Diversity at the Winter Olympics

HBO Real Sports host Bryant Gumbel had this to say in an episode on Feb. 7:

Finally, tonight, the Winter Games. Count me among those who don’t care about them and won’t watch them... 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.

Much has been made of this quote (see here some good links) and I for one was not particularly offended by this quote. As I have said here, the fact that the Winter Olympics is little more than a series of sports for the Northern Hemisphere does not bother me one bit. These are wonderful athletes competing at the highest levels of their sport and their efforts should be applauded and if you are into those sports, admired.

In the wake of Shani Davis winning the Gold Medal in the 1000m Men's speedskating, much more has been made of these comments. I do think that Bryant Gumbel obviously has not one iota of knowledge of the modern GOP, I do think that Bryant Gumbel would barely know the difference between short track speed skating and snowboarding, and I do think that Gumbel has a right to his opinion and he has a forum for expressing it. The move to have Gumbel removed from an otherwise brilliant show is simply wrong.

I will admit, listening to the Chris Plante show on 630 WMAL this afternoon, I did question whether or not a white commentator would have been able to say something different comparing say the Summer Games to the Democratic convention and retain his job--unlikely--but I don't know.

The fact is that despite our ability to see beyond race and color simply goes to show that we as a nation are not nearly as egalitarian as we think. We proclaim our adherence to merit, but we don't really believe that. Even today, we still think of matters in racial terms. For Gumbel, the Winter Olympics are about rich white nations competing in games that most blacks do not participate in (when I have gone skiing, I did not see a lot of blacks on the slopes). For others the concept of a mertiocracy has gone the way of the dodo bird because we have so many programs to give minorities a break or a leg up.

Shani Davis's win gives a lie to Gumbel's words, not that the Winter Olympics is dominated by whites--it is and there is no arguing with the fact. Rather, Davis's win gives lie to the implicit assumption in Gumbel's argument, that the Winter Olympics is about keeping black athletes, and therefore the world's greatest athletes, out of a certain segment of sport. I simply don't buy that. When Gumbel said that the Winter Games does not include the world's greatest athletes, I wonder how Shani Davis, Chad Hendrick or any of the other medal winners in all the sports so far would react? Is not Shani Davis the world's greatest 1000m speedskater at this moment? Is not any athlete who wins at the Winter Games, the greatest athlete in that sport on that day? That is probably the only offense I take from Gumbel's comments.

Sport is about athletic excellence. Far too often we try to politicize it too much, and Gumbel is certainly guilty of that. We look to read too much into a victory like Davis' or the bobsled gold won by Vonetta Flowers in 2002. Why cannot we simply stand up and cheer Davis' or Flowers' effort as a worthy athletic accomplishments in their own right and leave it at that?

Will Davis' victory inspire other black kids to get involved in winter sports. Perhaps, only time will tell. Until then, the Winter Olympics will remain largely white, largely European games. And I am okay with that.