04/26/24
February 14, 2006
DFL: Celebrating last-place finishes at the Olympics. Because they're there, and you're not.
I've always thought that finishing last at the Olympics is a thankless proposition. You don't get on TV. You don't get interviewed by the press. You don't get an award. But if you are really competing for yourself, then it doesn't matter at all. Someone has to finish last, and I hope they had a blast doing it.
posted by grum@work at 12:55 PM on February 14, 2006
Yes, and as various idiots like to say, their most important Olympic event is the opening ceremonies. This is a good blog, though. I am not a supporter of the "Eddie the Eagle" scenario -- which is almost impossible today anyway -- but the author really does keep this in perspective.
posted by Amateur at 01:33 PM on February 14, 2006
I think this is great. I'd love to come in last in an Olympic event. I bet I could, too. grum, I wouldn't feel too bad for these people. They get all sorts of Olympic giveaways, get to hang in the village, and probably have a good time doing it once they get over the whole "shame" thing. Besides, just to have made it to the Olympics is a hell of an accomplishment in most cases.
posted by Samsonov14 at 05:44 PM on February 14, 2006
I agree, the "Eric the Eel" scenarios are funny at first, but a bit too silly and kind of demeaning to the 'real' athletes who train hard and show up. The nice thing about DNF is that it's treating the athletes with some respect- despite the blog name- and also looking at how they finished last (looks like DFL's are mostly some form of falling/mistake that costs them huge time), as well as the frequent use of IOC-imposed qualifying limits for a lot of these events- that not just anyone from each country can show up, but that they have to have shown some aptitude in international competition or qualifying heats at some point. In other words, almost none of these people are incompetent or incapable like Eric the Eel, they just had a bad fall, and/or weren't likely to finish high anyway. They are legitimate athletes, and as Samsonov14 notes they do get some nice perks: a 1 to 3 week vacation in the Olympics, hanging out at the athletes village. We couch potatoes like to say that if we just trained in dedicated fashion for a few years, we too could master some relatively obscure sport enough to be Olympic-level, but the truth is we're fooling ourselves. The difference between a world-class gold medalist and an also-ran good enough to make the Olympics is often not terribly huge, but the top performers consistently hit their times that are always a little better than everyone else. It always amazes me when the top lugers for example are within hundredths of a second of each other, every damn time, while the 20th place lugers are only 2 seconds back after two runs, meaning they are less than 5% slower . These people are so good, they do it exactly right each time, with only the tiniest of variations. That is what makes them world-class, that utter consistency. And the very best are just consistently that little bit better. It's also strangely heartening to see something like the 1984 Chinese pair figure skaters were DFL... but one of them went on to be a Chinese coach, and the Chinese figure skating pairs were strong enough this year to win Silver and Bronze! What I'd like to see DFL do is compare some of the last-place or near-bottom finishes to, for example, typical collegiate or non-Olympic times. One of the interesting things is for someone who doesn't fall or make a big mistake, but still finishes last or near-last, is how much better than or in some cases equal to a college athlete with no Olympic aspirations?
posted by hincandenza at 06:15 PM on February 14, 2006
It's cheesy, but sometimes it's not about finishing first. I entered a marathon once where I hadn't trained properly (injury a few weeks before the race). It took everything I had to finish the race. I wasn't last, but not by much. Crossing the finish line with two people cheering for me as they're taking down the food stands you would have thought I had won. I don't think the feeling would have been much different.
posted by justgary at 03:56 PM on February 16, 2006
They may be in last place in their respective events, but they are, surely, number one in our hearts. Especially this comely Croatian lass: