David Stairs
The games of the 33rd Olympiad are in the books, or, awaiting the outcome of Jordan Chiles’ bronze, nearly so. The bump in world airline travel, television ad revenue, and croissant sales has ended, with the geographic center shifting to the Western hemisphere and yet another L.A. games forthcoming.
Aside from the U.S. medal haul, including some surprise upsets and victories, what have we learned? That Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., aka Snoop Dog, is a shameless shill for his own silly brand was already obvious, so let’s try harder. Amid all of the youthful enthusiasm and the overstatement by sportscasters, we now know (if we didn’t already) that advertising coverage of the events trumps any athletic competition. One would need look no further than NBC’s running split screen commercials over the top of crucial third sets of volleyball quarterfinals.
Then there’s the insipid interview questions. “What were you thinking the moment you crossed the finish line?” must rank as one of the dumbest queries of all time, and many competitors simply responded by saying that they were lost for words. Fair enough. But just as many tried to breathlessly describe the training regimen that brought them to their golden moment, with many invoking God’s invaluable assistance. From this one might conclude that young athletes are not terribly interesting.
The victory yell
As the games ground on I began to realize that there were certain, dare I call them, memes common to most of the competitors. One was the victory yell. This was applied by athletes across all disciplines and ethnicities, and I provide examples above. The second is the “gold bite,” apparently encouraged by photographers shooting post-competition where the winners are told to bite their medals. This comes from the antiquated idea that one can determine the authenticity of a softer precious metal by denting it with one’s teeth. Chinese medalist Zhou Yaqin seemed a bit confused when she saw her Italian co-winners and belatedly put her silver medal to her mouth. Finally, there’s the rally cry, or what I’m calling the “mantra.” This declaration— LET’S GO! —was most obvious among English speakers, who made up a plurality of competitors, but whatever language used— ALLEZ LES BLUES! — for the French, it sounded the same.
Of course, we are celebrating physical excellence at the Olympics, not poesy, intelligence, or wit. And my examples are primarily of Americans, which betrays cultural bias. But I challenge you in four years’ time to watch the next emanation of the games and find something different. Some things seem to be more basic than life, liberty, or the pursuit of happiness, and perhaps more fundamental than money. Human emotion.
ALLONS-Y!
David Stairs is the founding editor of the Design-Altruism-Project.
