Going for the Gold
You'd think it would happen much more often, but every now and then, my job as a professional sportslady allows me to do or see something really, really cool.
Superbowl XXXIV, for example. But that took weeks of planning.
Yesterday, something really awesome happened purely by surprise. I got to get up close and personal with a handful of Olympic Medals.
The day started out as a typical Tuesday during the football season, with a trip to Auburn for the weekly media conference. But the AU media relations office had planned a special guest, Kirsty Coventry, a three-medal winner in Athens. Pretty cool, right?
We talked for about fifteen minutes, about swimming, her complete set of medals (Gold in the 200 Backstroke, Silver in the 1oo Back, and Bronze in the 200 Indivudual Medley), her trip home to Zimbabwe, and much more.
Zimbabwe? Don't let the blond hair and blue eyes fool you. Auburn's big medalist in the Olympics wasn't swimming for team USA, but for her native Zimbabwe, where she's a third generation native. Coventry singlehandedly tripled the nation's all time medal output with her performance in Athens.
But even more special than her Olympic performance is the way that her nation has rallied around her. If you don't know anything about Zimbabwe, I'll summarize briefly. Land reform has caused an enormous rift between blacks and whites. Colonial whites own something like 60% of the farmland, even though they represent just a small percent of the population. President Mugabe's solution to the economic crisis was to ordered the seizure of white-owned farms without compensation. All white farmers were, in essence, evicted. Sure, he's righting a wrong, and in his eyes, the end justifies the means, I suppose. Unfortunately, since then, the country's failing economy has gotten even worse. Inflation is something like 500%, and the country's inexperienced farmers have caused nationwide famine. More than a quarter of the nation's population has fled their homeland.
A funny thing has happened, though. Coventry, a white woman, has become a national hero-- or as an article in the Zimbabwe Standard called her, "A Light in the Darkness."
After she claimed her gold medal, the Zimbabwe government flew her back to Harare. She was greeted by thousands of cheering fans, mostly black. People lined the streets to thank her for bringing pride back to their nation. Coventry and her parents were even dinner guests of President Mugabe, a situation that I suspect was much more tense than she let on.
She's still stunned that she's become an ambassador to peace (albeit briefly) in her nation. There's apparently, even talk of making a national stamp with her picture on it.
The medals, by the way, are absolutely beautiful. She hasn't put them on since her trip to Harare. On the other hand, she says that hasn't stopped everyone else she knows from trying them on. I settled for just touching the ribbon. In a way, I feel like the medals themselves are sacred, not to be touched by lazy slobs like me.
You'd think it would happen much more often, but every now and then, my job as a professional sportslady allows me to do or see something really, really cool.
Superbowl XXXIV, for example. But that took weeks of planning.
Yesterday, something really awesome happened purely by surprise. I got to get up close and personal with a handful of Olympic Medals.
The day started out as a typical Tuesday during the football season, with a trip to Auburn for the weekly media conference. But the AU media relations office had planned a special guest, Kirsty Coventry, a three-medal winner in Athens. Pretty cool, right?
We talked for about fifteen minutes, about swimming, her complete set of medals (Gold in the 200 Backstroke, Silver in the 1oo Back, and Bronze in the 200 Indivudual Medley), her trip home to Zimbabwe, and much more.
Zimbabwe? Don't let the blond hair and blue eyes fool you. Auburn's big medalist in the Olympics wasn't swimming for team USA, but for her native Zimbabwe, where she's a third generation native. Coventry singlehandedly tripled the nation's all time medal output with her performance in Athens.
But even more special than her Olympic performance is the way that her nation has rallied around her. If you don't know anything about Zimbabwe, I'll summarize briefly. Land reform has caused an enormous rift between blacks and whites. Colonial whites own something like 60% of the farmland, even though they represent just a small percent of the population. President Mugabe's solution to the economic crisis was to ordered the seizure of white-owned farms without compensation. All white farmers were, in essence, evicted. Sure, he's righting a wrong, and in his eyes, the end justifies the means, I suppose. Unfortunately, since then, the country's failing economy has gotten even worse. Inflation is something like 500%, and the country's inexperienced farmers have caused nationwide famine. More than a quarter of the nation's population has fled their homeland.
A funny thing has happened, though. Coventry, a white woman, has become a national hero-- or as an article in the Zimbabwe Standard called her, "A Light in the Darkness."
After she claimed her gold medal, the Zimbabwe government flew her back to Harare. She was greeted by thousands of cheering fans, mostly black. People lined the streets to thank her for bringing pride back to their nation. Coventry and her parents were even dinner guests of President Mugabe, a situation that I suspect was much more tense than she let on.
She's still stunned that she's become an ambassador to peace (albeit briefly) in her nation. There's apparently, even talk of making a national stamp with her picture on it.
The medals, by the way, are absolutely beautiful. She hasn't put them on since her trip to Harare. On the other hand, she says that hasn't stopped everyone else she knows from trying them on. I settled for just touching the ribbon. In a way, I feel like the medals themselves are sacred, not to be touched by lazy slobs like me.
Labels: Being the Sportslady, sports
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