flâneur

The Banner, Stars, and Spangles | Online Only | n+1 | Miles Osgood

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WHAT DID YOU ROOT FOR, this time around? Did you save a breath, this year, for the final quarter turn of skis and skates still in the air, instead of fixating on the deduction for the landing? Did you cheer on behalf of the toddlers who watched uncomprehendingly as their mothers sped along the last laps of the long track or down the walls in the monobob? Did you shout back, in spite of yourself, the cries of whoa and curl—or ziehen and järnet and linea buona—from your own curled-up corner of the couch? What did you find “very hard to root for”—to take up the unpresidential presidential phrase, directed at American freestyle skier Hunter Hess? The traditional round of Olympic scandals this winter was sufficiently complicated and piecemeal as to diffuse or redirect immediate outrage. Did the male Norwegian ski jumpers really undergo hyaluronic acid injections to enhance their competitive length—and how many inches did they get? Was the principal crime of the French ice-dancing duo that t

What did you root for, this time around? Did you save a breath, this year, for the final quarter turn of skis and skates still in the air, instead of fixating on the deduction for the landing? Did you cheer on behalf of the toddlers who watched uncomprehendingly as their mothers sped along the last laps of the long track or down the walls in the monobob? Did you shout back, in spite of yourself, the cries of whoa and curl—or ziehen and järnet and linea buona—from your own curled-up corner of the couch? What did you find “very hard to root for”—to take up the unpresidential presidential…

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