Last night I had a dream about going to an underwater circus arts program for youth. The kids swam around, doing acrobatic tricks and honing their trapeze/aerial skills in the water. I woke up wanting to go swimming, but it’s late November and the lake is cold.
But some athletes develop their underwater acrobatic skills year round—namely, synchronized swimmers.
Synchro has struggled to gain widespread respect as a competitive sport. Many view synchronized swimming as a pretty dance or a silly past time. Yet the athleticism, balance, and flexibility required for synchronized swimming is about as intense as you can get. Synchro entered the summer Olympics in ’84, and the sport has celebrated a competitive international presence ever since.
I found a synchro segment from an ESPN documentary about women in the Olympics, that can give you better info about the athleticism and planning that goes into the sport. These women are amazingly strong and talented :)
I'm here in the great state of California - you know, the one that managed to uphold Proposition 8, which bans the rights of same-sex couple to marry. (And NO it wasn't African-Americans' fault that the legislation didn't pass - unfortunatley, the Prop 8 organizers took for granted some communities and failed to strategize their campaign effectively to combat the pro-Proposition 8 crowd).
In any event, I recently found out that Washington D.C. is in the running to host the 2014 Gay Games. According to The Hoya, the purpose of Gay Games is to promote and empower gay athletes - and other talents, like musicians/artists. Kelly Stevens, the Officer of Communications for the Federation of Gay Games said this:
"I would describe the Gay Games as a celebration of human rights through sport and culture."
I found this video on YouTube that serves as a preview for the 2010 Gay Games in Cologne.
Of course I couldn't avoid reading the comments posted below the video. It was interesting to read what people thought about the video and about the idea of having a Gay Games. While most agreed that the presentation of the video was cool, some chimmed in stating that it isn't necessary for a Gay Games to even exist. Take for instance these exchanges:
"This is so amazingly [expletive] stupid. What would sexual orientation have to do with athletic ability? Why don't they just compete in the regular olympics?"
One commenter responded: "The best do. And win medals, too." Good one! Also note how this commenter used the word "regular" to describe the Olympics, as if the Gay Games would be irregular? In what way, I wonder. And what constitutes something that's regular, or what I interpret this commenter to mean, as 'normal'? Interesting use of the English language, I'd say.
And this comment:
"I am gay but i can still play sports and not get a [expletive]. you think because your Gay you cant play sports with other."
[Note: Many thanks to YouTube users for all the great expletives - and making my job as a blogger that much more tedious!]
Now of course we have to take these comments with a grain of salt - especially considering we have no idea who these people are behind their computer screens (for all we know these comments could be manipulated just to make a point).
But what about the argument that questions the idea of having a separate games for Gay athletes - as if to send a message that gay athletes can only feel a certain kind of empowerment when participating in a gay friendly environment.
I covered the Beijing Summer Olympics quite extensively on PlayCity and in doing so I learned about openly gay Olympians. I also covered stories about gay athletes who struggle in various realms of organized sports. Bottom line: it ain't easy.
I'm not sure what the answer is (or if there necessarily has to be a definitive answer). One could also bring into the debate the idea of historically black colleges (HBCs) - but again, we'd probably run the risk of replicating the same argument currently going on in the news concerning the Civil Rights movement for African-Americans and gay rights.
Yesterday Trina put up a post about NASCAR and their new drug
testing policies. I think she's right, it's important that nobody is
driving a hundred-mile-an-hour rocketship on wheels while under the
influence. A lot of times, when people get to talking about drug
testing and sports, they concentrate on performance enhancing drugs,
but in some cases those aren't what matter. While I admire the
motivation behind the drug-testing policies, I'm concerned about the
specifics.
Here's an example: In 1998, Canadian snowboarder Ross
Rebagliati won the Gold Medal in Men's Slalom Snowboarding in Nagano,
Japan. However, he tested positive for Marijuana after the fact and was
temporarily stripped of the medal. The medal was later returned to
Rebagliati after an Olympic Committee vote, but it raises an
interesting point-- all drugs are not created equal. Marijuana has a
particularly long-lasting presence in human blood, urine, hair and fat
cells, even if the smoke was second hand, and more importantly, long
after a person may have actually consumed the drug. What that means is
that when a drug test is employed to see if an athlete has been using
cocaine, ecstasy, alcohol, or methamphetamine before or during their
competition, the test will also detect any marijuana which the athlete
was exposed to over the past weeks or even months. What this does,
effectively, is create incentive for athletes to use recreational drugs
like cocaine or alcohol, which exit the body in a period of hours or
days and leave the user 'clean' relatively quickly, despite their equal
(perhaps greater) danger. Drug testing is a prickly issue, and while
it's important that athletes aren't trying to turn themselves into
superhumans (or drug addicts), the actual implementation of a testing
policy is problematic at best.
