Welcome back to Second Thought, The Free Press’s weekly culture column. This weekend, it is necessary for me to care about sport, but the brave men of The Free Press have football covered, so I turned my attention to the very campiest competition in the Winter Olympics, which began Friday night in Italy.
I’ll be watching the opening ceremony—let’s hope, for everyone’s sake, that they do a better job showcasing their country’s culture than we saw in France in 2024. And yes, I’ll also watch the field activity that happens on either side of the halftime show this Sunday.
Let the games begin!
The Ice Dancers Cometh
Whoever wins the 100-meter dash during the Summer Olympics is considered the fastest man in the world; if you win enough swim races, you become a national superhero. But making the national curling team, or huddling your helmeted head against your fellow countrymen in a bobsled, makes you a guy with a very fun fact. Sure, the skiers have a bit more star power. Who could forget Linsdey Vonn’s epic, gold-winning, downhill run in Vancouver in 2010? But the stars of the Winter Olympics are all so geared up, it’s hard to get excited watching them.
Or at least, that’s what I used to think.
Then I watched a new series on Netflix called Glitter & Gold: Ice Dancing, which is all about figure skating, the theater kid of all the Olympic events, with its lycra and pumping music and panache. There are no goggles or snow pants here; the athletes’ chests are heaving, their personalities are very much on display, the behind-the-scenes drama is off the charts. And that’s especially true when it comes to ice dance, the most subjective of the four figure skating disciplines, and the focus of the documentary.
