If you only watch one event during these Winter Olympics, make it this one
In this column, we offer hot (and cold) takes on popular culture, deciding whether a topic is overrated or not.
Mali Cornish
I was never a sporty kid. At school, when teachers decided to spontaneously organize football sessions instead of boring academic stuff (LOL! 90s teaching!), I was mortified at the prospect of leaving the classroom for the inevitable humiliation of the oval.
Because I was so terrible at any form of physical activity, I also developed an innate distrust of deliberate and coordinated movements, making me skeptical of big cultural sporting moments (the Grand Final, the Boxing Day Test match, the Australian Open).
In fourth grade, I wrote about ballet for an assignment about the Olympics… ballet is neither an Olympic event nor a sport (this was stated to me in the feedback). That same year, the Lillehammer Winter Olympics were being held and my class teacher brought his skis to show us all. This was an interesting choice in a working-class city during the post-recession recovery of the 90s, but I assume it had some educational value.
It was also as middle-class flexible as the kid who brought a photo album of their holiday home to show and tell. Anyway, I vividly remember skis and boots being passed from hand to hand with great reverence and knowing that skiing was a ridiculous proposition and would never be a part of my life. So far.
You see, although I’ve pretty successfully avoided the Winter Olympics since 1994, I haven’t avoided having children either. And as much as head lice outbreaks at the start of the year and Kris Kringle disappointment at the end, the Winter Olympics – like its more popular summer sibling – are a reliable part of the curriculum.
As a parent who felt compelled to chat with her children, this time I tried to qualify for the Winter Olympics and thus discovered the beauty of cross-country skiing.
This underrated event has legitimate athletic skills, non-troubled countries winning, and takes time. I’m writing today to say that this deserves your attention.
Okay, like I said before, I have no real sense of athleticism. I was fainting from the heat, I liked having a steady resting heart rate throughout the day, and I was trying to partially abort my first labor because I was tired and wanted to go home.
But I got cold and walked a long way (once, in 2013) and as I mentioned before, I saw skis in real life. So when I first checked into this case, I came across the striking, if painfully obvious, statement that the combination of these three elements would be extremely difficult.
But more importantly, the skiers pushing through the snow with exaggerated icy poles somehow didn’t make it look simple. She is inelegant, she is treacherous, and the sheer willpower required for the circumstances is obvious.
Coupled with my newfound pleasure in watching people do something difficult, it becomes clear how seamless cross-country skiing events are. Do you know that there are always doping scandals in athletics, cycling and weightlifting? Or how penis enlargement claims were making the rounds at this year’s ski jumping event? Or how the specter of global politics hangs over momentous events that remind us that this friendly rivalry will pass and countries will soon return to occupying and bullying each other.
Cross-country skiing is all Nordic countries without doping scandals, without a history of modern expansionism and without (relative) moral authority! As woke and progressive as inner-city voters are (and I also think it’s probably as expensive a commitment as living in a city).
While track and field and cheering on the good guys are enough of a draw, the biggest reason I’ve turned into a cross-country skiing fan is that it lasts for a decent amount of time. The 50km event is not a sprint (the sports equivalent of TikTok), but a feature-length attraction.
There is the joy of the mass start, then the building of the peloton, the formation of the breakaway group and the inevitable sprint to the finish. The drama of each laborious stage is given time to marinate without becoming protracted or stale.
So while we should all have a general skepticism about the Winter Olympics, home of (alleged) corruption, (open) chauvinism and (cynical) marketing, and a healthy skepticism towards skis, I invite you to make room in your heart for this event. It is so refreshing, so wholesome to witness such determination in action, in the fight against distance, fatigue, dangerous conditions, and equipment seemingly designed against the participant.
How nice it is to see relatively sensible nations achieve things beyond furniture domination and moral authority and, most importantly, have the time to enjoy it.
Get a weekly opinion pack that will challenge, defend and inform your own views. Sign up for our opinion newsletter.
To read more SpectrumVisit our page here.
