The Olympics, what a wonderful time to vicariously enjoy the very cream of the crop of what humanity can produce. Except of course that's not the case anymore. So here's the beef, and by beef, I mean 2 beefs:
1. The grading of winter sports (likely to spill over to the summer sports)
Russian ice skater Evgeni Plushenko got last place (silver) in the men's ice skating competition. Why? Well to be honest his landings were weak throughout the last skate, and that probably cost him gold. That said, Plushenko claims otherwise, and damned if I don't see his point. The new marking system in ice skating, and for the most part the rest of the winter sports have been warped. As an HR professional, when I look at compensation and performance reviews I first and foremost look at what was expected. And what is expected from an Olympic athlete? To basically defy the laws of physics. We want them to fly like gods above our heads, astounding us every 4 years with how far the human body can extend itself when need be. We don't line up for hours and spend millions of tax dollars to see people who try to get something that'd been done a million times before, really well. We have regular athletes for that. You're supposed to show us something amazing. Something that hasn't been done before. To reward athletes because they didn't take on that more complicated jump, or that more difficult set of moves is an insult to the game. And how might you tell your other participants, such as speed skaters and hockey players, who cannot take the easy way out and win on technicalities, that while the Olympics has gotten easier for some, they still have to burn through every ounce of strength and imagination they have to win gold.
If this was a company, their employees would be unionizing, rioting, or just plain quitting for a more equitable and logical employer, because this is horseshit.
2. The Canadian Women's Hockey team won gold yesterday. Like most hockey players, they celebrated by hitting the bars. If the Men's Hockey team wins this weekend, they will do the same thing. Though they won't experience the same global backlash these women have. Criticized for drinking and smoking, something that while I obviously don't endorse, are absolutely commonplace in the world of hockey. Why are they being singled out for this behaviour when men participate in exactly the same way? In fact, there have been a number of male athletes sent home during the games over the past several years for getting drunk during the competition (i.e. before winning) and getting into a bar brawl. Other athletes have celebrated by drinking on tv, and posing with their medals in riske positions. No news reports. No angry blogs writing about the despicable nature of that nation. Why? We've already stolen any chance these women have of being considered on par with the men in the sport by removing checking - as they are so delicate they may bruise or be offended by such a display of violence. Now we're not allowing them to celebrate the same way men do? And this is only adding insult to injury as the Olympic committee decided not to allow Women's Ski Jumping in the competition. Why? Well, we've never had them before. Well, women couldn't always vote, and black people weren't always free (I say that with caution, as they are treated as FAR from equal, though at least now they're paid while being discriminated against). Clearly, it makes sense not to include women's ski jumping.
We've come a long way, ladies.
Between these two situations, the Vancouver Olympics are turning into one big farce. I am proud of our athletes, but unabashedly ashamed of what our country, and really the world too, has done to this once spectacular competition. The ancient Greeks must be rolling in their graves.
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