I saw this meme the other day and my initial thought was “who is she and what is the 2A?” Then after a second, I realized they meant the Second Amendment. I still had no clue about the woman.
I did a little research and discovered that she is Kim Rhode. And yes, she earned a medal in six straight Olympics and she also the first Olympian to win a medal on five different continents.
It is definitely impressive. However, I would argue that it is not her support of the Second Amendment that causes the media and sponsors to ignore…it is probably the event.
Does anyone even care about skeet shooting? Do not get me wrong, it can be a ton of fun and is incredibly difficult. But seriously, how many people even knew this was an Olympic sport before this “outrage” occurred?
If you are one of the people out there, super pissed about this, then guess what? You are probably to blame. The reason the media does not talk about her, or Wheaties does not have her on a box of cereal, is because there is no interest in the event. She does events outside of the Olympics, I am sure there are other skeet shooting events where she competes.
She was in the 2015 Shooting National Championships and by doing a pretty in-depth search, I have not found anything that says the event was a massive sellout. There were no news stories about fans having to wait in huge lines. Look, if you want her to be a bigger celebrity for her achievements, then you need to be at these events. Then, someone will notice. If 50,000 people show up to her next shooting competition, then at the next Olympics, NBC will say “damn, those shooting competitions draw some insanely large crowds, we should televise the event and give it some coverage.” If Kim Rhode has 10,000 people waiting in line for an autograph, I bet Wheaties will put her on a box.
C’mon people, get fuckin’ real. I used to think that fencing was a cool sport. I mean, I love The Princess Bride and that is what all fencing matches look like, right? Then I watched some fencing and was amazed by how boring it is. It is absolutely nothing like what you expect. Hell, two Penn State girls won medals at Rio and I still could not bring myself to sit through it. To be fair, I have not actually watched any of the Olympics, but even if I were into it, I would probably not watch fencing. If you think I am kidding, watch the 2012 Olympic Championship Match and tell me how exciting it is…
Look, I am not making fun of these events. I am just trying to point out that if there is low interest in these things during the non-Olympic years, then do not be shocked when no one seems to care about them during the Olympics.
On a related side note…
Can we fix the Olympics? Either it needs to get rid of these “sports” that no on cares about and focus on the big ones OR they should have these minor events during a different time. That way everyone can watch badminton, table tennis, fencing, shooting, archery, and fucking trampoline. Then a week or two later bring in the big stuff. Hell, hold this other stuff in June or July, that way NBC could televise it (obviously on one of their lesser networks because they could never afford to give up such riveting television as The Night Shift).
The Olympics remind me of a George Carlin bit that I have posted before, but it is absolutely relevant…
“Swimming is not a sport, swimming is a way to keep from drowning!”
“When was the last time you made a fucking fencing bet?”
See, George Carlin makes everything better.
Is she really ignored by sponsors? I would think that she’d totally be able to score shotgun or ammo sponsorships, right? Do people not understand that sponsors are strictly out to make money?
She does get a lifetime membership for the NRA…