals. Now
companies eager to identify with promising athletes produce the stars
and the Games either make or break them.
and delivered on his goal of eight gold medals. The pressure on these
athletes is exponentially greater than if they merely were competing
for medals after devoting themselves to years of training.
“That’s just all expectation,” Vonn said. “People
put that out there, especially the media. I’m just trying to win a
medal of any color. I’m not trying to be
Vonn is being more than a bit disingenuous there.
She has created pre-Olympic expectations on the slopes, by winning
consecutive World Cup overall titles, and in front of the cameras, by
trading on her looks for lucrative marketing opportunities. And that’s
fine, but let’s not pretend all this attention has been heaped upon her
over her objections.
Nobody made her pose provocatively for the cover of Sports Illustrated, but
All of that explains why someone asked Vonn on
Wednesday about the “cynical” view that the injury could be a way to
deflect some of the pressure of expectations.
“Wow,” Vonn said. “I honestly never thought of that.
I wish this never happened. I wish I was coming in healthy and that I
could deal with the expectations with a healthy body.”
The other cynical view, based on the timing of
Vonn’s revelation, might be termed the Schilling Effect. His bloody
sock raised the drama of
will bombard us with stirring music and breathless accounts of Vonn’s
fortitude. It’s a great story and just might boost the ratings.
But that doesn’t mean she isn’t hurt. Just as
Schilling really had sutures in his ankle, Vonn really has a nasty
bruise deep in the tissue on her right shin. She was clearly upset at
the timing of this setback. Vonn had reached her peak just in time for
her third Olympics — she has never medaled — and now her training has
been disrupted by pain too intense for her to put her ski boots on.
“This is definitely the most painful injury I’ve
ever had,” Vonn said. “It’s not as hard to ski with a wrist injury as
it is to ski with a shin injury. It’s going to be very, very
challenging and very, very difficult. I have to try my best to push
through it.
“It’s hard to stay positive, you know? It’s
definitely changed my whole perspective coming into these Games.
Definitely not the place I want to be. I won the last World Cup race of
the season coming into these Games. I was feeling great, I was healthy,
I had no problems, and now I’m sitting here questioning whether I’ll be
able to ski.”
Dramatic? Certainly. Vonn was going to be one of the
big stories of these Olympics. Now she’s a better story, especially if
she’s able to write herself a happy ending.
—
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