Lords (and Ladies) of the Rings

There is a phrase from our sports past: “the thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat.” That’s what the Olympic Games bring. The Olympics are not for everyone, heaven knows. (There is more vitriol against the Olympics than there is against malaria and many other scourges.) And the Olympics are never without controversy.

I remember when President Carter decided that the U.S. team would boycott the Moscow Olympics in 1980. That was between my sophomore and junior years of high school. Everything is so exciting — so vivid — when you’re that age. There was a great controversy over the boycott. I was impressed by something former president Richard Nixon said on television. After the Soviets’ invasion of Afghanistan, he said, “you can’t just go over there and high-jump with them.”

(Carter also imposed a grain embargo on the Soviets. Again, that was a hot issue. Republican politicians from the Great Plains objected. Ronald Reagan campaigned against the embargo in 1980. Don’t let me get too diverted, however . . .)

In the past 30 or so years, I have written many, many articles about the Olympics: particularly about China as host. The political issues surrounding the Olympics are highly interesting — but then you got: you know, sports.

As Keith Jackson used to say, in the broadcast booth (when he was doing college football, for example), “All of a sudden, a ballgame breaks out.”

I have always loved the competition. The unusual sports — the sports you see only during the Olympics, for the most part. I love the personal stories — the stories of the various competitors. ABC had a segment: “Up Close and Personal.”

At any rate, I am going to jot a few notes, for us appreciators of the Olympics. The non-appreciators — there are endless things they can click on, which will give them just what they want. This little post is for us.

• On Twitter the other night, I asked my friends a question: If you could win a gold medal in one Olympic event, what would it be? For me, it would be the decathlon, probably. That’s because I grew up with a myth, or a belief (maybe “mystique” would be a better word than “myth”): The winner of the decathlon was the “World’s Greatest Athlete.”

In 1981, a biography came out: Jim Thorpe, World’s Greatest Athlete (by Robert W. Wheeler). (I think I got it for Christmas and devoured it.)

Some of my Twitter friends agreed: They would choose to win the decathlon. Others said: 100-meter dash. “World’s Fastest Man!” Others said the mile (or the 1,500-meter race, close enough). Still others said weightlifting, in whatever division: “World’s Strongest Man.”

• Speaking of books: The year 1992 saw the publication of The Lords of the Rings: Power, Money and Drugs in the Modern Olympics (by Viv Simson and Andrew Jennings). I have sort of cribbed the heading over my post here from that.

• Do you have a least favorite expression? I have two of them. They are related: “That ship has sailed” and “It is what it is.” Well, I know this ship has sailed — it sailed decades ago — but I still think it’s wrong to have professional athletes in the Olympics.

That’s dinosaurhood for you.

• Noah Lyles has won the 100-meter dash. (I don’t think they use the word “dash,” but my English comes from way back in the 20th century.) I thought this was magnificent:

• You know what I like about the hammer throw? Its sheer primitivism. Watch Ethan Katzberg, here. Grace and ancient-seeming strength. Stravinsky could write music to it.

• Speaking of music: The Olympics, most of the time, have been playing “The Star-Spangled Banner” in C. I think it sounds best in the traditional B flat (like “The Battle Hymn of the Republic,” “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing,” and others in the genre).

• Lee Kiefer is a delightsome young fencer from Lexington, Ky. (Well, I guess all the athletes are young.) The public has gotten to know her grandmother, age 95. She is Dr. Teresita Bacani-Oropilla, an immigrant from the Philippines.

“We came here with $1,500 and four suitcases. We came here, and we were lost. My two kids went to school, and of course they are brown. They were targets, but they were feisty. They had enough courage to survive.”

Such an American story, this family. (Read about them here.)

• Speaking of delightsome: Have you met Gabby Thomas? Looks like a movie star, sprints like a champ. Studied neurobiology at Harvard. You want more?

• A Brazilian gymnast, Rebeca Andrade, won the floor exercise. Finishing second and third were our Simon Biles and Jordan Chiles. On the podium, they performed a gesture. Andrade was very touched. “They are the world’s best athletes and what they did means a lot to me,” she said. “I feel honored.”

• I was against the addition of golf to the Olympic Games. “That ship has sailed.” I could give you my arguments. But the ship has now circumnavigated the globe a few times.

Anyway, Scottie Scheffler, the world’s No. 1 golfer, won the gold medal. He has won the Masters, twice. Finished second in the U.S. Open. Finished second in the PGA. A cool and collected customer. Self-contained.

But the Olympic Games bring out powerful emotions:

The relation of nationalism — or nationhood, or national feeling — to sports is a very interesting subject. I first wrote about it in 1995: “My Country, Ryder Wrong.”

• “Man is a ranking animal,” I always say. The urge to rank — in sports, in music, in other fields — is overwhelming. “Smith is the best ever.” “No, Jones is the best ever!” “Bach is best.” “Mozart is best.” “Beethoven!”

I always caution against ranking (though I will spare you my speech on the subject). That said: I wonder what tennis experts would say: Is it time to declare Novak Djokovic the GOAT? The Greatest of All Time?

Amazing, that he beat that Spanish whippersnapper for the gold. (The whippersnapper is 21 and Djokovic 37.) He keeps making history . . .

• Truly, I hate when this happens:

• Speaking of genitalia and the like: That iffy boxer from Algeria, who beat the Italian woman in 46 seconds? I thought Giorgia Meloni, Italy’s prime minister, had an excellent framing: “We must take care that, in an attempt not to discriminate, we don’t discriminate.”

• A news article called it “the cruelest rule in sports” — automatic disqualification for a false start in a track event. I think that’s right: the cruelest rule. “The 18-year-old could scarcely believe that he would fly back from the Olympics without even getting to compete.”

• The Kremlin claims that Ukraine is not a real nation. Not a real country. This lie is echoed by Putin’s many, many supporters and excusers in the Free World. I lived through this kind of thing in Soviet times; we are living through it now. I hope that the Ukrainians are able to keep their country in the face of Russia’s annihilationist assault.