The United States could only send one giant slalom snowboarder to this year’s Olympics, and Tyler Jewell won the contested spot. At times, Tyler Jewell has lived in a tent, showered at the YMCA and eaten his meals at a hospital to be able to afford following his snowboard dreams. But Tyler finished 9th in the Olympics, so you probably won’t hear anything about him.
This is the side of the Olympics that many of us forget about— the many athletes who have put their lives on hold, just to compete in the Olympics, even when they know they have very little chance of winning. Why do they do it? Is it just for personal glory? Do they do it for love of country? I don’t know, but I’d rather see a profile on Tyler Jewell than a lot of the nonsense that gets media airtime.
Amen to that. It would be nice if more and more people thought about the hard hard route it is to just be in the Olympics.
And by the way, has the media and event announcers become a little more positive, or is that my imagination. What do you think?
I think they are slightly less abrasive. Maybe they’re reading this blog
It seems to vary from sport to sport, to some extent. For example, I think Dan Jansen does a good job of being positive.
Yes, Jansen does….besides being very good looking.