As if the Olympic coverage has not been bad enough, Bob Costas felt the need to give an absolutely ridiculous commentary last night after Gabby Douglas’ awesome all-around Gold win. No one had really even mentioned the fact that Gabby is African-American during any of the gymnastics coverage – at least not in any way that seemed unusual. But as soon as she won the gold in the all-around, instead of just celebrating her win and talking about what an inspiration she would be to youngsters throughout our nation, he HAD to play the race card! He just HAD to say how she was the first African-American to win the gold in the all-around and how she would now be such an inspiration to all African-American little girls with gymnastics aspirations – really!?!? Just to the African-American little girls? No white girls, and of course no boys, will take any notice at all according to Mr. Costas (because she’s “black”?). We were having such a great “color-blind” moment and he just HAD to go and blow it!
Until we can just say “great job – we are so proud of you” to everyone who accomplishes great stuff, we will continue to draw artificial lines in the sand meant to do nothing but seperate us and to continue the unfortunate “us vs. them” mentality that permeates our human nature.
I am sure that Gabby Douglas is proud of her heritage, as well she should be. But from what I have seen and heard of her, I don’t believe that she feels it has any bearing on her gymnastics career at all. Gabby seems much more concerned that her relationship with God is a part of her daily life than the color of her skin. When asked how she keeps her focus and her emotions in check during a competition, she says that she reads, meditates on and memorizes scripture. She has had problems with focus and emotions in the past and many of the USA Gymnastics coaching staff believed that she didn’t have the tenacity and emotional strength to win. But Gabby says that her faith has helped her manage the pressure of competing and has allowed her to succeed.
The first thing that Gabby tweeted after winning the gold was, “Let all that I am praise the LORD; may I never forget the good things he does for me”. And when being interviewed right after the win she said, “I give all the Glory to God…the glory goes up to him and the blessings fall on me”. WOW – would I have the presence of mind in the aftermath of just winning a gold medal on international television to so clearly give all of the glory to God? I would certainly hope so; what a fabulous witness!
So why can we not just concentrate on the fact that Gabby is a fabulously talented gymnast, a young lady who presents herself with grace an authenticity, and who places her faith and trust in God and is not afraid to let the world know it instead of talking simply about the color of her skin?
I am proud of Gabby for her tremendous accomplishments, both as a team member and as an All-Around champion, for her authenticity and grace in presenting herself and for her acknowledgement of God as the strength and power in her life. These are things for which she has worked very hard and about which she has made tough decisions, and deep and costly commitments. And most impressive of all, she gives all of the credit and glory to God!
And a further Olympic coverage note, there has GOT to be a better way to broadcast the Olympics, even when there is a large time zone gap. The coverage this year has been very disappointing. It is so time-shifted, overly edited, narrow in scope (not many sports being shown), and filled to the brim with commercials, commentary and filler. Every 2 years the coverage is a little worse.
A request to the Olympic broadcast networks (in this case NBC): less opinions, agenda and speechifying and more wide-ranging and complete coverage please!
