LJ Idol Week 10 WRITE OFF--Open Topic

[mollywheezy]

Top Five Things to Say to Olympics People

5. To the haters of the Opening Ceremonies: Stop gasping, clutching your pearls, being offended and get a hobby. Some weird French artist did something you didn’t like? Move on with your life. Certainly do not boycott watching the Olympics. The athletes had nothing to do with planning the opening ceremonies and they deserve our support. Do you want to know what offended me? They skipped countries in the Parade of Nations for commercials! Since 1996 Latvia has been skipped during every Olympics except one. What do they have against Latvia?! I went to Latvia for the first time in 1995 which is why I noticed. My friend D noticed they skipped Denmark, because that is where his family is from. Stop skipping countries. All of the athletes and their nations deserve to be celebrated.

4. To both male and female athletes: Please stop adjusting your junk or fixing your wedgie on world-wide television. We don’t need to see that. My husband Peter blames the camera operators for filming it. I will agree both are equally culpable. I will allow this diver to remain anonymous, but after his dive, he got out of the pool and immediately stuck his hand down the front of his swimsuit to adjust himself.

I said, “Dude! Seriously?!”

Peter said, “Maybe diving dislodged things and he’s really uncomfortable?”

“He could go to the restroom or at least get a teammate to stand in front of him.”

“Neither of us has dived before. It might have been an emergency.”

I rolled my eyes at him.

3. To all the athletes: I have been moved by the displays of sportsmanship I have witnessed. The three medal winners from three different countries hugging each other and jumping up and down in celebration together, thrilled to be on the podium. Or seeing the losers of a heat hugging their winning competitors and truly congratulating them. Y’all are very classy.

2. To Caeleb Dressel: It was one of my favorite Olympic moments of all time when you said you were so excited that your son was there to see you win a gold medal. It was adorable because he’s five months old and the camera operators had just shown him sleeping in your wife’s arms. He did not actually see you win, but he did wake up for a daddy cuddle. And then I was moved again when you took the gold medal you just won and put it around your younger teammate’s neck telling him he would have his own soon.

To Simone Biles: You did not make the top of my list for being the G.O.A.T. of women’s gymnastics but because you openly shared your struggles with mental illness and took the time you needed for self-care and healing in the face of a great deal of criticism. I admire your courage to admit you needed help and your tenacity to work your way back up to the top. I also struggled with mental illness, but I did not have the courage to share my story until years after the fact even though it could have helped others. I applaud you!

Comments

[muchtooarrogant]

I have to admit to being pretty Olympics oblivious, but really enjoyed your entry.

I agree, skipping countries for commercial breaks is very rude. Predictable given our crass culture, but still rude.

“Neither of us has dived before. It might have been an emergency.”

Peter's awesome! LOL

Thank you for your highlights of the Olympics.

Dan

[mollywheezy]

Thank you very much! And yes, Peter is definitely awesome. :)

[halfshellvenus]

I cannot imagine a junk-adjusting emergency, even for diving! Wow.

It was brave to share your opinion of Simone Biles NOT being the women's gymnastics G.O.A.T. She definitely is for me-- and I was watching when Nadia Comenici was doing things that should not have been possible. Though honestly, current women's gymnastics baffles me. No one should be able to do an aerial ANYTHING on the balance beam-- especially backwards! How is that possible?

[mollywheezy]

I definitely think Simone Biles is the GOAT of women's gymnastics, that's just not the reason she was #1 on my list.

I have no idea how gymnasts do any of the stuff they do. We had a unit of gymnastics in PE when I was in middle school and I could not even WALK across a balance beam!

[halfshellvenus]

I could not even WALK across a balance beam!
Me either! Or do a forward somersault on one, even with multiple people spotting on both sides.

I now know that the problem is vertigo. When my head goes upside-down, I have no idea where "up" is. It creates problems with heights, too, and it makes it impossible for me to "spot" when doing ballet turns.

