August 24, 2005

I used to get worked up like this about hockey, too

There's a guy at work who likes to talk sports with me, but only when there is a scandal or a controversy or when one of my teams is doing very poorly.

So today, of course, he asked me about the latest Lance Armstrong doping allegation.

I'm not gonna talk about that here, though. I have nothing new to say.

Ted mentioned it today, too, and what I'm gonna talk about is what he said...not so much about Armstrong, but about cycling:

And until another American LeMond or Armstrong comes along to dominate, the Tour de France will drop back to the level of popularity enjoyed by Iron Man triathalons and Arena Football.

As it happens, there are some pretty impressive American cyclists in the pro ranks right now. Levi Leipheimer just won the Tour of Germany this week, in fact. And even if you only want to talk about le Tour, there were eight Americans not named Lance Armstrong in France this past July. Will any of them dominate like Armstrong? I doubt it. I doubt we'll see a Spanish rider dominate like that, either. Or a German or an Italian or a Frenchman or an Australian.

But I have a question: Why do we the American-sports-viewing-public need an American to dominate the event to be interested in it?

Can we watch a sport for its own merits, regardless of where the athletes live? Do we need a thousand Nike commercials to surround it to let us know it is An Important Event?

...she asks rhetorically.

(Nic isn't really short for Nicolle, it's short for Niche.)

Posted by Nic at August 24, 2005 08:06 PM | TrackBack
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