The most annoying thing about NBC’s coverage of the PyeongChang Winter Olympics is the hype machine. I’m perfectly capable of enjoying a number of Olympic events without needing to know the backstory of every American Olympian, nor do I need to know that “so-and-so American is the big medal contender.” It adds pressure to the American athletes and very few of them can live up to those expectations. As I get older, I feel sorrier for the younger Olympians who choke under the outside pressure of the hype machine too. All of that is to say that American athletes aren’t doing that great in PyeongChang. There have been some good stories, but for every Chloe Kim, there are like a half-dozen Americans who were called “the next big thing” or “the biggest medal contender” who gave it their all and still came up short.
Lindsey Vonn is one of those Olympians. She came to South Korea with the hope of adding more skiing medals to her collection: she won a gold and a bronze in the Vancouver Olympics, and she’s one of the wealthiest Olympians because of her big endorsements. She skied on Friday and didn’t medal – she had a good enough performance and came in fifth, which is totally respectable, but it was another case of the hype machine creating crushing expectations which few athletes could live up to. Many people felt sorry for her. But some people took her failure to medal as an excuse to criticize her for her public statements about Donald Trump.
Last December, Vonn told CNN that she had no interest in going to the Trump White House if she was invited, and that as an Olympian, “I hope to represent the people of the United States, not the president.” She later clarified – but did not take back – her comments, noting: “I am proud to be an American, and I want our country to continue to be a symbol of hope, compassion, inclusion and world unity. My travels around the world have recently made clear that this is no longer how people view the United States.” She was very clear and she didn’t back down. Which is why the Deplorables invaded her Twitter responses on this tweet:
Frustrating to be so close to the podium and to have made such a big mistake…but that’s ski racing. I’m proud of the way I skied and how I attacked the course. I gave it my all and came up short. That’s life. Now it’s on to the Downhill! 💪🏻
— lindsey vonn (@lindseyvonn) February 17, 2018
The very first comment is “Your president was watching. You let him down. Karma.” I would have loved it if Vonn had simply tweeted back “#NotMyPresident” but she didn’t. ESPN reporter Julie Foudy tweeted this on Friday:
I just spent last 20 min's reading thru tweets directed at @lindseyvonn. Sickened & disgusted once again by the lack of humanity that engulfs our country. She just raced her damn heart out & Trump supporters gloat/cheer/celebrate her inability to medal. Is this what we've become?
— Julie Foudy (@JulieFoudy) February 17, 2018
Which cued a lot of Deplorable Snowflakes to whine that Lindsey started it because she dared say something political. To be clear, the Deplorables would have made Lindsey Vonn their new Aryan princess if she had worn a MAGA hat and said one nice thing about Trump. They don’t give a sh-t about “athletes talking about politics” as long as the athletes have deplorable thoughts. Vonn retweeted Foudy’s tweet and wrote this:
It’s ok Julie. Not everyone has to like me but my family loves me and I sleep well at night. I work hard and try to be the best person I can be. If they don’t like me 🤷🏼♀️ their loss I guess… Thank you for the support🙏🏻❤️ https://t.co/EaySJE7QAe
— lindsey vonn (@lindseyvonn) February 17, 2018
People are terrible. I’m not even a big Lindsey Vonn fan and I feel sorry for her, dealing with all of this added sh-t on top of regular Olympic drama. Imagine how it is for all of the really young athletes, trying to navigate the regular pressures of the sport, plus the hype machine, plus the tricky politics that engulf everything these days.
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Those trolls were sitting on their asses eating Cheetos and playing on their phones while she skiid in the olympics…enough said..
Maybe. But your comment sounds a lot like when Trump said the election could have been interfered with by a 400 lbs genius in front of a computer… just sayin, if you’re gonna call out trolls, best not to invoke the ultimate troll himself…
The fact that she came in fifth among the best downhill skiiers in the world is still phenomenal.
And I like her more for taking a stand against evil, Putin-lackey baby fists. Those vicious comments speak volumes about his base and nothing about Lindsay.
Looking forward to her next event this week.
Good for Lindsey. Super G isn’t even her best event. If the deplorables really believe in Karma, they’re in for a world of hurt.
Does this happen at all from the left? I’m asking this genuinely. It just always feels like the right is in people’s comments sections. Trolling seems like an activity that deplorables specifically love to do. The issue with Leslie Jones comes to mind. Or the racist attacks against the Black band member of fifth harmony, Normani. She had to take a break from social media due to the racist abuse. It’s sickening how much time the right seems to spend on this.
“It’s sickening how much time the right seems to spend on this”
Yet when we hold women’s marches or counter-Nazi protests or march for civil rights, they cry “foul!” and scream that we are all government leeches that need to get jobs or, if we had jobs we wouldn’t have time to march. The hypocrisy is mind-numbing.
