Do it for the Team

One of the biggest differences between the Winter Olympics and Summer Olympics is the absence of teams in the Winter games.  The Winter Olympics have only two true "teams":  curling and hockey.  In the Summer Olympics, we get soccer, volleyball, basketball, field hockey, and a few others, including the aptly named Team handball.

Despite the lack of teams, the IOC has made an obvious effort to create team events.  In 2014, the Team Figure Skating event premiered to great fanfare.  This year, there is apparently a Team Alpine Skiing competition in which teams will compete head to head in a tournament format, with both men and women on the team.  Luge has a relay that features one woman, on man and one pairs team (I really want to see a bobsled relay).  Speed Skating has the Team pursuit competition that looks like a team cycling race.  Given the US record in Freestyle Skiing and Snowboarding compared to the US record in EVERY other Winter Olympic sport, you have to imagine we will figure out some team competition in those to get us a few more medals.

I LOVE the team competitions.  I was skeptical of the Team Figure Skating event in 2014 and couldn't have been more wrong.  This year, I couldn't wait for it and was excited to begin my Olympic watching before the Opening Ceremony by watching some Team Figure Skating.  I was greatly rewarded for my efforts.  OK, maybe not efforts, but I was greatly rewarded for my sitting on the couch with the blanket and the cat.

The great thing about any team competition, whether it is a team sport, a relay or a made up event that creates some way of making individuals compete as a team (like Team Figure Skating and gymnastics) is that you have added pressure and added support.  When Chris and Alexa Knierim stepped on the ice for the Team Competition, the US was pretty low.  Nathan Chen didn't knock us out of a medal (obviously) with his atypical performance, but the US had come into the Olympics expecting the Men's Short Program to be a strength in the Team Competition.  The US needed a lift and the Knierim's gave it to their team with their best performance of the Olympics.  When the pressure was greatest and an entire country relying on them, they stepped up and nailed it.  Well, except for the Tara Lipinski jinx.

Most athletes find something more when competing for a team.  The greatest example ever was Jason Lezak's anchor leg in the 400 Free Relay in 2008.  Diving into the water a half body length behind the World record holder in the 100 free, knowing he had to win to allow his teammate to make history with 8 gold medals, Lezak dropped the fastest 100 free relay split ever.  Every once in a while I watch it on YouTube because it is that good.  When one of my boys asks why we are watching it again, I tell them "because it is that good!"  The Kneirim's didn't pull off anything quite as impressive as Lezak, but they stepped up, and I would watch their program again and again, because it was that good.

Another aspect of the team is the training.  A team will push you to work harder than you thought possible and achieve things you other wouldn't.  This year, I have fallen in love with the US Women's Cross Country Skiing Team.  I watched a personal interest story about their efforts, as a team, to win the first US Olympic medal in Women's Cross Country Skiing, and only the second US medal in Cross Country Skiing.  The team is working together, pushing each other and supporting each other to achieve a team goal, winning a medal.  Never mind that only one of them would get the medal.  They all want a medal for the team, regardless of who wins it.  When Jessie Diggins missed a medal by about 4 seconds in the 10K Freestyle, her teammate Kikkan Randall seemed more upset that he failed to medal than Jessie.  I know I was more upset.  At this point I am fully invested in Jessie and the entire team's quest for that first ever medal and I die a little with every near miss.

The ultimate team is, of course, Team USA.  Is it really a team, though?  Are athletes motivated by to perform for their country in the same way as their teammates?  For all the athletes who talk about wanting to go out there and do it for the ole U S of A in various interviews, the answer is no.  Your teammates are the people you sweat and hurt with; you laugh and cry with; you bitch about your coach with.  Your teammates are the ones you go out drinking with after wins and losses.  The ole U S of A just can't get as personal.

As much as we would like to think that competing for your country is the apex of motivation, it isn't.  The cross country skiers have it right.  Work as a team, even in an individual sport.  Like the Nordic Combined team of 2010, this is how they will make history.  I believed in our Nordic Combined team in 2010.  I died a little with their failures and soared with their eventual success.  I look forward to the same with my girls on the Cross Country Skiing Team.

Reflections on What has Happened

1.  Disclaimer - I am a Suburban Sports Dad.  Due to various family obligations, a ridiculous swim workout, trying to keep up with watching the Olympics and a weekend swim meet, I have fallen behind on this blog.  I will reflect on what I remember.  It will be incomplete.

2.  It is nice of the other countries to agree to add the freestyle snowboard and skiing events so we can win some medals.

3.  As an American i am brainwashed into not liking the French.  However, I can't help but root for Martin Fourcade in Biathlon.  He is just that good.

4.  I really don't need to see training runs.

5.  I enjoy the crashes, but I could have done without seeing and hearing Emily Sweeney's crash in luge.

6.  Cross Country skiing and Biathlon under the lights will never get old.

7.  The Wife loved watching Marit Bjoergen, age 37, sprint to a gold medal in the Cross Country Relay and tie Ole Einar Bjoerndalen for most Winter Olympic medals ever, with 13.

8.  My heart breaks a little every time I hear Jessie Diggins name and am reminded of her three near misses.

9.  Where have you gone Eric Heiden?

10.  And Apolo Anton Ohno?

11.  And our hockey team?

12.  And Bill Johnson?

13.  Maame Biney and Adam Rippon are just fun.

14.  I have just about had enough of the Dutch in Speed Skating.  And the South Koreans in Short Track.  And the Canadians in just about everything.

15.  I enjoyed Shawn White's reaction to winning gold even more than his performance.

Things to Watch For:

1.  Whether or not I figure out the time difference and schedule during these Olympics, or I have to wait until Tokyo 2020 to get this under control.

2.  Women's Team Sprint in Cross Country Skiing.  I STILL BELIEVE!!

Predictions:

Due to my inability to figure out what is live, what is coming and where I am, I will skip predictions the rest of these Olympics.  They will return in 2020.