Teammates

This morning I watched the Women's Cross Country Skiing Team Sprint Competition, while making breakfasts and lunches for several small people.  I was admittedly a little distarcted and the coverage was a little disjointed, because of commercials.  From what I gathered, the team competition consists of two skiers for each country.  They ski like a relay, but each team member must ski 3 legs.  So, if you go first, you ski for about 3 minutes, then you get a 3 minute break while your teammate skis, then you ski again, another break, then a third time out on the course.  Chad Salmela called this organized torture.  I think he's right.

In the opening leg, Sophie Caldwell, who recently had the best finish ever for a US Cross Country Skier in the Olympics (6th in the Individual Sprint Finals) was in 4th place.  In the second leg, Kikkan Randall, who almost fell over at the end of the semifinals because she was so tired, fell to 6th.  I immediately assumed that Caldwell was skiing well enough to compete for a medal and Randall was keeping her down.  I saw the splits on the NBC Olympics website and I was completely wrong.  They both skied about the same.  Their 8th place finish was a team effort.

Of course, it was a team effort no matter what.  That is the point of a team competition.

I spent the majority of my teenage years competing in individual sports.  I played baseball until about 4th grade, basketball until 6th grade and soccer through 8th grade.  I swam through college and ran track and cross country in high school.  Swimming is an individual sport.  Running is an individual sport.  People create teams and point structures for team competitions, but in their true natures, these are individual sports.  The points awarded for a team score are based on the individuals' performances.

I have argued with people on this issue.  In swimming there is no argument.  You swim, by yourself, in a lane, separated by lane ropes that are designed to catch waves.  There is no helping your teammate during a race.  In running, in theory, you can have people run together and create drafts.  I never did this, but I can envision a situation where there is a team benefit.  In that sense, there is more of an argument, but I am going to stand by my conclusion, this is an individual sport.

However, I believe most people in an individual sport crave a team.  Examples of this can be found everywhere.  When David Wise won the Ski Halfpipe competition, his "teammates" on the US Team swarmed him.  Same thing happened to Noriaki Kasai when he landed the jump that guaranteed him a silver medal in the Individual Large Hill Ski Jumping Competition.  Three Japanese guys, with jumping suits half off, all ran out to jump up and down with Kasai.  None of them were winning a medal, but you wouldn't have known that from the celebration.

Missy Franklin is the best female swimmer in the world.  After the 2012 Olympics, when she was a rising senior in high school, she could have foregone college wimming and signed endorsement deals worth at least one million dollars, and possibly much more.  She declined because she wanted one more year of HIGH SCHOOL competition.  She chose to swim in college (a decision passed on by Michael Phelps many years earlier) in large part because she wanted to be part of a team.  In an article I read at the time, Missy said she wanted to go to college to meet her future bridesmaids.  If she gets hurt, or somehow just loses her edge, she will have lost millions of dollars over a 4-8 year period.  Even if she goes to Brazil and outperforms her 5 medal (4 gold) performance from London (which she will be favored to do), she will have passed up 2-4 years of making up to $2 million per year.  That is what a team was worth to her.

Coming back to these Games, watch the relays.  The Swedish Women were climbing all over each other upon winning the 4x5K Cross Country Relay.  The Norwegian Women did a photo-op jumping celebration after winning today.  The Russian Men's Team stood at the finish line, arms open, waiting to greet their anchor leg, coming in for the silver medal.  The French, having won the bronze, celebrated just like the Swedish women, climbing on top of each other in a mountain of celebration.

I swam competitively for 17 years.  My greatest memory was a relay.  I can still remember just about everything from that relay, which happened almost exactly 25 years ago.  There is something different about competing for a group, rather than for yourself.  In that relay, all four of us swam over our heads.  We swam over our heads because we were swimming for something other than ourselves, we were swimming for each other.  Jason Lezak won one individual bronze medal in 4 Olympics.  However, in 2008, he swam the fastest relay split ever and made up a body length deficit on the world record holder as the anchor leg of the 4x100 freestyle relay.  There is no way he ever does that for himself.  He did it for Michael Phelps and for history.

We are social creatures.  We crave interaction.  We crave touch.  We may reach our potential when we compete for ourselves.  We reach more when we do it for others.

Reflections on What Has Happened (Focus for this will be on US sports and medals, but we will touch on other stuff as time permits)

1. Television coverage is becoming a little too personal.  I didn't need to see Bode Miller crying.  I didn't need to hear a ski halfpipe competitor screaming in pain when he tore up his knee.  I didn't need to hear several snowboard cross competitors screaming when they crashed.

2.  Nice bobsled positioning for the US heading into the final 2 runs (over for now but on Prime Time tonight.)

3.  I enjoy the objective competitions more than the subjective.  Cross country skiing, bobsled, biathlon, things like that.  I need to do a Real Sports blog for the Winter.

4.  Why are the Dutch so good at speed skating?  Why do we suck this year?  Have I already asked these questions?

5.  I am glad I am not in Russia today after the loss to Finland.  Many a drunk Russian I am sure.


Predictions Recap

1. US gets bronze in Men's hockey, gold in Women's. - Pending, but looks like I may have undersold us.

2. Ashley Wagner shocks the world with a bronze. - Pending and tomorrow will decide. (She won't do it, though; Gracie will.)

3. Mikaela Shiffrin becomes the darling of these games. - Really, really. really close to wrong.

4. US beats Russia in both total medals and golds. - Pending, and very close.

5. I will watch more biathlon than anyone else in America. - Still pending, but so far, so good. Who was that woman on the telecast this morning? Did Chad get Bob's infection?.

6. Putin will be on TV more during these Olympics than Kate Middleton was in 2012. And that's a bad thing, because Kate is much more fun to look at, for everyone except my Baltic States Insider. - So far, so good.

7. Yulia Lipnistkaya gets confused for a lost child and almost misses the Women's Short Program. Pending. I will check on this tonight.

8. US Men get 1 medal in Nordic Combined. let's say silver for Taylor Fletcher.  WRONG!!!

9. US Women's Short Track Relay breaks the drought with a bronze.  WRONG!!!

10. 1-2-3 finish for Holland in Men's 10,000.  Correct

11.  The Heartbreaker continues her run with a victory over Canada in Curling semis.  WRONG!!!  The Heartreaker broke my heart with a loss.

12.   Norway gets silver in Men's Cross Country Team Sprint.  WRONG!!!  4th

Predictions

1.  Yuna Kim gold in figure skating.  Lipnitskaya Silver.  Gracie Bronze.

2.  Bronze for US in Nordic Combined Team event.


What to Watch For

1. Women's Figure Skating.  I doubt NBC will show anything else.

Random Fact of the Day

According to an article in the Washington Post, our long, cold snowy winter is not yet over.