Bryant Grumbles

Let me preface this post by stating, for the record, that I am Caucasian. And female. I’m a white woman. And, as such, I have absolutely no frame of reference for understanding a black man’s world view. That said, I still have to take issue with Bryant Gumbel’s curt, dismissive remarks about the Winter Olympics:

"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t like them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying, maybe over the next three weeks we should all try too. Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin.""

What’s the problem here, Bryant? Is it that ice skaters can not really be considered athletes because the object of their sport is not trash-talking, bone-crushing, and utterly humiliating an opponent on the other side of some kind of roughly spherical object? Of course, the words "kiss and cry" have no place in the world of legitimate sport. They don’t drip testosterone. Seems to me that flying down a mountain at seventy miles an hour on two long skinny pieces of wood (or whatever they’re made of these days) would take a pretty hefty set of brass cajones. And I don’t know HOW the women manage…

Did it ever occur to you, Mr. Gumbel, that the Winter Olympics might have been instituted as an act of inclusion, rather than exclusion? Perhaps countries of the world where climate dictated that aspiring athletes would take to ice and snow, wanted to engage on an international stage of equal prestige to the Summer Olympiads. Should the world have said "No—the brotherhood of international sport does not include the ones you might excel at?"

And let's talk about those ancient Greeks… I sincerely doubt they had ever heard of basketball, either. Yet, every four years, a small group of large men, who are paid more money than God for playing a kid’s game, steps down from their lofty station as some of the richest athletes in the world, to perform for…gasp…free. For the pure satisfaction of displaying to the Olympic audience that they are the best in the world at their chosen sport. So, I’m sure you don’t mean to argue that the winter sports are not legitimate because some perceived economic advantage of the participants excludes athletes of color…

If you don’t like the Winter Games, that’s fine, Bryant. Don’t watch. But your colossal ego won’t allow you to simply not like something. You have to dismiss the entire class of competition as "non-sport." And then punctuate that acerbic declaration with a quick jab of the racial stiletto. Quite the drama. And darned if it didn’t net you an impressive amount of ink and airtime. I guess that’s why they pay you the big money.

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