« My eyes...the goggles do nothing! | In the land of the blind, Patrick Seitz is king »

August 16, 2004

This has been my first

This has been my first summer Olympics without access to TV, and it’s amazing how easy it is to forget the Games are even taking place. Aside from a few moments of women’s swimming semifinals, I haven’t seen any of it this time around.

My taste in Olympic events is pretty specific, and never really changes too much from time to time. My favorites are the swimming events, the women’s gymnastics, and the diving. The track-and-field events don’t hold my interest. The Greco-Roman wrestling can be pretty interesting, but I’d never go looking for it. If I stumbled across it while channel-surfing, okay. If not, no dice.

I remember Matt Ghaffari from the 1996 Olympics. He was the best America had to offer, but he’d never been able to beat Russian wrestler Alexandre Karelin, who was so good that he was hardly even human.

Anyhow, it came down to the two of them for the gold and silver medal, and Karelin obliterated the guy, as usual. It was either a picture or the video clip of the medals presentation, and Ghaffari—a beefy, strong guy, and the second-best Greco-Roman wrestler in the world, so no 90-pound wimp—was just bawling. He’d been put in his place by a man whose strength was so peerless as to almost be allegorical, and he knew—he knew—there was no way he could defeat him. He was later quotes as saying, “I looked up and saw my flag. But I didn't hear my anthem.”

Karelin won the gold medal for Greco-Roman wrestling at three consecutive Olympic Games—1988, 1992, and 1996. Nobody defeated him in a match from 1987 through 2000, when American Rulon Gardner pulled an out-of-nowhere upset on him and earned the match’s only point. It was the first time Karelin had been scored on in a decade. It was four years too late for Ghaffari, though.

* * * * *

And while we’re on the topic of the Olympics, whose bright idea was it to leave the question of mascot design to a bunch of academics? Consider Phevos and Athena, the widely reviled twin mascots of the 2004 Athens Games. Yeah, they’re based on ancient Greek terra-cotta dolls. Sure, they’re named after Greek gods. And of course, their creators are touting them as being “full of vitality and creativity, perhaps mischievous and hence lovable." The fact that the world at large seems unable to appreciate these qualities unasserted doesn’t speak too highly of ol’ Phevos and Butthead. They are, to use official Olympic mascot jargon, damned goofy-looking. Damned goofy-looking, I say—and with more than a passing resemblance to Matt Groening’s Akbar and Jeff.

There’s been a lot of that sort of thing going on, though. Consider Izzy, the ever-mutating mascot of the 1996 Atlanta Games.

I’d like to propose a possible mascot for the New York Games, if they’re lucky enough to land them for 2012: Kirby, of Nintendo fame.

His popularity has already been proven, having appeared in some 20 games. Kirby’s a fat little guy, and with obesity rates skyrocketing in America with no end in sight, that makes him a very timely choice. Besides, his signature attack is to suck up his enemies and steal their powers. What’s more American than that, folks?

I planned on discussing the Olympics in greater detail, but this whole lack of glasses is a real pain—literally. I’ll get them in about a week, at best. In the meantime, I’m really going to have to try to avoid looking at the monitor for any length of time when I can possibly avoid it.

Posted by patrick at August 16, 2004 11:48 PM

Comments

Posted by: Jon Bastian at August 20, 2004 12:44 AM

Posted by: Patrick Seitz at August 20, 2004 03:48 PM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: