The Winter Olympics are over and I, for one, am delighted. What felt like endless weeks of coverage of obscure sports were all the rage in the media as Britain celebrated a solitary silver medal in the Skeleton.
The Skeleton? Yes indeed. A sport – I use the word loosely - where competitors hurl themselves head first down a mile long ice chute with nothing more between them and their maker than a glorified tea tray. No disrespect to the young British lady (I don’t remember her name either) who, I’m sure, made many sacrifices to get to the games. But did anyone else, apart from her family, really care if she won, lost or ended up hospital?
Look at the “sporting” events which took place during the games. In reality they attracted viewers who were more interested in the spills than the thrills. Callously hoping competitors came a cropper on the Giant Slalom. Rather more television voyeurs than television viewers. They had no intrinsic sporting interest in the events they were following.
Take the figure skating as a case in point. Most people will remember the event for the near misses and spills on the ice rather more than for any outstanding exhibition of skill. Any sport which is now reduced to nothing more than a prime-time Saturday night game-show with David Seaman has surely lost credibility!
I also discovered, to my surprise, that Ethiopia had a curling team. A sport where people shove tea pot shaped boulders along a glistening sheet of ice whilst their team mates frantically sweep the icy path ahead with brooms. As morale boosting as a curling side may be for national pride, I think a vast proportion of the poverty stricken Ethiopian population would prefer it if the ice their fellow countrymen slipped and slid upon were melted down and shipped to their drought torn land.
I believe that when the media follow sports that they would normally ignore they are guilty of jumping on a jingoistic, flag waving bandwagon. The vast majority of the general public either completely ignored or feigned a passing interest in the Winter Olympics. The hours of television coverage were disproportionate to the actual interest of the licence paying public. Nobody cared!
About the team
This story was written and edited by John Monaghan, 18. It was published by Reach for the Sky website.
