Why Olympic Athletes can't get involved in politics.
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At the age of 20, Alpine Skier Debbie Armstrong competed in the 1984 Olympics in Sarajevo, taking home the United States' first gold medal in Women's Giant Slalom. After retiring in 1988, Armstrong lived in Albuquerque for eight years, while she studied history at the University of New Mexico. For more than nine years, she was also the "Ambassador for Skiing" at Taos Ski Valley. Armstrong recently moved to Colorado, where she is now technical director for Steamboat Ski & Snowboard School.
Although she's been retired from competitive skiing for 20 years, Armstrong is a staunch defender of Olympic athletes and the need for their achievements to be separated from the larger political picture. She spoke with SFR via phone from her home in Steamboat Springs, Colo.
SFR: The Sarajevo Olympics happened when Sarajevo was still a part of Yugoslavia. When you were there, was there any feeling of a political larger context?
BA:
This was a time when Yugoslavia was become more capitalistic. They were separating themselves somewhat from that whole Iron Curtain thing, in terms of influence of the Soviet Union. This was, for Sarajevo, a real coming-out time to the rest of the world and to the capitalistic world in some respects. They were extremely, extremely proud as they rolled out the red carpet to the world and showed a new face. From a political standpoint, that was very big for them and what you had in Sarajevo, and the beauty of Sarajevo, was that it very much was a melting pot and hence, less than 10 years later, the war. Sarajevo took a lot of pride in that. Sarajevo, while it wasn't really partitioned out, there were Serbs, Croats, Muslims all living together, all going to school together, all dating each other and they were proud of this intermingling. For the opening ceremonies of Sarajevo you had them all coming together and dancing together, just a rainbow of color. Then the tragic thing is less than 10 years later they were at each other's throats.
Do you feel like you have a special connection to Sarajevo because of the Olympics?
Absolutely. I went back not long after 9-11. In fact it was controversial and kind of a hairy time to be traveling internationally, especially going to a city that was heavily Muslim. But I went and I brought my medal and it was very powerful. The war in Sarajevo by this time had been over for about six years, but they were very much still recovering. So, I brought my medal and everybody I showed it to cried because what they were holding in their hands was pre-war for them, this moment, this golden spot in time when it really was Yugoslavia and Sarajevo's pinnacles. And they could never go back to that time. That time was gone.
From an athlete's perspective, how much of the Olympics is a diplomatic effort?
It's not, from an athlete's perspective. The last thing in the world I am is a politician. I am an athlete. I am an athlete, athlete, athlete, first and foremost. Now, I understand, as an athlete, some very important things. My competitors, whether they were from Austria, Italy, France, Germany, Argentina, wherever in the world, whether we spoke the same language or not, we had more in common with each other than my neighbors in Albuquerque. We may not have spoken the same language, but we cried for the same reasons. We celebrated for the same reasons. We could understand each other's ups and downs and highs and lows and triumphs and tragedies. We knew each other, we were the same people. That is what I think is so neat about athletics because, bottom line, what we all know in theory is that we're all human, we all have more in common than we have not in common, and when you get face to face with people, you see the commonality in experience. You see the twinkle in their eye and you can embrace each other and you can love each other. You experience that on a daily basis. For me, nothing about it is political, but it's about a global human experience.
Looking at the history of the Olympics, there's frequently a political element, whether it's the 1936 Berlin-
Yeah, but that's the rest of the planet imposing. People impose, OK? People impose what it must feel like to win a medal. The first question people ask me is often, 'What does it feel like to have a medal placed around your neck?' That is never a question that comes to my mind as athlete. What questions do come to my mind are, 'How do you get there, what is that journey? What does it feel like to stand in the starting gate? What are you thinking about as you're making the run?' It's really interesting to have people who aren't athletes or people who aren't of that environment impose their questions, which are very interesting questions, but in some respects aren't relevant to my interest or my experience.
In regards to the Beijing Olympics, do all these demonstrations related to say, Tibet, distract from the athletics?
Of course it's a distraction. The Olympics is 100 percent about a distraction. The people who win are the people that handle those distractions the best. These questions are really loaded. You're asking me questions and I'm an athlete and so, we're talking about my life's work and my life's passion.
With Beijing and politics, is it a distraction? Hell yeah. I mean, c'mon! Now you're really getting my passion. You've got young athletes who aren't very sophisticated. They're friggin' athletes. Twelve hours a day, they're pumping iron or working a gymnastics routine or swimming laps in a pool and if they're smart the only thing in the world they're thinking about is athletics. Now, they've got agents who are working sponsor deals, they've got media saying, 'What do you think about human rights?' They've got all of this stuff. There are minefields out there for athletes. How do you handle all of these distractions?
For me, as an athlete, I had to make a decision. Am I ski racer or am I business person? Or am I a politician? What am I? Because if you're going to be the best on the planet at what you do, then you can't have all these distractions. Yet, the world is distracted for these athletes with all this stuff going on. Am I into human rights? No questions about it. Free Tibet? I don't know enough about it. I trekked in Nepal, I lived in Malaysia for a year, I've traveled the planet. I'm a Democrat, I'm a liberal, I've got perspective. But I'm also 44 years old and I've been around. I personally, if I was going to China right now as an athlete, I wouldn't be distracted by human rights. I wouldn't have the time for it. I'm sorry. I'll do that when I'm retired. Let other people fight that battle. Athletes are selfish. You have to be.
I know it's the Summer Olympics, and you're a Winter Olympics athlete, but is there anybody you're following closely?
No, because I don't watch it closely enough to know who to watch, but I'll be watching everything. I'm into the drama. Athletics is drama. It's the best reality TV show there is. I can read between the lines when I watch these athletes, what they're going through, what led up to where they are right now, what they have in store for them when they get home. My perspective is a little bit different because I've been there, but I'm a fan. I'll be all over it.
