Time to Grow a Spine and Stop the Whining
It seems like every Olympic cycle some story emerges about an athlete getting his or her feelings hurt because they cannot withstand the criticism for a poor performance.
I am not going to go into full details because, honestly, I do not care about these athletes going to a murderous communist country to compete for the sake of money.
Slalom favorite Mikaela Shiffrin crashed in the early stages of the slalom competition. NBC has been accused of been insensitive towards the skier because they showed her interview in which she appeared to be distraught and very emotional.
What was NBC supposed to do? Accusing the media of the shortcomings of athletes is ridiculous. The media pump these athletes at the behest of the athlete’s publicists, endorsers, and the United States Olympic Committee.
When they do not perform as expected, the world is crumbling, and the media is evil for reporting the facts. The ‘Blue Checkmark’ keyboard warriors and the Twitter fantasy metaverse loons go on their typing sprees, accusing the network of mentally abusing the athlete.
They did the same thing in the 2020 Summer Olympics when gymnast Simone Byles withdrew from events because apparently the pressure was too much to manage. The media then call it how they saw it and the public was outraged.
Athletes, welcome to the real world. A Twitter keyboard warrior went on to say, “Anyone that endures a public disappointment should be given some empathy, respect, and privacy, it’s basic human decency.”
First, she is an athlete, as an athlete she should know that she will not be perfect, and disappointments will come along. By reporting and showing the truth NBC was not disrespectful, and she is a public figure competing in an Olympic event.
Instead of feeling sorry for these athletes, people should encourage them to get off the self-pity wagon and go fight for it. Unfortunately, in this era of victimhood it is easier to encourage whining than fighting to earn something.
I am sure the millions of Americans living in poverty and wondering how they are going to feed their children are not too concerned about Shiffrin’s meltdown.
Our society has become too fragile, too entitled, and too self-absorbed.
Like President Truman once said, ‘If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.’