That gold medal for Team USA in hockey, both for the men and the women, redeemed for me what was otherwise a boring, selfish and awful Olympics. The reason? The wokesters feeling the need to unburden themselves of their political thoughts and opinions, at the prodding of the left-wing press, and whine about the country were just more than I cared to subject myself to. I couldn’t bring myself to care about anyone under the Stars and Stripes if they were more interested in wiping themselves with the flag than they were proud to be competing under it.
These Olympics started off horribly, with spoiled skiers and figure skaters taking their moment in the sun to claim victimhood status and whine about things happening in the country. I blame the media for asking these people for their opinions on things knowing they didn’t spend a lot of time in school and aren’t deep thinkers about anything beyond their sport.
I don’t blame them – to be a world class athlete you not only must sacrifice play time for practice time, you also have to sacrifice a lot of education time and real world experience time. You’re unlikely to be hanging out with your friends on a Friday night or going to a school dance; their first job was probably an endorsement deal, not working the fryer at McDonald’s.
Like I said, I don’t blame them. If someone were to offer me millions of dollars to do something I loved as a kid, at the cost of things I didn’t know I would be missing, I would have taken them up on that deal too. But I wouldn’t then talk about things I knew nothing of, if I were smart enough to know what I didn’t know, that is.
Unfortunately, too many “big name” Olympic athletes do not know what they don’t know, and are never within a great tee shot of anyone who’d dare tell them of their ignorance on any issue. They won’t get the truth from anyone on staff or else they wouldn’t be on staff very long, unfortunately.
These people who are special in their field, are told they’re special in every aspect of life because the money and attention their field affords them spills over onto coaches, “friends” and even family. No one dependent upon someone else will ever so much as correct that person, for fear of being shut out.
That’s the difference between individual sports and team sports. The skaters and skiers, while technically on a “team,” are not dependent upon those teammates to win their competitions, they are competitors with them. In hockey, however, you are completely dependent upon everyone on the team to pull their weight, or more than their weight, and step up. They do that not by waiting for an opportunity to present itself, but by creating an opportunity.
On paper, the Canadian team is better than the American team. Their first line had three of the top for points leaders in the league this year on it, one of this is already an all-time great and the 19-year-old looks well on his way to becoming one. But winning doesn’t happen on paper, it happens on the ice, and team USA was the better team when it mattered most: at the end of the game.
They weren’t that great in the third period, but their goalie was – he stepped up when it was needed, which is how teamwork works. Jack Hughes made the perfect shot and won his team the gold. There was no bragging before, there was no whining about the country before, there was just pride for the USA throughout.
Very different from figure skating, where Amber Glenn, who failed in her individual competition, spent most of her time talking about her “community,” meaning her “queerness,” whatever the hell that means. I know what the L is for, the G, and the B, the rest is made up by narcissists who haven’t heard the word “NO!” from anyone who can make it stick for far too long; an indulged adult-child insulated from reality.
She wasn’t skating for “queer” people, she was skating for the United States. If she wanted to do something other than that, she shouldn’t have gone. Of course, she choked, so…
Compare Amber’s “pride” with the actual pride of Jack Hughes in representing the United States and you see the redemption these Olympics desperately needed.
Would it have been better if the FBI Director weren’t there making an ass out of himself, crashing the locker room for an event he had literally nothing to do with, when lifelong friends and family of players didn’t even do that? Of course, it would have been, but that is what it was.
It all would have been better had every athlete conducted themselves like members of the hockey team: with a level of class and concern for the fact that they were representing the country, not their slice of it based on their genitals or what they do with them.
But we don’t live in that world right now. The pendulum will likely swing back soon, especially if the disgust with these charlatans manifests itself in sponsors losing money and ratings for their various television events dropping – money has an interesting impact on people, especially those to claim to be above such things.
Until then, bask in the victory of the hockey team. While not quite a “miracle on ice” redux, the result was a miracle in another way: it redeemed the entire Olympics almost ruined by selfish leftists. While not quite as big as a bunch of college students defeating the Soviet Union, that’s still pretty damn good.
Derek Hunter is the host of the Derek Hunter Show on WMAL in Washington, DC, and has a free daily podcast (subscribe!) and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses, and host of the weekly “Week in F*cking Review” podcast where the news is spoken about the way it deserves to be. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter.