Let the Games Begin
Tomorrow in Paris, the Summer Olympics begin.
I have enjoyed the Olympics for as long as I remember. Probably because my mother before me watched them regularly before I came along, and continued that tradition.
Personally, I kind of miss having both the Summer and the Winters versions in the same year. A huge amount to look forward to ever four years back then.
Still a lot to look forward to, with one of the Olympics every two years, though. Lots of pageantry, and competition, and, pertinent to this page, stories.
There are many controversial aspects to the Olympics as a brand. Corruption, grift, displacement of poor people within host cities. Doping. The movement as a whole needs work.
But the event and the movement are huge. And the true focus, the athletes, are usually far removed from the controversy of the Games themselves. They are there to compete and in some cases win, (for better or worse) the most coveted of awards in all of sport.
It’s especially true of athletes from smaller countries, some of which send only one or two athletes.
The Olympics therefore is more like an epic saga, with many smaller, faster stories taken place under its massive umbrella. There is a broad, overarching theme, at least on the surface, but I tune in, (as I imagine most do) to enjoy the nature of a given sport, and the personalities partaking in same.
It’s especially fun for me when, like this year, there is live action to be had late into the night in my time zone, given the time difference.
The American network, NBC is, for the most part, terrible with its coverage, and has been for a generation. Too much talk, too many side-pieces and documentaries, too much shoehorned poetry and false drama. They are especially problematic given that they now charge people money to see the lesser sports on their Peacock streaming nightmare. Not at all in the spirit of the Games.
Yet their hegemony is all we have available in the States, so I like my fellow citizens must rely on them to bring us any aspect of the Olympics.
My point is that even then, to the discerning eye, there are stories to be had, and not always the ones NBC is pushing.
My goal as a writer is to make sure all of my narrative is as enjoyable as a specific aspect of it is. The late night shot put coverage that nobody in prime time ever talks about should be as enjoyable and worth consuming as drama as is the opening ceremony. I don’t want my reader to have to go digging for the good stuff.
But when I am the reader, I try to find the good hidden within the enormity of the piece. If the plot is weak as a whole, (The entire Olympic movement) I give myself a chance to enjoy the relationship between the individual characters. (The live coverage of sports I don’t get to see much except during the Games, like fencing.)
In sport as well as in fiction, find and enjoy your own drama, suspense, emotion. It may or may not be what the author, or the genre intended, but it will be worth it for you in the end.
Ty Unglebower 