Olympische Winterspiele

You can learn a lot about a society by watching its television. While we can, and probably will, say more on that topic at some later date (because there’s just so much good material), I’ve made a couple of observations about Germany over the last two weeks from simply watching the Olympic Games. They seem to have at least one broadcast channel devoted to Olympic coverage at all times, thus people seem perpetually tuned in. And rightfully so. Germany has won the highest number of gold medals and led in overall medals for three consecutive Games, an accomplishment they are quite proud of and a streak they are not too happy about breaking this time around.

Yes, the Games are a big deal here - or at least, certain key events are. In the States, we typically see a lot of figure skating, a lot of hockey, some downhill, some bobsled, some speed skating. The American spectator wants entertainment and loves the action and excitement. In Germany, Olympic coverage seems exclusively focused on cross-country skiing, biathlon, and ski jump (with some downhill, bobsled, and speed skating mixed in when a German is competing). In fact, we’ve been regularly watching prime time coverage of the ski jump, cross-country, and biathlon on their sports channel since December. I have even had German colleagues discuss with me at length the demands of the biathlon and mentions names of biathlon athletes as though we were discussing LeBron James and the NBA playoffs. While I have the highest respect for the athleticism of these events, they aren’t exactly full of action and excitement. I’m probably just too American to find them anything other than painstakingly boring.

The announcing of the Games is also quite different from what we are accustomed to. In the US, each American athlete is introduced with a dramatic triumph-over-adversity backstory replete with baby pictures and interviews with childhood friends. In Germany, forget about the backstories: too dramatic, too superfluous, and above all too personal for the general German populace unconcerned about such details. This is Sport, not Soap Opera. During events, American announcers are pretty neutral in their narration of events, even though we all know Bob Costas is secretly rooting for the Americans during every event. Conversely, German announcers are extremely partial in their coverage. They are more like official cheerleaders than announcers: we’ve heard everything from “Faster! Faster! Faster!” to “That’s no way to win medals for your nation!” directed at the German athletes.

Finally, there's the patriotism and pride. We Americans love waving our flags, painting our chests with the red, white, and blue, and claiming to be the world's Number 1. In Germany, for historical reasons, such behavior is unheard of and makes fellow Germans rather uncomfortable. The Olympics, however, seem to provide an exception to that. You can look into the crowd and see plenty of German fans waving flags and almost competing with the Americans for loudest and proudest. You might even catch a glimpse of someone singing the national anthem during the medal ceremony. It's kinda nice to see this otherwise reserved culture, which is still in the process of political, social, and psychological reunification, taking the opportunities to show a little pride in a national effort. Especially when you consider that they've only been competing as a single nation since 1992.

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By the way, as I sit writing this, I'm watching the US vs. Canada hockey final, being announced by a pair of Germans with the addition of a color commentator who speaks excellent, fluent German, but with the thickest American accent I have ever heard! The German announcers must smile in amusement every time he opens his mouth, because I can't help but chuckle. I can't help but wonder though if I sound like that (albeit not fluent), and if the Germans in fact are hiding their amusement every time German comes out of my mouth. :)