Posted by
Ed Lilly on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 11:50:30 AM
Scott Soshnick is a columnist with Bloomberg.com. He writes sports opinion pieces, and his latest work is on the issue of whether a boycott of the Peiping Olympics makes sense. Soshnick clearly does not think a boycott is a good idea, and recites a lengthy story about Olympic hopeful Craig Beardsley to make his case. From the article:
Sports fans should know what the Beardsley family sacrificed for a chance to represent the U.S.
Beardsley at age 4 learned to swim at the 92nd Street Y on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He attended the United Nations International School, where one of his classmates was an Afghani prince.
Apparently Mr. Beardsley sacrificed by coming from a wealthy and powerful family, as the 92nd Street Y and the UN International School are not the types of places that the hoi polloi get into. Reading on, we see:
Diplomacy runs in the Beardsley family. His grandfather was consul-general for the Republic of China to Peru in the 1950s. His mother fled Shanghai during the Communist takeover of 1949.
“One of the last boats out,” he says.
Beardsley's grade-school days began with a 45-minute commute (90 minutes with traffic) from home in Harrington Park, New Jersey, to Manhattan, where his father worked. First learning. Then swimming. Then back to dad's office. Then home by 6 p.m. Maybe. Then more swimming. Friends were scarce.
“No time,” Beardsley says.
Mom and dad forced Beardsley to join the local swim team. There, his first coach, a former U.S. Marine, affixed some sort of bands around Craig's ankles to keep his feet together. By age 11 Beardsley was being recruited by area swim clubs.
Yep. Dad’s a political bigshot with connections. That explains the Y and the school. But more telling is the simple reference to the parents having FORCED Beardsley to join the swim team, and dragging him 50 miles a day round trip into New York and back as a grade schooler.
I thought this story was about what the family sacrificed for young Craig to represent the U.S.
Moving on:
Serious training started at age 12. All-swimming, all-the- time. No basketball. Not anymore.
Beardsley remembers his father waking him up at 4:15 a.m. for morning workouts. At 14, Craig, an accomplished cellist (his mother was a concert pianist), was accepted to the Manhattan School of Music. A wasted application.
“I was spending all of my time in the pool,” he says.
Soshnick may be right that a boycott isn’t the right thing to do to the athletes. But more than anything, what I take from his tale of Craig Beardsley is that at least some Olympic athletes and their families may be crazy and have their priorities completely out of whack.
Apparently Soshnick doesn’t see it that way:
Think about Craig Beardsley the next time some politician or activist uses the word boycott. Think about the 4-year-old's commute. Think about bloody hands and up-river swims.
A 4-year-old’s commute?! This in some way makes sense to anyone as an argument about the greatness and worth of the Olympics?!
How about I meet Soshnick half-way. I’ll think about Craig Beardsley the next time someone tells me how great the Olympics are. And if Craig Beardsley’s story is in any way representative of the background of even 10 percent of U.S. Olympic athletes, I will be completely on board with shutting down our Olympic programs and letting the kids who are being forced into insane athletic training regimens try to get some kind of balance and normalcy in their lives.