Okay, so that’s a tortured metaphor from Bullwinkle, but “The Flying Squirrel” did win the Olympic women’s gymnastics all-around today,
and she beat out two Russians, who are the Bullwinkle villains’ nationality, so
it kind of works. (And I did not nickname Gabby Douglas “The Flying Squirrel”,
so don’t blame me for the Bullwinkle
reference!)
I haven’t seen the competition yet, but I already know, like
most everyone else, that Gabrielle Douglas has won the most coveted gold medal
at these Olympics,* and she is now “America’s Sweetheart”! (And she ought to
be, too! She’s earned it, blasting through the stratosphere to become, in about
a year, the world’s greatest gymnast! Amazing!) So get ready to see her in
every other TV ad for the next 4 years! (I hope she gets to do it if she wants
to. She’s the queen of the Olympics: she should get to write her own ticket!
Movies, music, ads, TV shows: whatever she wants. And she has such infectious
enthusiasm, it’s impossible to resist.)
Now this fan adulation may seem a little odd coming from an
advertising-obsessed jokester like me, but I follow this sport. My mother loves
women’s gymnastics and women’s figure skating, and with me loving punk and
metal and horror movies, there’s not much else we can connect on, so when she
insisted I watch the skating with her in 2006, I got into it and the
gymnastics, just so we could have more stuff in common. And you know what: it’s
hard not to love it if you start to watch it. And Gabby Douglas is one of the
best ever in this sport! (The wonderful Russian ladies had very good days
today, and they still couldn’t best her!)
Here’s a picture from today of Aliya Mustafina, Alexander
Alexandrov, Coach Bullwinkle, and “The Flying Squirrel” (on seeing she just won
the all-around title)! {Just kidding! I’m just making fun of the fact that
there is a “Flying Squirrel” character and Russian adversaries in Bullwinkle! But I have to wonder if this had anything to do
with Gabby’s nickname: the fact that the bad guys in Bullwinkle are Russians, and they are America’s major
adversaries in women’s gymnastics! I would guess: Yes. Either that, or it’s a
very big coincidence.}
* Don’t even start with me here: The Olympic women’s
all-around gymnastics champion is the queen of the Olympics, and “America’s
Sweetheart” (if she happens to be American)! And until we appreciate rhythmic
gymnastics in America, artistic gymnastics is the most beautiful sport we
watch, until figure skating in two years.
