I've been catching up on some media since I've been home and I ran across a Sports Illustrated article with an interview of Tara. I swear it read like the Olympics was actually Nationals, except they had ceded to the Russians for the ladies, but you'd better believe they tried to make it seem like we had a realistic shot at bronze. And poor Nate who couldn't even call himself a world medalist going in was all gold gold gold. It was cringe-worthy. Like, Shoma outscored Nate at the GPF but lost on a technicality. But I guess people don't really remember those details... And when I was actually at the games, for the Men's SPs I snagged a super special ticket and ended up seated with the press right behind the judges with Katerina Witt a couple seats over. I had the US flag of course, but these American press guys were confused by my team Japan flag, my pooh ears and bear, my banner. I was asked "Who is Hanyu?" For a moment I was like are they serious? But they were indeed serious because all they knew was that we had a good american. They clearly did next to NO research. I thought it was a waste of seats because plenty of people with a worse view who actually knew the competitors would love to be where they are. Thankfully I was seated next to a Russian young lady from the press and she was a real skating fan so we could actually talk about things. And she was kindly translating the cheers from the Russians for the athletes for me. But the blissful ignorance until reality came crashing down was very real.
I'm excited to be able to be a part of it, too <3