It probably does to some extent, but it lacks the malicious elements that Trump’s victory validated for many of them. To many, he represents the right of way for the wealthy, white, and powerful. They don’t feel like they need to hide anymore. It’s also compounded by the “us versus them” mentality that Trump continues fanning the flames for because he’s convinced these people that they’re the real victims of society.
Ultimately, there’s a world of difference in mocking people for being uneducated and ridiculous versus being misogynistic racists threatening to rape women for speaking.
She’s always rubbed me the wrong way but FFS the one event we could all unite around was the Olympics! Hillary hit the nail on the head when she dubbed them deplorables.
I’m sure Lindsay will be fine with her medals and her big pile of money, even if it means missing out on that big jar of liberal tears, which I am sure will be a comfort to the Trumpsters when they are bankrupt and dying of treatable disease in their early thirties.
And shouldn’t Two Scoops’ Twitter trolls be too busy “Winning!!” to spend their time messaging random skiers?
So well said!
America can’t even “play games” anymore without embarrassing itself. I hate this admin and its lovers. It has made America despicable… as far from great as it can get. She should send the Baby a pair of toddler skies.
They are a cult. I will sometimes argue with them, but really, arguing with them is like arguing with a monkey throwing $hit at you. Useless.
Trump supporters are the lowest of the low.
I think her answer was perfect. In order to keep your sanity, you cannot engage with trolls. It is a waste of time.
And I agree that there is too much pressure on the athletes nowadays.
I believe she came sixth, not fifth.
Unfortunately, for a lot of people you’re only as good as your last win and in this country it is a particularly virulent strain.
The present administration is only making it worse and they made sure to show their asses right from the opening ceremony.
I gave up on her when she took up with Tiger Woods. After all the ugliness of his behaviour was very, very public she chose to be with him. Ugh. Nope.
THIS.
(me too)
(cant help it)
I said the same when I was watching and she was about to go. But then they got me with the story about her grandpa, yes NBC you got me! I’m still not a huge fan but I like what she said and I cant imagine that type of pressure. They hyped her so much with missing the last two olympics and all of the injuries she’s had and she’s one of the older athletes. I cannot even fathom the amount of pressure being an Olympic athlete but being 16,17,18 and having to shoulder that in the age of social media?! I feel really bad for them.
Trolls are awful. She probably would have done better had they been able to do practice runs on the course.
And these deplorables have won how many medals? Can they even ski? Did they make it to their doctor’s appointment, the one telling them there’s more to life than a couch and a keyboard? People suck.
The truth is that Olympians, and especially ones who consistently compete at a high level / have the most chances at a medal, are subject to all kinds of political pressure. American Olympic athletes are basically the pawns of politicians from their sport’s governing bodies (example: US Gymnastics) and the United States Olympic Committee. Athletes are celebrated for two weeks out of every four years and make the media a lot of money, while during the rest of the quadrennial between Olympics, most are struggling to live and continue training and competing at the same time. Then the governing body and the USOC take credit for the athlete’s victory while in fact having helped little, not at all, or even negatively by putting unreasonable pressures on the athlete.
It is extremely hard to win a medal. Americans don’t understand that the governments of most other countries funnel massive amounts of resources into their elite athlete and youth development programs from the ground up, because they feel medals are important to their country for a variety of different reasons. The US does not help develop, or show much interest in athletes who wish to develop themselves in some of the “weirder” Olympic sports or who are outside of the US private university system. This is why we see only swimming, track and field, better organized sports like skiing (and university sports where the US normally wins), on television. Most US athletes are self funded, and oftentimes it’s the athletes with better private resources who will win an Olympic spot.
It’s wonderful that Lindsay could keep competing throughout multiple Olympic quads, and after injury still place very well. I certainly don’t blame her for not feeling any loyalty to the government, which has done nothing to help her, and will simply use her for a photo op at the White House.
I am a fan of hers. That one photo of her celebrating her win in Vancouver 2010 was an image of empowerment for me. Bonus that she tells the truth about Trump.
You can say whatever you want about Vonn but she is perhaps the best woman alpine skier of all time. Check out the list of women alpine world cup winners and no one is even close. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_FIS_Alpine_Ski_World_Cup_women%27s_race_winners
Judging someone only by the olympics is pathetic, is that really your best shot?
She’s a victim and a beneficiary of her own hype. Lindsay knows how to play the game as well as anyone . Her talent cannot be disputed….however; in the USA 🇺🇸 We tend to hold that experation stamp over the heads of our heros. Sad!!
I haven’t been following the olympics really but I saw a really sad segment on Real Sports about how the vast majority of American athletes are just barely supported financially by the Olympic Commitee. In comparison to other countries support of their athletes it’s really awful. There are world class American athletes out there working day jobs as plumbers and mechanics to pay their bills and still going into crazy debt to support their training. Maybe the US isn’t doing so well because the Olympic committee has really failed to support them. All the hours they could have spent training are being spent working other jobs to pay their bills. Obviously this wouldn’t apply to Lindsay Vonn since she no doubt makes millions in endorsements but I think it still may be worth noting.