Steve Dilbeck: Remembering some are just kids
We’d like all our star athletes to be mature, well-spoken, admirable. Someone you could look up to, feel good about children idolizing.
Yet many times Olympic athletics who are champions in their sport are still developing the rest of their character. That’s OK, of course, and should be anticipated. They are young and shouldn’t be expected to all carry themselves with wisdom beyond their years.
Snowboarder Hannah Teter just tore up the halfpipe course in capturing the gold Monday. Some of her moves bordered on death
defying.
Still, it was a little jarring during her press conference to hear her actually speak. They provide translators at these things, but none were available for Teter-speak.
She seemed silly, like maybe she was just trying too hard to dazzle the room with personality. Politely you could describe her as quirky. Think ``Dazed and Confused.’’
When the press conference was over, I looked at my notepad and couldn’t find a truly useful quote. Unless you need to know she was listening to on her iPod (it was ``Communicate’’ by Strive Roots, a band she promised was up-and-coming). She said ``ditto’’ and giggled and sounded too often like Jeff Spicoli in ``Fast Times at Ridgemont High.’’
She’s 19. She acts like a lot of teen-agers. That may be one of the reasons why she already has a legion of young fans. They can admire and relate to her.
The day may come when she looks back on her gold-medal press conference and winces. But for now, she’s still developing as a person, and that’s OK.
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