There was always something about the Winter Games that seemed cool and pristine … You think more of the slick, effortless gliding over of ice and snow (after all, which winter sport doesn’t involve this dynamic of slipperiness?) while the Summer Games evoke more grueling, sweltering, sweat-drenched associations. The Winter Games always seemed leisurely somehow, while the Summer Games always seemed like work. So what if you dug beneath this shallow, aesthetic comparison? Would you not find an ugly socioeconomic reality?

So argues Paul Farhi in the Washington Post:

‘Never mind the usual puffery about what this month’s Winter Olympics are all about. Sure, there’s the beauty of sports, the spirit of friendly competition, the dedication of great athletes and all that. But the Winter Games are about a few other things as well: elitism, exclusion and the triumph of the world’s sporting haves over its have nots.

What the Winter Games are not is a truly international sporting competition that brings the best of the world together to compete, as the promotional blather would have you believe. Unlike the widely attended Summer Olympics, the winter version is almost exclusively the preserve of a narrow, generally wealthy, predominantly Caucasian collection of athletes and nations. In fact, I’d suggest that the name of the Winter Games, which start Friday, be changed. They could be more accurately branded “The European and North American Expensive Sports Festival.”‘

Farhi is still a little on the strident side for me, too much a killjoy; call me sentimental, but the Olympic Games, be they Winter or Summer (their ego-driven dramas, idiotic doping scandals, and commercial taints aside), still represent for me one of the few embodiments of Spirit left in our modern — and my grown-up – age, now that Santa Claus and World Peace appear to have been ruled out. Nevertheless, its an argument that holds heft and it’s one I tuck under my hat.

Against the drab backdrop of Farhi’s cynicism, though, it’s lovely to see gems like these shine.

• Shani Davis, who grew up poor in gangland South Chicago and became a speedskater, is the first black athlete to win gold in the Winter Olympics.
• Joey Cheek, another speedskater (he won the silver to Davis’ gold — they are both pictured above), gives his bonuses for both gold and silver medals (totaling $45K!) to Right To Play, a charity that gives disadvantaged kids across the world a chance to play sports they would otherwise not have access to — a direct intervention against the economic disadvantages Farhi points out.

[thanks Meredith, for the ALDaily link to the Post article]