Schwing!

The Vancouver Olympics end today after the men’s ice hockey finals this afternoon between Canada and the US. It’s been a wonderful two weeks for me with TV coverage on three different networks that I recorded on DVR, scanned at super fast forward and either viewed or erased. No ads, minimal fluff, no 10,000 K cross country skiing, but some amazing individual and team performances. To the credit of NBC, they kept the jingoism down, and though they are probably obliged to highlight the accomplishments of the US athletes, they gave plenty of time and credit to the host nation, Canada. There were two bits of fluff that I actually liked. The first told the story of Gander, the small town in Newfoundland that on 9/11/2001 took in all of the passengers from US bound flights that were diverted to eastern Canada when US airspace was closed down. The 10,000 citizens of Gander took in 7,000 passengers and crew, housed them, fed them, gave them emotional support and accepted no money in return.

The second was a piece on Canada’s many outstanding comedians. There’s Mike Myers, John Candy, Jim Carrey, the first for me; Dan Aykroyd, and loads more. Some say that the long Canadian winters induce a form of insanity that produces comedians. Others theorize that it’s the authoritative society that creates rebels that fight back with humor. I don’t buy that one. How many really funny people come out of Switzerland? Part of the answer, at least since 1977, is Lorne Michaels, the founder and producer of Saturday Night Live. He is from Toronto and no doubt sought to promote the careers of fellow Canadians. He didn’t make Rick Moranis and Eugene Levy funny but he did give them a forum for the development and broadcasting of their talents.

Despite the Olympics and all the hype surrounding it, the biggest sports story for me in the past two weeks came right out of New Haven, CT. The US collegiate team squash finals took place in a match between Trinity College and Yale. Trinity, the number 1 team in the US for the past 12 years, was led by senior, Baset Chaudhry, a 6’5’’ player from Lahore, Pakistan. Yale’s top player was a 5’8” freshman from Singapore, Kenneth Chan. Chaudhry has been the best player in the US for the past three years. He was undefeated this year and beat Chan handily in their previous meeting. According to his coach, he is an excellent student and a popular figure on campus. His parents came from Pakistan and were in New Haven to see his last team match. At the end of the match, which Chaudhry won in straight sets, he had a Serena-esque meltdown in which he physically confronted and verbally attacked his defeated opponent. The outburst was caught on tape and featured on ESPN’s Sports Center:

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=4949438

The ESPN piece was presented by Merril Hoge, an ex-NFL running back, cancer survivor and motivational speaker. Hoge presented the frightening incident with a smirk and joked about the towering Chaudhry’s intimidation of Chan. As his co-commentators chuckled in the background, he quickly and condescendingly explained away the game of squash, and then went on to talk about buttocks seals and verbal spraying. The only reason the sport of squash received any national coverage was because one of its top players acted badly, one might say like a football player. Whereas antisocial behaviors such as fighting and trash talking are condoned or encouraged in many sports, they are not a part of squash which actually has Ethics Guidelines. To his credit, Chaudhry, once past the heat of battle, apologized to every team and coach in collegiate squash and ultimately punished himself by withdrawing from the national individual tournament, giving up his last chance to defend his two time championship. ESPN did not report this in follow-up.

Merril Hoge may see himself as a motivator who can help us “Find a Way” in life, but he and ESPN missed the boat on this one. We need to decide as a nation if the way to success includes behaviors that injure others and whether such behaviors such as drug use, bullying, trash talking, robbery, rape and murder are excusable in those who have achieved great success. Maybe we should just be a bit Canadian, include good deeds in our definition of success and learn to tell a good joke. Schwing!