Last summer millions of people sat down to their Tv's to watch the great event that comes every 4 years. Glory, defeat, determination, inspiration, sweat, and physique consume the television and captivate its audience. The Summer Olympics and its athletes represent that battling of nations in sports to overcome their oppnents and achieve "success" for the entire nation. The common trend of our society is to glorify our gold medalist and transform them into huge celebrities through media and advertisements. But is our country guilty of romanticizing olympic athletes? Yes of course these special individual have in some cases given their whole lives to their activity and grown to rank in superiority but does their talent suffice to name them "unhumanly" or "supernaturally talented". One particular case that led me to investigate the way our country romanticizes Olympic athletes was the controversy over Micheal Phelps (who won 8 OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALS last summer) and his candid shots of smoking marijuana.
This summer Micheal Phelps made history and won more Olympic medals then former champion Spitz. This led many newspapers to magnify his achievements. During the summer games various newspaper described Phelps with phrases such as “I think [his achievements] are probably one of the greatest things sport in general has ever seen," and "Phelps’s Epic Journey Ends in Perfection. Three- time winning medalist, Grant Hackett described Phelps' achievements as, “setting the bar a bit high and [resultinly] leading people to [follow him]." So did Phelps really accomplish an "epic journey" and "give people a fight and win success through personal determination? The majority of our country would agree that Phelps brought massive exposure to the sport of swimming in the past years and he certaintly has achieved a great historical feat but do these qualities make him out to be a super icon in our news media and society?
The fans of Micheal Phelps led themselves down the wrong path because by hoisting Phelps up as a epic champion he automatically stood as a role model for our nation. Also by describing him sentimentaly, Phelps persona grew to be greater than he actual was. People forgot he was a young man who was simply particularly talented at swimming.
By romanticizing Phelps, his fans actually have now hurt him because as far up as they hoisted him up as a great icon he is now falling so much further down with his exposure with smoking marijuana. Interviews with Phelps during the summer games led me to question what is going through his brain at his moment of shatter? He quotes, “I don’t want this sport to be an every-four-years sport,” said Phelps, who plans to compete through the 2012 Olympics in London. “In between the four years, there’s really not as much exposure as I’d like.” Is being caught smoking bong Phelps definition of positive exposure for his sport? I would highly hope not, but now 8 time Olympic Gold Medalist has done the country a favor and helped surface the guilty romanticizing our countries has committed against the persona of Micheal Phelps.
3 comments:
I definitely agree that professional athletes are highly romanticized in our society today. So many people, including myself, have dreamed ever since they were little of becoming a professional athlete or going to the Olymics. Ask any girl playing Park District soccer and she will probably tell you she wants to be like Mia Hamm when she grows up. Boys on the little league baseball team cannot wait until they grow up so they can be drafted on to the Cubs. Professional athletes are paid far more than the average hard-working white collar man. Our society holds these athletes in such high regards that often once these athletes have attained the highest achievements in their sport, there is only room left for our expectations of them to be diminished, as in the case of Phelps.
Nice post!
I agree with you and Rachael in that when Phelps, or anyone else, achieves their full potential, the country that had always romanticized them can only be left with disappointment. There are no more records for Phelps to break in the 2012 Olympics so I have to wonder whether the country will still romanticize him at that event. I remember watching the Olympics and wondering the reasoning behind NBC giving Phelps the vast majority of the air time. There were other Americans who had worked just as hard as Phelps who received almost no publicity due to the large amount of air time Phelps received. By overly romanticizing Phelps this past summer, the country set itself up for a far greater disappointment when the country saw that the "superhero of the summer" is a flawed human being.
Thanks for commenting guys!! Both of your comments have expanded my argument so much and it's so true that it was questionable how NBC favored its air time for Phelps. Since the whole nation was romanticizing Phelps NBC was fueling their romanticizing and airing the only person the majority wanted to see. These are all the twisted consequences of romanticizing and blurring the truth and magnitude or events and people.
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