The Agony of Defeat

24 hours later, I'm still reeling. Judging by some of the comments and number of views I've had since yesterday, many of you are too.

I'm not going to break down the Women's All Around Competition in terms of routines just yet. To be honest, it's still too depressing. What I want to talk about is the portrayal, interpretations and reactions in the American media and public to this Russian team, and their emotional reactions to these last two competitive defeats.

Let's get a couple things out the way first. I'm an American. I have no Russian heritage, but I have traveled to Russia and met many wonderful people there. I also much prefer the Russian style and school of gymnastics to the American school, with a couple of exceptions- I am a major fan of Shannon Miller and Dominique Dawes, and have also been impressed with Sarah Finnegan, McKayla Maroney, Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin on individual apparatus in more recent years.

NBC is the one stop shop in terms of Olympic TV broadcasting for the vast majority of Americans. More dedicated fans may stream the infinitely superior BBC coverage, but for most people, they get their coverage from NBC.

And this is the kind of "news" NBC sees fit to print after the AA.

Both after the TF and the AA, some or all of the Russian competitors were in tears. Vika cried in Aliya's arms after her floor score was posted yesterday, and all the Russians cried in the TF after Grishina's and Afanasyeva's floor nightmares.

Here's the kind of comments I've been reading all week about this sort of emotional reaction:

NBC too spent an inordinate amount of time focusing their cameras on the Russians (and the Chinese, to a lesser extent) all of whom were crying after the TF. They had already started their broadcast with a segment on how Russia produces a lot of "divas" in gymnastics, and it wasn't meant to be a positive characterization. Crying just added icing on the cake to this image of Russia as a nation of overly emotional athletes, who couldn't contain themselves and ended up being examples of poor sportsmanship. I mean, they won a silver medal, so get over it, right? Never mind that they had high expectations of themselves that they couldn't meet, never mind that they are a group of young women whose entire lives have been building for this moment, crying = overly emotional divas. Got it.

But let's backtrack a minute. After she did not qualify to the AA, Jordyn Wieber was in tears. NBC got up in her face with their cameras as well, which was really pretty upsetting and unprofessional, but was she called a diva? Did the commentators describe her as overly emotional, a cry-baby, someone without mental toughness? Absolutely not. In fact, the entire TF was described as a moment of redemption for a super-tough athlete with unparalleled focus and determination. So for Jordyn, in the American mainstream voice of the Olympics, crying was completely fine and understandable. Jordyn, incidentally, has handled this entire Olympics with grace and class, despite things not turning out as she had hoped. NBC could learn quite a bit from her.

Turning now to Vika, she had already been hit with a whole host of complaints about her sportsmanship after the 2011 Worlds, where she could barely look Jordyn Wieber in the eye after losing the gold by the narrowest of margins. She did not smile on the medal podium, a capital offense for many gym fans, who apparently are ok with smiling through intense heartbreak in their own personal lives. Most American blogs and comments I read complained about her lack of sportsmanship, describing her as immature and childish, or simply lacking the mental toughness necessary to cope with defeat.

Her emotional reaction in London to yet another defeat at the hands of a questionably scored American was therefore a continuation of the pattern already established by American mainstream viewers, media and some bloggers. We can see that interpretation in the NBC piece I posted above, in many of the comments on blogs and news articles bashing Vika's tears and lack of sportsmanship, etc.

But wait! What did Vika and Aliya say in their press conference after the competition? I bet a lot of complaining and crying, right?

Let's take a quick glance at this Examiner article:

"The two Russians were complimentary of American Gabrielle Douglas, who won the gold medal by 0.259 over Komova, the reigning World all-around silver medalist. "She performed beautifully today," 17-year-old Komova said through a translator. "And I believe that she earned her gold medal. She was very, very good tonight."

Echoed Mustafina: "I absolutely agree with Viktoria. She was fantastic. She didn't make a single mistake. She became the leading athlete from the very beginning."

Yeah, what a couple of divas! What a lack of sportsmanship!

It is maddening to see this happen, and feel powerless to turn the tide towards reason and sanity rather than overblown stereotyping and manufactured drama. I would like to be able to give Aliya, Vika, Nastia, Ksenia and Maria a call, to let them know that not every American thinks that they are weak, unprofessional, or immature because they become emotional when they do not reach the goals they set for themselves.

I would also like to speak to the "professionals" at NBC, to tell them exactly what I think about their coverage of the sport.

And finally, I'd like to acquire an enormous billboard or giant flashing neon sign for all gymternet idiots to see that reads "Crying doesn't mean someone's a bad sport. It means they're human, you dumbasses."