Letter from Boston No Time for the Olympics By MASAKO YAMADA	フレームで見る  英文をプリントする  脚注をプリントする
オリンピック観戦に熱入らず 雅子さんはシドニー・オリンピックにあまり関心がありません。10代のころに開かれたロサンゼルス五輪は、夏休み中、毎日テレビにかじりついて観戦したものですが、シドニーは距離的に遠いこともあって、どこか別世界の出来事のように思えます。勝ち負けばかり重視したテレビ放送にも原因があります。

My British roommmate is aghast that nobody around her seemsto be interested in the Olympics. It's true that none of the remaining three of us in the apartment have ven the slightest interest in watching the Games with her.

I've read about some of the athletes in The New York Times but I haven't been interested enough to watch them on TV. I'm certainly not much of an athlete, but I suppose I'm not much of a spectator, either. I admire the hard work athletes put in to achieve their dreams and I enjoy watching fit bodies, but I'm not too interested in following what is perhaps the biggest point of the Olympics: winning.

My roommate says that when she was in England, her classmates and coworkers would all gather around the TV to watch the Olympics together. This is not too surprising considering that she studied sports science, and that she and her classmates actually gave advice to Olympic athletes. She, herself, used to run competitively.

She has been trying to generate enthusiasm for the Games, but even her closest friends have shown only tepidresponse.I'm afraid she's going to spend most of her time watching the Olympics by herself.

It wasn't always like this for me. I remember watching the Olympics with great interest when I was younger. The Los Angeles Olympics particularly comes to mind. I remember sitting in front of the TV and watching the Games for many hours every day.

I liked gymnastics the best; I think it's because I felt something in common with the teenage girls I saw on TV. Watching them, the possibility of my achieving great things did not seem so far away. It was summer vacation and I had plenty of time.

Things are completely different now. This year, the Olympics are being held in Australia. For Americans, at least, the physical distance - and time zone difference and seasonal difference - seems to push the Games far into some alternate world.

This Olympics doesn't feel as real to me as, say, the Atlanta Olympics. It doesn't help that the Games aren't being held during our summer vacation. It's easier to enjoy the Olympics when the pace of life is leisurely. I don't think many people have the time or the desire to keep up with Olympic events after they get home from a busy day at work. There are so many other priorities: eat ing dinner, doing homework, tucking the kids into bed.

I don't sympathize so much with athletes any more, even though I perhaps better understand the very real sacrifices that they've made. They seem like beings from another planet. I have my own life to live.

Unfortunately, Olympic coverage on TV is unreliable and this is another incentive not to watch. One can't count on seeing a particular event at a given time. The networks decide what is interesting, and they decide to broadcast that event when it is convenient for them.

When there are no "interesting" events, they may decide to broadcast a sentimental mini-documentary about a particular athlete. They may cut certain coverage right in the middle of event in order to cover another. This is terribly inconvenient for people who may be interested in a particular sport, but who don't have the time to sit in front of the TV for hours just to catch a five minute clip. We are at the mercy of the networks.

I do like watching other kinds of sports. For instance, I find myself uncontrollably moved when I see thousands of people running the Boston Marathon, or when I see bicyclists zooming by to raise money for a charity. I'm not so much of an optimist to say that "everybody is a winner," but there is something about watching people manipulate their bodies that is inherently fascinating.

It's too bad that I don't get this sense of fascination watching the A HREF="bo20000929chu.htm#edited">(edited) Olympics on TV. It's not the winning or losing that I find so interesting about sports, and regardless of what some people say, the focus of Olympics is certainly on winning and losing. That is why many people seem perfectly content to get five minute TV clips of an event - or worse, just the scores at the end.

Shukan ST: Sept. 29, 2000

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