(August, 2004) Top 10 Most Controversial Olympic Moments
2. 1994: Tonya Harding vs. Nancy Kerrigan
Look, see. I broke her knee, she bnroke my skate lace. We're even now, okay? Okay? Howabout we settle things once and for all in a celebrity boxing match. The ratings for that shit would go through the roof. Just imagine.
You can say all you want about how plotting to take out your rival before the Games is in violation of everything the Olympic movement stands for, with no pretenses of good, fair, and honest competition that the ancient Greeks harped on so much about. But truth be told if the Greeks were around today they would have enjoyed something like this, and probably encouraged it. Thankfully, we got our own version of the ancient Greeks in the form of the sensationalistic news media, whom in the early 90s, with the dissolution of the Cold War and hence a severe shortage of any real news to report, had mastered the art of manufacturing non-news into national crisis' for public consumption. The fiascos of Amy Fisher, the Menendez bros, Lorena Bobbit, Clarence Thomas, Heide Fleiss, Hugh Grant, Marv Albert, Jonbenet Ramsey and of course OJ were not really all that big, important or even newsworthy in the grand scheme of things. But oh, did the media love telling you otherwise. The tabloid decade couldn't help bringing you up to speed on what was really important in your life, like the antics of that Texas cheerleader-murdering mom. In each and every one of these overhyped incidents, media saturation always made things worse.
The ironic thing about this incident (or maybe because of it) is that today Tonya Harding is still in the news, though usually for the wrong reasons. Where's Nancy Kerrigan? What's she doing? Does anyone care? Why isn't the news keeping us up to date with her!? It is imperative that we know this shit!
Seriously though, thanks to the media, the '94 Winter Games had the best ratings ever. And all because of controversy. For what would the Olympics be without controversy. Boring, lifeless and dull. It's the Omarosas of the world that make life bitter sweet; the fetching personalities of Games past and present. Without them, and without the media to dote on them, we're really just watching a bunch of guys in tight shorts run around in circles every four years.