I was hopeless at the uneven parallel bars, too. It was mystifying at the time, but I realized later it was because I have such long legs. My center of gravity is in my upper thighs, so when I tried to do a basic hip circle around the bar, I would just fall off the bottom. \o/

[siglinde999]

I 100% blame the camera operators and the people who make decisions about what to show. But also, I don’t much care anymore. I’m not a competitive athlete, but I’m enough of an athlete to have needed to adjust things. Sometimes there is no private place or time to get there. And I’m totally used to being around other athletes who don’t care about my body - we get dressed together, we talk about our bodies, and we work really hard to not be self-conscious because that detracts from our sport performance. Multiply that by a gajillion for Olympic athletes on TV in front of thousands of other people. I think we do way too much body shaming as a society, but also way too much objectifying. As examples, we wouldn’t fuss nearly as much about those wedgies if American and Canadian women could wear bottoms that covered their rear ends properly for beach volleyball, athletics and gymnastics. Some other countries do have seat-covering uniforms, often at the insistence of the women themselves.

Man do I still manage to froth at the mouth about this, no matter how many times it comes up! LOL.

[mollywheezy]

I hadn't thought of the athletes not being able to choose what they wore. That's a good point. I did not intend body shaming in this. I'm coming from the point of view of being a competitive dancer as a child/teen, and I would have been spanked for adjusting anything publicly whether it was an emergency or not. "Proper young ladies" do not do such things. :P

As an adult and a ballroom dancer, we use fabric tape to make sure bra straps don't show, and I know dancers who actually tape themselves into their dresses to make certain there will not be a wardrobe malfunction. I don't compete, but for those who do, adjusting anything on stage would earn a points deduction.

[siglinde999]

I think the standards in dance are weird for so many things, but I understand the aesthetic aspect that keeps adjustments off the stage. Dancers are also expected to dance injured, and keep smiling, where many athletes would pull out for their own health.

One of the wildest costume adjustments I ever saw was at a performance in Strasbourg when I was in high school. I don’t even remember the ballet any more, but during a pas de deux the zipper on the ballerina’s tutu slid open. Her partner switched her from a pirouette sequence to circling her in an arabesque while zipping up her tutu with his free hand.

[swirlsofpurple]

As someone who doesn't watch, this is a fascinating insight, thank you for sharing.

I just watched the recent Simone Biles documentary and her courage with sharing is so impressive.

[mollywheezy]

Thank you very much!

[adoptedwriter]

This was a fun recap of Olympic moments. I agree Simone rocked it as a human being first and then as an athlete!

[mollywheezy]

Thank you!

[inkstainedfingertips]

The outcry over the opening ceremonies from a certain segment of the population was absolutely ridiculous. Just stupid. And I thankfully did not witness the junk adjusting. ha ha.

[mollywheezy]

Oh I know! It was definitely ridiculous. I definitely could have done without seeing the junk adjusting. ;)

[inkstainedfingertips]

ha ha. Same here. Some things just do not need to be seen.

[alycewilson]

You're making me wish I'd caught more of the Olympics this time around.

[mollywheezy]

Thanks! :)

[murielle]

I haven't watched the Olympics since my mom died in '99. We would watch certain events snuggled up in our own apartments over the phone. We watched a lot of things that way.

And while I can honestly say I don't miss the Olympics I miss my mother every day.

Thanks for the memories! ❤❤❤

[mollywheezy]

I'm sorry about your mom!

And you're welcome.

[xeena]

BAHAHA 4 made me laugh a lot as did Peter's thoughts. this was great!

[mollywheezy]

Thank you!!! :)

[reidharriscooper]

Hey, look, the Olympics is a ratings grabber and a sweeps weeks stunner. Fixing crotches and wedgies is what gets the commericial time sold. If it didn't? They wouldn't even air the show.
True story.

[mollywheezy]

I had never considered that. What a sad commentary on our society!