Mexican mainstream media sucks: The case of the Mexican divers

By now, just about everyone knows that I have paid very little attention to the Beijing 2008 Olympics on my blog. There is a reason behind that. I really don’t care much for Olympic Games overall. I have played national-level and semi-international level, competitive volleyball and two of my brothers were highly ranked worldwide in other sports, so I know exactly how these things work. Unless a string of good luck strikes, competitive athletes (particularly amateur) are underfunded, underpaid, and generally, treated as second-class citizens (I can provide lots of real-life examples, so don’t come to me and tell me this isn’t the case).

However, I did follow with interest the performance of Olympic bronze-medalists Paola Espinosa and Tatiana Ortiz (in synchronized diving). These Mexican athletes proved that they are able to compete in the world stage (Mexico has a poor history of medal-achievements in many, many sports). Paola Espinosa was highly favored to rise to the podium given her latest good results.

However, today I read on the Mexican mainstream media coverage headlines like the following:

“Paola and Tatiana succumb to the Chinese divers”

“Paola and Tatiana lose against the Chinese divers”

And a series of other stupid headlines. The coverage is atrocious. The Mexican mainstream media is portraying Tatiana and Paola as losers. Nothing further from the truth. Espinosa and Ortiz ended the competition in 4th and 5th place, respectively. They finished the Olympic competition as two of the top 5 ranked divers worldwide.

I witnessed the competition and was really happy and pleasantly surprised with Tatiana and Paola’s performance. Having followed diving for a few years, I knew that some Mexican divers who were really good, ended up breaking down and having really poor performances at Worlds or Olympics because they caved to pressure.

However, this was never the case with Tatiana nor Paola. Instead of caving to the pressure and going for easier dives, they kept up with the rest of the divers (congratulations to the Canadian diver for a silver medal!). This showed the real competitive spirit of Tatiana and Paola. They kept fighting and gave a good fight (even though I still think that the judges heavily favored the Chinese divers). I am sure they’ll achieve a medal in London 2012.

Felicidades, Paola y Tatiana. Ustedes hicieron un gran papel..

Regardless of what the Mexican mainstream media says, Paola and Tatiana are winners. And in case everybody forgets, they are the first Mexican female divers to achieve a medal in Olympic games. For the record.