And while I'm on my critical
soapbox, I'll admit that I kind of take issue with motorsports in
general. I went to a lot of drag races and demolition derbies as a kid.
It was always a great time. If someone handed me the keys to a race car
tonight, you better believe I would hop behind the wheel and go. That
said, motorized sports embody a lot of negative qualities. They're
pretty harsh on the environment, for one thing. A circular track with
30 race cars on it is basically a tornado of car exhaust. There are
dialogues going on, however, about ways to make the sports more
sustainable, but the fact of the matter is that automobiles are bad for
the planet. We'd all be much better off racing on our feet, or bikes,
or tricycles, or pogo sticks. It's not as loud, the crashes are less
likely to be fatal, and anyone can afford to get involved.
Before the Olympics even started,
they were swimming in controversy. A lot of people wondered whether
China deserved the host the Olympics given its awful humans rights
policies. The opening ceremonies started a lot of dialogues about
beauty and physical appearance, but now that the games have actually
begun, there are a whole new set of controversies. [youtube
id=FgdoQ61bzqc]
Lots of armchair pundits have been talking
about how the Chinese judges are biased towards their countrymen.
Gymnastics, Shooting, and Boxing have all been embroiled in controversy
after Chinese athletes appear to be favored when it comes time to tally
scores. Friends of mine have tried to tell me that it's a part of some
vast Chinese conspiracy to bring home gold medals. Personally, I don't
think it's so sinister. Actually, I think it's really natural, and it's
time for more of the general public to understand that. [youtube
id=-MGliV_foHY]
British Boxer Joe Murray lost a bout against
Chinese Gu Yu, whom he had defeated in the past. He wasn't surprised
however, telling the Asscoiated Press's Greg Beacham "I've been
watching the scoring here the first four days, and I knew it was bad,
so I was expecting it. I think they were giving him a score for
anything, and I had to work to get all of my points." The thing is,
every set of Olympic Games in recent history has incurred accusations
of biased judging, not just the Beijing games.
Realistically,
it would be impossible for any judges to remain completely impartial.
Australian Shooting veteran Russel Mark believes that he was robbed of
a higher finish in the Double Trap event when Chinese judges awarded
Chinese Marksman Hu Binyuan a hit for shooting a target which Mark
believes he actually missed. However, after lamenting the judges’
decision, he added, "The crowd were yelling and calling shots in and
out. It was like a circus out there. It would have been a brave Chinese
judge that would have put his hand up [to signify a miss]." The power
of peer pressure can’t be underestimated. While I certainly feel for
all of the athletes that trained for years leading up to the Beijing
Games, I think it would be best if we all accepted the fact that any
sport with human judges is inherently predispositioned toward bias.
Spain’s Olympic men’s basketball team recently posed for a very controversial advertisement. The photo features the entire basketball team pulling at the skin of their eyelids, intentionally mimicking Chinese facial features.
Despite much criticism from the media and from Chinese-rights organizations, pro Spanish basketball player Jose Calderon didn’t see any problem with the photo:
One of our sponsors asked us to make, as a 'wink' to our participation in Beijing, an expression of Eastern eyes. We felt it was something appropriate and that it would always be interpreted as an affectionate gesture. ... Whoever wants to interpret it differently is completely confusing it.
Other team players and supporters have publicly defended the advertisement, claiming that it’s not racist.
But the image has already proven to be a public relations disaster, further rocking Spain's shaky history of racist behavior in sports. [In 2004, FIFA fined the Spanish Football Federation $90,000 after fans shouted racist comments at some Black players on the English team.]
Okay, so they made a mistake—a big mistake. An appropriate course of action would be to make a public apology. But no one on the team has suggested even the slightest bit of remorse. Instead they’ve chosen to pretend that mocking Asian facial features is in some way “honoring” the Chinese.
Why then, are Chinese-rights organizations upset about the photo? Shouldn’t they feel honored, perhaps in the same way that African Americans should have felt “honored” when whites rubbed charcoal on their faces and imitated Black culture in minstrel shows?
African Americans were never consulted about their feelings regarding Black representation in atrociously racist and derogatory minstrel shows. Similarly, I doubt that Spain’s basketball team bothered to ask any Chinese person for her or his thoughts on the photo.
I find it deeply disturbing that no one stood up and said, “Hey guys, I’m not so sure about this.” It makes me very sad to hear that these athletes have refused to take accountability for their actions.
