Spectacle

So, everything is about speed in Sochi. Split seconds, a wink of an eye. Multitude of spins on the ice. I watched the figure skating rounds for couples, I watched the Germans fall. First the guy, at the beginning of the demonstration, at the end the girl. Both in their midcareer, early thirty, and if they would wear all their medals they have won over the past decade they wouldn’t even make it for one second on the ice without falling.

So, they ended as number three, pushing a lovely Chinese couple out of the ranking for a medal, or as the commentator said: ‘They were pushed off the stage.”

Imagine the figure skaters or any other sports(wo)man for that matter, trying to get on the stage, being slapped, pushed, beaten. I truly believe in sportsmanship, comradry, enjoying other people’s victory. But I love the honest ferociousness of the metaphor used by the sports commentator, leaving us with the interpretation of the spectacle.