Why we like extreme sports
by Jen Camp, Staff Writer
March 1, 2010
Even from the start, the Winter Olympics caused a lot of controversy. Practices are necessary for athletes to have a feel for their new competitive arenas. Unfortunately, one practice run of the luge brought about the death of 21-year-old Nodar Kumaritashvili, a representative of the Republic of Georgia, when he crashed into an unpadded steel pole.
I don’t need to go into a lot of detail about what happened because everyone already knows. Anyone following the Olympics or watching the news saw the accident. You can watch it again and again on YouTube if you didn’t. What bothers me is why, when NBC showed the footage and even gave a warning before showing the graphic footage of the accident, so many people cried out saying replaying the accident was wrong.
Hold on a second, folks. Let’s think about this.
I understand that Kumaritashvili died and the accident was very traumatic for some people to watch. I also understand that it’s possible NBC shouldn’t have shown the whole video, but then again, there wasn’t really anything that bad about the video. It wasn’t gory or gross. It was footage of an accident in which someone died.
Kumaritashvili’s death happened during a practice run of an “extreme” sport where there is always that possibility that something is going to happen. Those crying out against showing this video are merely a bunch of hypocrites because when we watch some of these sports, especially extreme sports or even common ones like NASCAR and hockey, we mostly find them pretty exciting when something bad happens.
Do you think most people watch NASCAR races to see a car go round and round a racetrack at over 200 mph? I think many people watch those races for the possibility that there is going to be a car flying through the air doing multiple flips or crashing into other cars in a gigantic pile-up. As long as the driver comes out okay, we are all fine with the wreck. And there, I think, lies the true reason for the outcry. The fact is that Kumaritashvili died in the crash, and when we watch reruns of the footage, we know he is going to die.
In all sports from professional hockey to something as minor as high school softball, there is always a chance that something is going to go wrong and someone can get hurt. Are we watching because there is always the possibility of a crash to add to the excitement of the competition? Do we watch hockey for the game or for the fights that break out between men armed with sticks? Or is a hockey brawl just a bonus? Think about the skiing events. How gracefully those athletes fly down the slopes safely most of the time, but how often does the video of the one skiing accident become the top story? We watch the figure skaters glide across the ice, but wait for the fall. So if one human being dies in a luge accident by some cruel twist of fate, do we watch the video but feel compelled to protest because we don’t want to seem like heartless animals?
I think we all want to seem more humane than we really are. We want others to think that we find that sports accidents, especially ones involving death, absolutely appalling. We can’t possibly enjoy watching people crash and wreck. After all, people don’t die every day performing in a sporting event. But maybe that’s what makes these events almost thrilling when they do happen. Could it be, when truth be told, the possibility of some thrilling accident is the only reason some of us actually watch those sports? I wonder.
[comments] |
