Archive For The “Olympics” Category
It must be very hard for a millennial to understand the fuss around the Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding figure skating scandal in the run-up to the 1994 Olympics.
If you’re of a certain age, though – whether you’re a figure skating fan or not, and I am decidedly no fan of figure skating – the Shakespearean story of Harding and Kerrigan still engages, and still grabs peoples’ attention, twenty years later.
Why, though? Why, twenty years later, in a sport I care little, does the story still grab me? Why did I spend time out of my life watching dueling NBC and ESPN documentaries on the subject, and Google multiple stories about Jeff Gilooly, idiot “bodyguards”, and the whole sordid affair?
I think it’s because the story, even twenty years later, is like opium.
The addictive story, even now, has everything. Everything. The woman that fought for everything, perhaps crossing over to the dark side to get her chance at Olypic Gold, vs. the woman who, despite her pleas to the contrary, had a well-financed team behind her, especially in the run-up to the Olympics.
A mysterious crime that still isn’t completely solved. Idiot criminals. Shakespearean tragedy. Icy rivalry. Flawed heroes. Heroic feats of athleticism. Recovery from tragedy – and a triumph against all odds. There’s even a twist of an ending to the story, mired in the weird politics of figure skating judges.
The real tragedy, though, is in the two women – still trapped in the narrative, twenty years later, perhaps never to fully emerge from it.
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Lehigh 49, Penn 28 Postgame Thoughts: Both Sides Of Anthem Protests Need To Abandon Empty Gestures And Do Something Real
By LFN |
(Photo Credit: Thomas Munson/The Daily Pennsylvanian)
The firestorm made its way to Franklin Field.
Few football fans may noticed it as the game was about to start, including myself. I wasn’t focused on the cheerleading team during the national anthem, nor was anyone else that I confer with – I was a bit more preoccupied whether Lehigh was going to open the season 0-3.
But sometime on Monday, The Daily Pennsylvanian published a short piece detailing the planned protest event, done by Alexus Bazen and Deena Char.
It is the same act that 49ers backup QB Colin Kaepernick and many, many other NFL players have performed during the national anthem during the preseason and first weeks of the season – kneeling or sitting during the National Anthem, and raising a fist. It’s an act meant to inflame and to get them noticed, and it did.
Why, though?
The “why” can and should be asked on both sides of the protest, those that find solidarity with it and those that are angered by it.
Let’s talk about it.
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