Bryant Gumbel Not Interested in White Athletes

Here's an interesting piece from Newsbusters. Apparently dyspeptic sports critic Bryant Gumbel is not interested in the Winter Olympics. That's okay, because I'm not particularly interested in them either. But my disinterest doesn't have anything to do with the race of the athletes, unlike Gumbel who had this to say during his HBO show:

"Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them ... Because they’re so trying ... Like, try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world’s greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention. Try not to point out that something’s not really a sport if a pseudo-athlete waits in what’s called a kiss-and-cry area, while some panel of subjective judges decides who won ... So if only to hasten the arrival of the day they’re done, when we can move on to March Madness — for God’s sake, let the games begin."

In other words, let's get back to basketball where all the black kids are.

Are there a lot of good black hockey player, skiers, or bobsled riders that the world has missed? The fact that black athletes are not drawn to winter sports should not disqualify or diminish the games, despite Gumbel's racial preferences.

I will admit that I've had real trouble getting interested in these games because the results are available online hours before the telecast. Watching the TV crew try to build suspense when you already know how an even will turn out is a less than satisfying experience. I did try to watch a little the other night, but the sequence I watched may have turned me off to the rest of the games.

I flipped on the Olympics just in time to see one of those heartfelt athlete profiles that NBC feels compelled to show us, and this one featured one of our star 'male' figure skaters. It was hard to tell whether I was watching the Olympics or La Cage Aux Folles. This kid was talking about how he didn't think he was a diva, and his dress and mannerism were so miserably effeminate I almost turned it off. It doesn't surprise me that a male figure skater might have some gender identity issues, but this guy was way over the top. What a flamer.

Following the profile it was his turn to skate. He did a nice job, but when the analyst stated that "he had the perfect body for figure skating", I could help but yell out "yes, BECAUSE HE'S A GIRL!". That was all I could take, and it was back to the TiVO for me.

I think I'll do my Olympics watching by just checking the results on the net.