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five-ring circus: Scenes from the Olympics.

Svetlana the GreatRussia's gymnastics queen preens at the all-around finals.

By Meghan O'Rourke
Updated Friday, Aug. 20, 2004, at 11:32 PM ET
Sore loser

As Carly Patterson cheerfully bounced and flipped her way to gymnastics' coveted all-around title—making her only the second American to win all-around gold—the Russian gymnast Svetlana Khorkina glowered, picked her nails, and stuck out her tongue at the TV cameras. Patterson's night ended with a hug; Khorkina's with a flounce. The NBC commentators railed against the Russian's insouciance. "Khorkina's Final Act Is Centered on Bitterness," the New York Times trumpeted this morning, eviscerating Khorkina for her "self-indulgence."

But it's not as simple as all that. Patterson deserved to win last night: She was in great form and turned in the most consistent performance of all the gymnasts. Previously, I've found her wholly uninspiring, but my ambivalence dissolved as she followed a shaky start on vault with a steady assault on each piece of equipment—there was the dramatic height of her release moves on the uneven bars, her engaging way of playing to the crowd during the floor exercise, her nearly perfect beam routine. (I still maintain that she and Courtney Kupets dance like the robot guy from Chappelle's Show. Get those girls some rhythm!)

Patterson is the model of steadiness and determination. Svetlana Khorkina, on the other hand, is all hunger; she loves the power of being an athlete and, with the lean lines of a greyhound, gives off the impression of being someone who metabolizes the world at twice the speed of the rest of us. Khorkina, 25, has been doing gymnastics for some 20 years. Her dedication to the sport is extreme, and her desire to win is palpable. In an interview with NBC, filmed prior to the Olympics, she said, bizarrely and sincerely, "I want to win a gold medal as much as I want to mother my own child." This desire manifests itself in the simple fact that she has worked so long despite the difficulties posed by her body—at 5-foot-5, she makes an unlikely champion. Shorter gymnasts like Patterson have a much easier time whipping their legs around or controlling their center of gravity. Khorkina's power is diffuse, and that's what makes her perfect split leaps and back-layout-step-outs so astonishing.

Khorkina's Marie Antoinette-style imperiousness has repeatedly brought out a creepy puritanical streak in the NBC commentators—and I find it infuriating. "Our cameras continue to watch Svetlana Khorkina's every move, and that's just the way she likes it," NBC commentator Al Trautwig proclaimed. But Khorkina's demeanor was actually much more nuanced than the announcers would have you believe. Khorkina was bitter at the very end, but earlier in the evening she smiled with real, open pleasure throughout her floor routine. Besides, she should feel cheated in her drive to win an all-around Olympic title. During the all-around competition at the 2000 Olympics, her vault was set at the wrong height after a brilliant floor routine had put her in strong position for the gold medal. She fell and then, shaken, fell again on the uneven bars.

The truism of "good sportsmanship" holds that an athlete should embrace his defeat without the slightest public ambivalence—a legacy of parental pieties about what sports have to teach us. Perhaps, though, the Olympics shouldn't always be read as a parable of acceptance and striving, but rather include room for protest, too—which has its own, if more complicated, value. At the end of the night, Khorkina refused to cede the floor (and the limelight) to the younger star. As the cameras panned the room, she swung the Russian flag up behind her like a brilliant parachute and delicately danced over to the uneven bars where, curiously, she draped it over the lower bar. (It reminded me of someone placing a flag on a coffin.) Later, during interviews, she brashly proclaimed, "I'm still Olympic champion."

That may be in bad taste, but at least it's lively and impassioned, compared to Patterson's drab response on Tuesday, after the American women lost the team gold: "It was just another competition, like any other," she said flatly. But it wasn't: It was the Olympics. Understandably, Patterson was too young, or too overwhelmed, to acknowledge the magnitude of the evening's events.

Yet it seems strange that we praise the athlete who finds it easy to be publicly dispassionate when she loses the one thing she has trained for her whole life and that we publicly tar-and-feather the one who passionately protests her fate. Good sportsmanship has its place, and it's moving when an athlete bows out gracefully to the "better man." But the better man or woman doesn't always win. Khorkina's flawed behavior reminds us that the Olympics is not a "pure" athletic competition, but a competition managed by evaluative institutions. And the evaluators don't always make the best decisions. If gymnastics has been criticized for being conformist, a sport full of little girls doing the bidding of coaches and judges, surely, then, Khorkina is a symbol of an athlete who knows her own mind and can be respected for it.

What is appealing about Khorkina is that she grasps the magnitude of every moment. In a pre-Olympics interview, she told NBC that she loved being called a diva. "A diva is magical; you can't catch her," she smiled. Before the awards ceremony, she changed into a sleeveless bright-blue leotard that appeared to be made of shiny vinyl, of the sort usually seen on miniskirts in night clubs. With a body that was much too tall and supposedly much too old to compete at the highest level in a sport given over to springy squirts, she refused to let anyone tell her what her place was. She would remain undefeated in her own mind.

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Meghan O'Rourke is Slate's culture critic and an advisory editor, and she is the author of Halflife, a collection of poetry.
Photograph of Svetlana Khorkina by Kazuhiro Nogi/Agence France-Presse.
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Remarks from the Fray:

I watched the final rotation yesterday on TV: Svetlana has an attitude you could cut with a knife. Her "hunger" got her to the Olympics. Her prima donna moodiness came between her and gold. She could use a bit less self-absorption; in my view, it interfered with her total performance. She looked wooden next to our girls, for all her grace and formidable athleticism. The only time she relaxed was during the floor exercise, and her performance reflected that. She was inspired by the Russian contingent in the stands who began clapping to the folk rhythm of her chosen music. She may have needed that gesture of support.

She has criticized the judges in the wake of her silver medal: "they will have to live
with their consciences". They will have no problem. The judges were biased in her favor;
knowing this Olympic appearance to be her swan song. She was judged fairly and generously.

In my view, Svetlana needs to grow up a bit. Olympic silver is nothing to sneeze at. She can look forward to increased modeling contracts, and the opportunity to endorse, coach and teach. Her life is ahead of her.

--bhaumik2004

(To reply, click here)


I too wholly agree with the views expressed in this article. I was disgusted and infuriated by the line commenting stomping Khorkina the way it did, and in my mind, it was nothing but a flinch from the sheer power this astonishing athlete brings into this sport.

When Khorkina is present, you feel it. She doesn't even have to be performing a routine. There is magic about her, a flair that you can either hate or love, but you have to feel something for it; and that says it all. Because to bring all that -- character, style, personality -- into the intricate technicality of gymnastics, is truly remarkable. And sport, especially at this level, isn't all about technicality. If it were, it would never be this popular. We talk of spirit, and Khorkina certainly has plenty of it. She truly is a diva, in the best sense of the word; because she's there, all of her, unique, striking, in style and ability; and she is amazingly talented because of it, and not despite it.

Beyond her proven astounding qualities as a gymnast, I think Khorkina should be admired for her enthusiasm, for her passion. When you're truly and wholly devoted to something, you're devastated when it goes awry. She worked all of her life for that medal and she has a right to be disappointed and angry when it is taken away from her. I would rather have teens learn how to truly be passionate and true to their heart- in everything they do- than have them learn how to be 'in good taste'…

So if Svetlana Khorkina is in bad taste, it's certainly my kind of bad taste. She brought something into this sports that won't easily be restored. A true out of this world diva, talented, precise, that holds the very rare gift of breathing freely. You don't find that kind of girl every decade.

--JillySue126

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(8/21)

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