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Bring back the amateurs

By Walter G. Meyer

February 27, 2006

San Diego--I know it makes me seem unpatriotic, but I was glad to see the U.S. hockey team lose in the Olympics. But I’m also glad the Canadian team lost, which might make me seem anti-Canadian. I don’t dislike either Canada or the U.S. I dislike the way they pick their hockey teams. I hope this serves as a lesson to whomever is in charge of such things that having pros play in the Olympics is a mistake.

When I attended the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, a relative handful of fans were obsessed with seeing the first of the basketball “Dream Teams.” Like most of my fellow Olympic fans, I had no interest whatsoever and ducked out of clubs when any members of the team entered with their entourages. Although I saw at least two sports every day I was there, I didn’t see a single basketball game. I liked the good old days, when a bunch of no names came together to play basketball or hockey.

Not only does the current system deprive some deserving but unsung heroes of their fifteen minutes of fame, the current system doesn’t work: When was the last time a “Dream Team” in any sport brought home the gold? If the pros lose, you feel disappointment, but if they win, that was just the expected outcome. So, there is nowhere the elation when some no-name kid plays his heart out and medal or no medal goes home a winner.

We saw that in so many other sports. Apollo Anton Ohno, Bode Miller, Johnny Weir, Michelle Kwan were expected to win, and if they had, it would have been ho-hum. With their losses, all we got was disappointment. We bet on a sure thing and lost.

But the stories that mean the most are the unknowns rising to the occasion—the kid from Carlsbad, Shaun White, while one of the best in snowboarding was still unknown to most viewers until he gave his perfect performance. He also still came off as cool in spite of the wild red hair and his “Aw, shucks!” smile.

I found myself pulling for the Swedish team in curling—I know nothing about curling, but it was hard not to cheer when, with the final throw, they knocked two Swiss stones out of contention for the gold. But it wasn’t the medal that thrilled me, it was the come-from-behind, do-or-die, gotta-make-it buzzer beater that had me clapping.

Figure skater Evan Lysacek, who bombed out and was counted out after his short program, was hospitalized and bedridden and vomiting in the days before his long program. But Lysacek came back to skate the best performance of his life in the long program and finished 4^th, just out of medal contention. Anything less than a dismal short program would have had him on the medal stand, and as a friend of mine observed, “Evan might not have gotten a medal, but he got the hearts of America and the world for his courageous comeback.” Those are the stories that matter, not the medals.

And in bringing in ringers to try to stack the deck for gold, the U.S. and Canadian teams miss not only the medals, but the point of the Olympics. We should quit counting the medals and count the real victories instead.

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Walter G. Meyer is a freelancer in San Diego who has found time to write a few books when he isn't too busy writing about anything just about any topic from local baseball to endangered sea turtles. waltergmeyer.com