There’s an axiom in sports journalism: No cheering in the press box.
The only thing you can root for is a good story. No rooting for athletes, or teams, or in the case of the Olympics, countries. Most of the time, it’s not that hard. Im not, for instance, the Mets beat writer. I’m almost never in that press box, so I watch and root from the comfort of my couch.
That’s not to say I play favorites when it comes to my Mets. I’ve been known to tick off the home team more than once. They let me know how displeased they were when I did this piece on “Why Base Stealers Target Noah Syndegaard.”
I may not have been rooting, but I definitely wasn’t displeased when Nathan Chen won gold in men’s figure skating. Four years ago we spent time with him to explain how he did his quad jumps. He was a nice kid, who was generous with what little time his agent gave us. He flamed out in his short program then and had to live with that memory for four years. It was nice to see him redeem himself in Beijing and have so much fun on the ice. I wasn’t cheering, but a smile may have come across my face.
The same might be true when the Paralympics take place next month. If you haven’t yet seen it, our fifth and final installment in the FEAR series is about Millie Knight, a nearly blind skier from Britain. The piece is here. She lost most of the sight in one eye when she was three and most of it in the other when she was six. She said she was mostly fearless until she had some bad crashes, one of which dislocated her jaw. Now her relationship with fear is complicated and ever-present. I won’t be in the press box, so I’ll be rooting for her. I think you will too.
I’m back home now and my Olympic coma is wearing off. It’s going to be 67 degrees here tomorrow. Let’s go Mets!
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