Skating on Thin Ice
The Olympic Games have been around for hundreds of years. They are something that people everywhere around the world look forward to all year long. Athlete or not, everyone knows what the Olympics are. With the extreme popularity comes extreme broadcasting. Millions of people turned on their televisions and radios, read newspapers and magazines, and searched the web to hear the results and news about the games this winter. Broadcasting feeds people. They crave to hear the latest scandal, see footage of the most recent event, and be informed of what is going on in the world that they live in. This year the figure skating competition drew a particularly enormous audience. Because a scandal was involved, figure skating received special attention, which left the sport with a new reputation. Media is a powerful thing; this was proven this year during the winter Olympic games.
A lot was heard, and learned, about figure skating during the past month of Olympic coverage. This year, a problem with judging and secret deals caused two gold medals to be given out; one to the Russians and one to the Canadians. What happened off the ice seemed juicier than the actual competition, according to many sources of media. What is interesting, is that controversy is not uncommon to the sport of figure skating. A Newsweek article, “The Sleazy Side of Skating,” gives many examples of past figure skating scandals. In 1908, at the London Olympics, Russian Nicolai Panin withdrew from competition, saying the judges were stacked against him. At the 1936 Games, a Hungarian judge placed the Hungarian skaters second and third, which stood out when no other judge had placed them higher than seventh. In 1927 at the World Championships in Oslo, a Norwegian skater placed first, thanks to three Norwegian judges. That led the International Skating Union to restrict each country to one judge. Although these are significant examples of figure skating trickery, they were not really important until now. Journalists are researching the history of figure skating, and making known scandals that had occurred in the past. In 1993, Tonya Harding’s husband paid $6,500 to have Nancy Kerrigan injured so his wife could have an advantage. The Harding-Kerrigan scandal was this country’s first real taste of the drama that goes on with figure skating. Because a scandal involving money and crime took place, it was shown all over television, and talked about on the radio.
The most memorable moment in hockey history came thirty-four years ago with the 1980 Miracle on Ice. The Americans defeating the dominant Soviet team at the Olympics was not only an important triumph for USA Hockey, but for the entire nation. Contrary to popular belief, the underdog win was not only the result of a miracle; it was also the result of a hard-working team led by Coach Herb Brooks. With increasingly negative views on the position of the United States in the Cold War, the Miracle on Ice and the gold medal win lifted the spirits of the nation and brought hockey into the American spotlight.
From 1892 to 2002 women had proven to be very powerful whether it be something as little as gaining the rights to a divorce or something as big as the rights to vote and the same opportunities in vocation, women have shown that they are willing to do whatever it takes to gain equal rights and have prospered as a result (Doc #2, #8). An anonymous photographer (Doc #2) captures an image of one of the 2% of women athletes in the 1908 Olympic games held in Great Britain, Sybil Newall. The photographer shows that a factor that stopped the Olympics was the allowance of new rights for women and new opportunities for them to rise socially and participate in the modern Olympic games. The photographer shows this because during this time period in Western Europe women gained the ability to represent their country or nation at a new level, similar to what happened with woman’s suffrage. Hassiba Boulmerka (Doc #8) an Algerian competitor in the 1992 Olympics held in Spain believes that her victories give her confidence and she represents women aspiring to be athletes and to achieve it they need to b...
One is able to witness the biased attitude directed toward the individual who attempts to participate in a sport that is non-traditional to his/her gender. Figure skating, for example, has been dominated for many years by women. Often if a person refers to figure skating, it is natural to automatically think of a female athlete because of the many more women who have participated in the sport than men. However, if a man chooses to figure skate he is generally referred to, by others, as a homosexual. Most likely this accusation of being gay has developed because figure skating is viewed as a popular wome...
Politics have obscured the true meaning of the Olympic Games. Sadly, the intervention of politicians has caused the destruction of the Olympics' golden halo. The purity of the Olympics has, since their resurrection in 1896, been politically led. Scandal, corruption, boycotts, and political disputes have smeared the Olympic innocence.
Pyeongchang organizers consider securing the participation of NHL players to be of critical importance, as ice hockey is one of the most popular sports at the Winter Games. The International Olympic Committee 's (IOC) negotiations with the NHL over having the league 's
A very popular and large sporting event that receives an extremely high volume of national media coverage is the Olympic Games. For a number of years, major stations like NBC has provided audiences with an around the clock coverage of the Games. Many other major medias similar to NBC have also done the same by devoted sections solely to the Olympic Games. The Olympics is a time where citizens come together to root for their home country, strengthening their sense of nationalism and pride and cheering for their home athletes to come out victoriously and the country as a powerhouse of the world. Organically, the games give off a sense of war like mentality because countries are competing against each other for the prize, the gold metal. As a competitive college athlete, I can relate to the feeling of pride and nationalism one get before and especially after competing and beating an opponent.
