The winter Olympics are wrapping up and I cannot help but think how many kids have sat glued to the TV watching the drama unfold in the biathlon? Now, I do not want to bring up a sore subject but I felt let down as an American when the best we could do is 18th place in the Men’s Mass 15 km. Apparently we do not spend enough time combining two activities that go together like peanut butter and jelly, shooting and skiing.
I am not taking anything way from Evgeny Ustyugov, he skied well and shot even better. You can blame it on naïveté that I assumed Tim Burke representing the US would do a little better than one minute and nine seconds off the lead. The Biathlon got me thinking… What if I had been raised to be a world-class biathlete? It’s not the most popular sport, an exploratory “google search” of key letters “bia” had the biathlon seventh on that list, behind “Bia”nchi Holsters police gear and accessories. Now, this is not an endorsement of those particular gun holsters.
I digress. How does a “google search” of an Olympic Sport, which involves firearms, fall underneath a company that makes things to put firearms into? Maybe I am to blame, because I am overestimating the global appeal of the biathlon? Just because I was riveted by the precision riflery and the break neck skiing does not mean everyone else will be. So my natural line of thinking of being an Olympic athlete is cooler than working at Circuit City. Who cares if you are the Flying Tomato or The Weenie Evgeny (I made that up)? You can still tell people in public you were an Olympian. And isn’t that the only reason we got to social functions? To try to impress people? Maybe, just I do, I don’t know.
Now my athletic career has seen the curtain close. My dreams of shooting and skiing in Sochi in 2014 will never be more than dreams. My question is, why do parents put their kids in sports where they will never make it to the pros? My dad could have taken me to eat three times a week at Old Country Buffet and I would not be a pulling guard for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Way too much competition. If you are playing the odds, a smart wager would not be to raise the next Peyton Manning, but to be the next Evgeny Ustyugov. You strap a pair of skis on a kid and teach them target practice and all of a sudden they are a 16-year-old 145 pound world class athlete.
On Sunday the USA will play Canada for the gold medal in men’s hockey. So what if it is watched by half the world? The winners’ medal will be no golder than Ustyugov’s. At the end of the day, isn’t that what really matters. A medal is a medal, so why mettle in a sport with so much competition?