The Olympics!

Girls in sports FTW!!!

The MOST 1992 picture imaginable: Team USA. Back when gymnasts were literal children & roller curled bangs were legally required.

Foreward: When I started writing this newsletter, my point was going to be about how watching women compete in sports when I was a kid helped me get into playing them myself, loving movement, & feeling good in my body…

That is all true.

That is not where this newsletter ended up going.

1992. The Summer Olympics.

I was 6 years old.

Dominique Dawes & Shannon Miller in gymnastics.

Summer Sanders in the pool.

Every girl competing in rhythmic gymnastics.

Then, a few months later, The Winter Olympics!

(Yeah, they used to be the same year. Remember that?! 1992 was the last year for that.)

Kristi Yamaguchi, Nancy Kerrigan, & Oksana Baiul in figure skating.

I was hooked.

1994 brought us the greatest costume in the history of all figure skating.

Perfect. No notes.

12/10

Would wear.

1994 also brought us the plot of the hit film I,Tonya (aka the MOTHER FUCKING VIOLENT ASSAULT against Nancy Kerrigan).

1996. Atlanta. The Summer Olympics.

My grandparents were taking me, my brother, & my 3 cousins on summer vacation to South Carolina in the RV, & knowing all 4 of us girls loved gymnastics, they got us the greatest gift OF ALL TIME…

Tickets to see the Olympics Gymnastics Competition!!!

I’m talking about:

Dominique Dawes
Dominique Moceanu
Amy Chow
Amanda Borden
Jaycie Phelps
Shannon Miller
Kerri Strug

AKA “The Magnificent Seven”

Maybe you remember them?!?!

Yes, that WAS the competition where Kerri Strug, in the final event, on the final night, in competition for the all-around team trophy ran down the runway, flipped on the vault, landed, BROKE HER MOTHER FUCKING FOOT, and then did it all again (!!!) winning Team USA the gold medal as her coach carried her off, waving and smiling through agonizing pain and tears.*

*Yes, this is all giving very JVN vibes. What can I say? The Olympics are my passion.

Ahh… memories…

…that I have of watching it on TV just like the rest of you, because–and maybe you remember this part, too–earlier that week A MOTHER FUCKING BOMB went off at an outdoor venue for the Olympics, killing 2 and injuring more than 100 people.*

*There was a recent Clint Eastwood movie about it that is simultaneously very good & also villainizes the female reporter, because… Clint Eastwood.

SOOOOO, understandably my grandparents nixed the trip to the Olympics & we headed home 2 days early.

I. was. DEVASTATED.

You get it.

Fast forward to 2020.

Scratch that. 2021. (But it’s still called the 2020 Olympics, because branding & merchandise had already been made.)

I was spending the year (2021, that is) in pandemic purgatory, aka St. Louis.

But what’s this? A chance at redemption? To make my dreams come true?!

The U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Team Trials were being held where I was currently living!

And even better than that: I WAS GOING TO GET TO SEE THE G.O.A.T. COMPETE!!!

That’s right, I FINALLY got to watch Team USA Gymnastics, including Simone Biles.

It was incredible. Simone Biles is a master, and it was an honor to breathe the same air as her. (With a mask. In the nosebleeds.) And all the other young women were just as amazing to watch.

Now, as you may also remember, that Olympics was the one where she dropped out part way through because she had “the twisties”–aka her MOTHER FUCKING *SA* TRAUMA couldn’t be contained or controlled any longer in the midst of a MOTHER FUCKING GLOBAL PANDEMIC.

(In hindsight, that explained why the absolute perfectionist herself was… less than perfect during the trials. But truly, perfection be damned! She was still perfect to me.)

So, what the hell is my point?

Mostly, my point is: these are simply my beloved memories of a thing I hold very dear for whatever reason.

My point is also: even my beloved memories of a thing I hold very dear are interwoven with violence, terrorism, governmental ineptitude (purposeful & otherwise), & unnecessary, intentional pain. Pretty consistently. Not as an exception, but rather, the rule.

I’m not a patriotic person. I think the USA is quite probably the greatest threat to all life on planet Earth.

But I love watching The Olympics.

I actually love that most of my memories of them include the context and world events that surrounded them.

They aren’t “an escape” from the real world. I can’t fucking escape the real world. I never could.

But they are a fun side quest that brings me delight and distraction amidst the real world, as a part of, a reflection of, and a catalyst for the real world around and within it.

So, I guess my point is also: don’t deny yourself joy because you’re trying to moral perfectionism your way through life. Don’t be Chidi Anagonye. (For all you non The Good Place watchers, I highly recommend; “His overwhelming knowledge of ethics often caused him to obsess over whether even his most insignificant actions were ethical.”)

And: if you think not watching &/or protesting the Olympics is the best thing to do, you are probably also right. See: Poop in the Seine & Olympic Strikes