Modern Day Olympics are a huge tradition that sweeps the screens of televisions across the world. Competitors take the arena with uniforms that dawn their countries colors and designs that are meant to resemble their designated flag. For months the news is centered around the games; the preparation, the athletes, and of course the competition. Countries aren 't obsessed, they are inspired and full of pride seeing athletes from their country compete and show their incredible skill. This tradition dates back to ancient Greece where the games began. Tony Perrottet writes about the traditions of the ancient game in his book The Naked Olympics.
Sports is real life drama that can’t be scripted, from underdog stories to the fall of dynasties none of the events that occur in sports can be scripted. Sports media cover all these dramas and puts out their opinion about the subject, which usually has a bias towards big markets. The bias of sports media may be predictable, but not every viewer is informed so their opinion about the matter can easily sway the viewer. Sports media isn’t always bad because they do capture the special moments in sports and they bring awareness to social issues to the public. Sports media can single handedly make or break a player’s, coach’s, or team’s image by either covering the good or the bad story and it will affect the opinion of the national audience.
As part of my research, I took the liberty of interviewing a woman whom I have grown dearly close. I first met Ann when I was a little girl near the age of four just after I had discovered my love of ice skating. This love grew and eventually become somewhat of an obsession of mine; I looked up to Ann who was a Senior rated figure skating coach. I did not dream of going to the Olympics, rather I dreamt of becoming a coach like Ann.
Media plays a large role in affecting peoples thinking, opinions, ideas, etc. In essence media can shape our thinking into negative views and perspectives that are typically not true. Sometimes the media plays as a puppet master to society. Specifically, the inequity of the gender roles within sports causes for a stir in commotion that calls for some attention. In doing so the inadequate misuse of media towards women in sports causes low exposure, amongst many other things. On the other hand their male counterparts are on the other end of the success spectrum. Because of this noticeable difference, it is vital that action is taken place to level out equality within sports. Due to the power of media, it is believed that a change in media coverage
The Olympic Games are the leading worldwide sport event that held every 4 years, featuring thousands of international athletes from more than 200 nations participating in a variety of sports competitions. Although the Games are about winning the sports competitions, they also provide a platform for the nations throughout the world to learn different cultures and share uniqueness. The Games are important, and have to be held because they transmit a message of friendship and peaceful between nations.
...age of female sports. News and the press coverage and broadcast of male’s sports substantially more than females. This is an issue because women in sports work and dedicate themselves equally as much, but receive less than 10% of coverage. Granted, women make up only 2/5 of athletes, but the coverage is far more uneven than the number of athletes. Women’s sports receive the shorter broadcast on television, magazines, and newspapers. Secondly, when female athletes do receive coverage, there is more focus on the appearance of the athletes rather than their dedication to, or skill in, the sport. Athletes not considered attractive by the majority population are ignored and forgotten by the media. The media should be more even in their coverage between male and female athlete’s, and cover women based on skill and effort, as opposed to their level of attractiveness.
There are a lot of massive spectacles like the Super Bowl, the World Series, the NBA play-offs, the Olympic Games, College Football Games. Each of these sports activities takes in many millions of dollars from television revenues and dominates national sports news for days or weeks.
They affect politics, money, and businesses. It is often said that sport and politics are two aspects of our society that have nothing in common. Yet the history of the Olympic movement has provided several examples of how they influence one another, directly and indirectly. An example of sports affecting political directly is after years of boycotting, the Olympics in Barcelona brought together athletes form around the world. This problem was about Nelson Mandela and the racial discrimination. The most recent incident is the Russians getting banned from the 2018 Winter Olympics. The Russian government was helping the teams cheat by providing performance enhancing drugs, then the government covering it up from them. The Olympic Committee found out and ejected them form the upcoming
Sports are apart of human society, for centuries it has been difficult to conceive of any human civilization consisting entirely of work, education, relationships, and entertainment alone. The media plays a major role in the way society views sports today. As time has evolved sports have become apart of the American culture. The does not only influence the sport at hand but it also affects the way that societies sees the athletes. Most believe that since athletes are paid outrageous amounts of money they are considered to be role models to younger generations. The way that the athlete lives his or her life heavily influences the way the media will portray them.