Even media people are seeing through this nonsense, which is not the case when it comes to the saccharine emotionalism of athletes dedicating their achievements to dead relatives.The absolute epitome of this nonsense was when skier Alex Bilodeau was asked... "How much of this gold medal belongs to your brother?"
It's one thing to mark a recent passing of a child or an anniversary of a deceased parent. But now we have -- no joke -- "this ski run is dedicated to my grandfather who died a year-and-a-half ago."
As Coren astutely notes...
We all have loss and pain in our lives and even disabled people whom we love but we don't broadcast the fact every time there is a camera or microphone in front of us. It becomes an abuse of misfortune and is increasingly hard to take seriously.And really... what could Bilodeau possibly have said at that media-manipulated fuzzy-bunny moment? Certainly not... "Geez, Brian... I worked my ass off for this... for the better part of a decade... this one belongs to me."
This is sport and not Oprah.
(coren article via shaidle)
