{"id":1523,"date":"2004-08-15T22:53:08","date_gmt":"2004-08-16T02:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/nateptest\/2004\/08\/15\/olympic-whining\/"},"modified":"2004-08-15T22:53:08","modified_gmt":"2004-08-16T02:53:08","slug":"olympic-whining","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/2004\/08\/15\/olympic-whining\/","title":{"rendered":"Olympic whining"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

BF and I have been watching the Olympics for the last couple of
\ndays.  If you’ve been watching during this Olympics or any in the
\npast, you have seen at least some of these “athlete profiles” that they
\ndo each time.  The trope is pretty much the same: lots of talent,
\ngood but not great in the past, some sort of crystallizing event
\n(usually a tragedy of a personal nature), a renewed resolve to be
\nbetter and greater, and then some sort of preliminary result that
\nindicates that greatness could be around the corner for the
\nathlete.  But the personal tragedy often comes across as something
\nthat mere mortals cannot understand, the sacrifices extreme, the penury
\nof their lives almost Russian in its tragic pathos.<\/p>\n

And it’s just disgusting.<\/p>\n

Case in point: gymnist Mohini Bhardwaj had a profile on Sunday
\nnight, and the piece talked about the obstacles she has had to
\novercome.  Made a comeback two years ago at 23, dislocated elbow
\ninjury just recently, and the whole litany of the normal we hear. 
\nBut then we get a decent amount of the piece, listening to Bhardwaj and
\nthe people around her complain about the low-status, badly paying jobs
\nshe has to work.  She has to deliver pizza to make money, she had
\nto live on PowerBars for a week because she couldn’t buy food, she just
\nnever seems to have enough money to live on.  He coach thinks that
\nit’s wrong that a Olympic athlete has to live like this to pursue their
\ndream.  Bhardwaj comes across rather haughtily, saying that she’s
\nsure she could get a “real job,” but she guesses she’ll just have to
\nkeep delivering pizzas if she wants to be an Olympic athlete.<\/p>\n

What about the people who have to work these jobs because it’s all
\nthey can do?  What about people who don’t have health insurance
\nbut who also have kids to take care of?  What about people who
\ndon’t have the option to go get a “real job”?  Besides, if money
\nseems that important to you, then give up the Olympics and get one of
\nthose “real jobs.”  You’ve made choices to pursue your dreams and
\nthe glory of the Olympics, and that may or may not include money or
\nease. But don’t go to the Olympics and speak in such a way as make it
\nseem like you’re dealing with real adversity (when it seems that all
\nthe adversity you face is aging and a low-paying pizza delivery job).<\/p>\n

You have your health and a working, able body.  You have to
\nability to take care of yourself.  You have a support structure of
\nsome sort around you (coaches and trainers, at the least).  You
\nhave the potential after the Olympics to use your status as an Olympian
\nto provide for yourself.<\/p>\n

Let me be clear.  Bhardwaj certainly is not the only Olympian
\nwho comes across in such a way in these pieces, but she seemed an
\nespecially egregious version of the type.<\/p>\n

After the piece, we learned that Bhardwaj got $20,000 from Pamela Anderson.  <\/p>\n

Hmm.  A serving of adversity, anyone?  Sounds lucrative to me….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BF and I have been watching the Olympics for the last couple of days.  If you’ve been watching during this Olympics or any in the past, you have seen at least some of these “athlete profiles” that they do each time.  The trope is pretty much the same: lots of talent, good but not great […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rmaunsdionmg"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5G3PH-oz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1523\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/natep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}