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Olympic illustration

By Daily Bruin Staff

Aug. 11, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Sunday, August 11, 1996No "Pain" in "Olympic"

As an accomplished athlete, I feel I have something important to
say about the controversy surrounding Kerri Strug and her
gold-medal winning vault, and also about the sport of women’s
gymnastics as a whole. Many people have voiced the opinion that
Kerri was put under too much pressure, and was even perhaps forced
to compete the second vault which further injured her ankle, but
won the USA Team a gold medal.

I can honestly say that what Kerri did was not out of force. An
athlete’s mentality is much different than that of a normal person.
Young athletes, even at a young age of 5 or 6 when they begin a
sport, develop an unbelievable desire for competition. What Kerri
did, was the only option she felt there was. In fact, she wanted
nothing else but the chance to make her second vault, and finish
the meet in triumph, and not in failure.

Kerri is also an 18-year-old woman, and she is able to make
decisions on her own. Like any athlete, some girls are forced and
pressured by coaches and parents, but most of them are in it
because they love it. They are not forced to train, and they are
not forced to give all that they have to become the best. It is in
their hearts, and it is who they are.

I know this, because I have been there. I began gymnastics at
the age of 6, and I competed for 16 years. I was never pressured by
coaches or by my parents. I endured pain, injury, frustration and
heartache, but I loved it. The sport of gymnastics has given me
things that nothing else could. By the age of 10, I was traveling
around the country, while most young girls have barely left their
home town. It also gave me a college scholarship to UCLA, where I
was able to compete for four more wonderful years. If I had to do
it all over again, believe me, I wouldn’t be forced to do it.

Dianna Fischer

Third-Year

Biology

NBC coverage biased

I am sure you have heard of a sore loser, a person that cannot
take to losing a fair competition, but what about a sore winner? A
sore winner is a person who takes malicious joy in the downfall of
the losing team. In both cases, the sore loser and sore winner lose
sight of the sportsmanship of the competition. A likeness of a sore
winner is what NBC made America out to be during their coverage of
the Centennial Olympic Games. Yes, the entire country, no slippery
slope here, Les Etats Unis, The United States of America, USA. The
Germans have a word that describes this exact sentiment, it is
called schadenfrende: schadenfrende, malicious joy in the downfall
of another. Look for schadenfrende in next year’s edition of the
English dictionary and may you find a picture of the NBC logo, made
famous for its schadenfrende school of broadcasting. Schadenfrende
XShah-din-freudal vbX [from German] 1: prideful gluttony in the
downfall of another person 2: NBC’s mortifying, slanted, brimmingly
shameful, unsportsmanlike conduct, pathetic pseudo-sports coverage
of the 1996 Olympics (syn. see sore winner).

In short, NBC’s coverage of the Centennial Olympic Games was
offensively biased. One questions if there were any competitors
other than us Americans in these games, or perhaps the Olympics is
exclusively an American event? The last time I looked, the Olympics
were supposed to exemplify the humanity in all of us and showcase
the international esprit de corps through athleticism. I doubt that
there is anyone so naive as to believe that the United States team
was so good that it won every single Olympic event. But you would
think so after day in and day out of hearing "The Star Spangled
Banner" (Once I thought I heard O Canada, but NBC cut to
commercials). Were there any other nations out of 170 that won
gold? Of course there were.

NBC is an embarrassment for those like me who must (attempt to)
explain, make excuses, apologize to friends from different
countries why international medalists were briefly mentioned, yet a
premium of undue attention was placed on Americans not making the
preliminaries; why NBC stopped coverage on an event entirely when
we were not in contention to win. It took seven years of
negotiation and bidding to bring the Games to Atlanta. We pleaded
with the International Olympic Committee to allow us to host these
Games. As a nation, we brought it upon ourselves to express
goodwill. That makes NBC all the more pitiable by the waste it made
of all the hard work and preparation that took thousands to do in
order to bring the Games to fruition. Many of my foreign friends
will have returned home feeling injured in some way. And to them
all, my most humble apologies as an American.

The image of a United States welcoming the rest of the world to
a modern Renaissance event was marred by NBC’s unfair, unequal
broadcasting of other nations at their worst and America at its
finest. It seemed that other countries were only worth covering
when they: 1) fell off of an event, 2) tripped and fell flat on
their faces after falling off of an event, 3) suspected to have
used performance enhancing drugs and 4) fell off of an event. To
NBC, I say: Patriotism is one thing, maniacal-in-your-face
showmanship, is another. To my international friends I say: It’s
just the bad journalism of one network who completely missed the
opportunity to do something noble. We are not ugly, it just looks
that way on camera. So embarrassed, sorry.

To send professional comments regarding your views on NBC’s
coverage of the 1996 Olympic Games, please write to NBC directly at
www.olympic.nbc.com/bbs/.

Andrew Vuong

Alumnus 1995

Biology

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