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How One Remembers An Event

Decent Essays

How one remembers an event depends on the context in which they witnessed it in. That context is not simply composed of factors such as the weather or the emotional state of the spectator; the larger socio-political context also has a part to play. The 2014 Sochi Winter Games are no exception to this theory, but a prime example of it. The Sochi games come, at least in this author’s mind as a dud. Yes, women were for the first time allowed to participate in the ski jump, and other athletes fulfilled their Olympic dream, but the Cold War “magic” was not there. The Western and Russian Media played their share, the United States and Russia are currently opposed in several significant international conflicts, but we did not witness a Miracle on Ice, or any geopolitical sparks in the competition. This is because the media and political elites built up tensions in their populaces, but abstained from promoting through their athletes. To highlight the first two articles this paper will examine will be from the pre-games period, from both the American and Russian perspective. For the Americans ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne wrote a piece on the USOC asking the American athletes to not participate in protests over Russia’s new anti-gay propaganda laws. The article could have ended right there, and just been a headline. What business did ESPN have on writing a political piece, when American’s do not want their sports and politics mixed? However, the author continues, and spends time

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