1) The World Baseball Classic
2) The World Cup
3) Speed Skating at the Winter Olympics
Why do I only cheer for the motherland during the following events? Because these are events where they're usually pretty good (they're wishy washy at the World Cup). I know that make me seem unpatriotic since I'm sure there's plenty of Koreans out there who will cheer for the team when they're getting blown out by Kobe and Lebron in International Basketball competition, but you know what? I can only support one terrible team and somehow the Minnesota Timberwolves have taken that spot in my life.
The World Baseball Classic was only introduced a few years ago, so I can say I've been on board with Korean the entire time. I've been rooting for them against everyone, even the Americans, because most of my favorite American players tend to sit out. I'm fine with this especially since I rather have my Minnesota Twins go far in the playoffs, then have Joe Mauer break his foot chasing down a pop fly against... well any team in a exhibition. The other appeal with the Korean National team is the lack of Major League Baseball players, so I don't have the dilemma of cheering for a player from a team that I hate (like the White Sox). I can cheer for Korea without having any conflicts of interest! 대한민국 indeed!
I'll admit that I can probably be classified as a band-wagoner when it comes to soccer. It really wasn't until the Japan/Korea World Cup that I became engaged in Korean soccer. Before then, I wasn't really sure they had a team that could qualify for the tournament, but once I did, I woke up at the crack of dawn and flipped the TV to Telemundo so I could watch the games broadcasted live. I even did that for the sad 3rd place game where the totally phoned it in within the first five minutes. I was in San Diego at the time, and I watched the game with my dad. He was surprised that I knew that the game was on at 3AM and was understandably disappointed in the team's lack of effort.
So that brings us to speed skating, and short track speed skating which means we'll inevitably need to to talk about Apolo Anton Ono. He's an Olympic superstar and a Dancing with the Stars champion! I didn't even know about the latter until I looked him up on wikipedia! Honestly, I have nothing against the dude and I think it's ridiculous that he needs extra body guards when he competes in Korea. I do think he's a bit of a whiner, but so is Sidney Crosby, Kobe Bryant, and I don't wish death on either of them. I understand speed skating is a big deal in Korea. My dad has speed skates. He taught me how to ice skate on said speed skates.
Unfortunately short track speed skating has a lot of grey area controversy. Not because of steroids or performance enhancing drugs, but because it's the NASCAR of Winter Olympic sports. There's a bit of contact, there's some blocking, and apparently American announcers think that the Koreans use a bit of "shake and bake"-esque strategies which complete the whole Ricky Bobby analogy. I'm no expert on exactly how short track exactly works, but I usually have to watch these races on mute because I can't stand how one sided the commentary is on these races.
As a child, I never really questioned the objectivity during a televised sport. Obviously if it's a local broadcast, they'll share more about the team they're covering, but I never ever thought "hey they're being really unfair about that call." You would think with the Olympics, that commentators would even try to be more objective, but apparently short track speed skating really riles up the blood for the commentators at NBC.
At the 2006 Games, I don't think I remember hearing the word "cheater" so often during an Olympic broadcast. It was pretty despicable. "The Koreans cheat, they've been accused of cheating before, and poor Apolo Anton Ono isn't going to win because the Koreans are going to cheat and destroy him. If only he could bring his bodyguards on the ice with him! The Koreans are going to sacrifice each other just to make sure Apolo Anton Ono doesn't win!" I think that sums up how the race commentary went.
Let me say this. If these Koreans, who've trained for 4 years, decide they're going to throw away their own hopes at winning a race just to screw over Apolo Anton Ono, that's totally their prerogative. In my opinion, that's a waste of time, and you're costing yourself an opportunity to something great. I don't care if that's what your coach taught you. It's an individual sport and the idea is to win, not to block. If you want to block and you're fine with being the John C. Reilly to your teammate's Will Ferrell, go ahead. Just don't expect yourself to be on the Korean Wheaties box. Unfortunately because of all this blatant anti-Korean sentiment, it's hard for me to respect Apolo Anton Ono. I know it's not his fault.
Hopefully I can make it to Vancouver in this winter so I can enjoy the Olympics in the only objective way possible. By being there.
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