Shiffrin becomes the face of frustration
Welcome to the Winter Games of our discontent. From windravaged mountains that blew away any chance skier Mikaela Shiffrin had at winning five medals to hard falls on the figure-skating ice, the U.S. Olympic team has lost that loving feeling, to say nothing of the botched opportunities for gold, silver and bronze.
It has turned ugly for Americans. For us, these are the Grumpy Games. Too many excuses. Not enough winning.
What’s it like to lose on the Olympic stage and disappoint all the folks back home? It’s a permanent scar on the soul.
“It’s like having a bad relationship and having it go sour,” said U.S. hockey player Hilary Knight, who has experienced the heartbreaking pain of losing in the Olympic gold medal game. “It’s always going to be there, a main part of your fabric.”
Preach, sister.
After Shiffrin failed to medal in the slalom, where the 22-year-old resident of EagleVail was regarded as the Olympics’ surest bet for gold, I asked her: How good are you at throwing a bad performance in the trash?
“I’m terrible at that,” Shiffrin admitted.
In America, where second place is the first loser, Shiffrin is experiencing the backlash of being built up as the next Olympic hero, only to be bitten by the hype.
Despite finishing first in the giant slalom, Shiffrin is having a tough trip to South Korea.
Ballyhooed by NBC as the golden girl of the Games, lousy weather created a scheduling crunch that forced Shiffrin to withdraw from the super-G and now a forecast for ill winds that has moved her appearance in the combined up 24 hours to Thursday also caused her to bail on racing the downhill.
“As much as I wanted to compete in the Olympic downhill, with the schedule change it’s important to focus my energy on preparing for the combined,” Shiffrin said in a statement released by the team. And on top of everything else, she has boy trouble. French skier Mathieu Faivre, who is Shiffrin’s boyfriend, was kicked out of the Games and sent home because he ranted after a disappointing finish in giant slalom that he did not care about teammates’ success and was concerned only about himself.
Almost everywhere you look in PyeongChang, there are U.S. athletes feeling the strain of underachieving at these Games.
While Norway led the medal count with 10 gold, nine silver and eight bronze, Americans read the scoreboard at the conclusion of competition Monday and wept:
Ten days. Only 10 stinkin’ medals for the whole U.S. team. Tension.
“As much as I tried to deny it, I did feel the pressure,” figure skater Nathan Chen said after his short program was a train wreck that ran his hopes for a medal off the rails.
Maybe the woes of the U.S. Olympic team are nothing more than a reflection of the contentious times in which we live. Instead of pulling together, our country is drifting apart. Does everything have to be a Twitter fight?
Instead of the USA against the world at the Winter Games, there seems to be an uncommon amount of red and blue pitted against each other between athletes and fans who once stood proudly united under the same flag. Yep, the same U.S. flag that snowboarder Shaun White dragged through the snow during a victory celebration, igniting a social-media storm of criticism.
Network television viewership of the Games on NBC is down about 10 percent, and if that sounds vaguely familiar with the troublesome static received by the NFL last season, maybe it should be no surprise.
From the poor flag etiquette of White to the LGBT issues being raised by freestyle skier Gus Kenworthy to the quarrel with President Donald Trump instigated when Lindsey Vonn declared she had no interest in visiting the White House, it seems to me there could be a growing disconnect between the young, liberal vibe of Olympic athletes and the older, wealthy and deeply patriotic audience that has long tuned in to watch the Winter Games to feel good about America being great.
“There are going to be people that hate me. That’s fine,” said Vonn, who refuses to let social-media trolls intimidate her. “I stand by my values. I’m not going to back down.”
Vonn could lead a lateGames rally by Americans in the medal count, as the downhill, Vonn’s signature race, remains on the schedule, as do many events inspired by the X Games, where U.S. athletes shine.
But the team had better get busy. The United States took home 28 medals from Sochi, and Americans are in danger of turning in their worst performance at the Winter Olympics since 1998, when there were 50 percent fewer events staged at the Games.
Hey, wasn’t Russia supposed to be banned from these Games after getting busted for a widespread doping program as the host of the Olympics four years ago in Sochi?
So how is it possible that a cheating country, which is represented in South Korea by the thinly veiled squad referred to as “Olympic athletes from Russia,” has won 11 medals, while the United States has only 10?
If that sounds like sour grapes, pour me another glass of whine. We are sore losers in America. After getting shellacked 4-0 by Russia during the preliminary round of the men’s hockey tournament, U.S. coach Tony Granato cried about the opposition sending its top scorers out on the power play late in the third period.
Everywhere you look at the Winter Games, there’s somebody singing the redwhite-and-lose blues. If we’re not golden, we’re grumpy.