What It Feels Like to Miss the Gold

February 23, 2010

What It Feels Like to Miss the Gold

I have a new article published at Salon today, spinning off of the amazing stories of the best athletes in the world who came very, very close to the Olympic gold medal. An excerpt:

What does it feel like to spend your life training in your sport, to be at the top of your game, to come so close to the gold medal in the most prestigious of international athletic competitions, a competition that's reached mythic proportions in the public imagination -- and then to leave as second or third best?
In 114 years of its modern history, the Olympic Games are haunted by stories of silver and bronze medalists. There are heartbreaking almosts and might-have-beens. There are the best of the best having their legacies written as "incomplete" when they lack a gold medal. (Here's looking at you, Michelle Kwan. How's it going, Debi Thomas?) Bode Miller finally got his Olympic gold this year, but the games are filled with those who stumbled on the way to the podium: Evgeni Plushenko, who failed to nab the top spot in men's figure skating a second time; Martins Dukurs of Latvia, heavily favored to win gold in skeleton. Too often for these athletes, more attention is put on what has slipped away from them than what has been won. And that's to not even mention the millions of dollars in endorsement deals and sponsorships that ride on the Olympic gold medals.
Competing in the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, Kevin Asano has a heartbreaker of a tale: He missed out on a gold medal in judo because of a controversial half-point penalty. It was his first and only Olympics. ...

Posted at 04:20 PM in Culture, Health, Isak, Media | Permalink

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