I had tears in my eyes when Parra stood at the podium last night, crying to the national anthem!

What disappointed me, was that WNBC in New York was elated that Vonetta Flowers is the first African American to win winter gold, but made no mention of Parra being the 1st Hispanic American to win winter gold.
Then I log on to Outsports, and see the same disparity.... (See today's top/bottom)

Personally, I am VERY PROUD of Derek and what he has accomplished!

Actually the TODAY show this morning (Wednesday) had both featured (Yvonne and Derek), with both showing up in person to talk with Matt Lauer. Maybe the problem is just WNBC.

While watching Parra win last night, we wondered if he were a Cuban-American or what his ethnic heritage might be. They stated quite clearly last night on NBC and on the Today show this morning that he was Hispanic and that he was the first Hispanic Gold medalist in the Winter Olympics.

Parra is Mexican-American.

Mexican ... Hispanic ... Cuban ... who cares? Parra is Gorgeous-American, possibly also Un-eff-ingly-Amzingly-Hot-American, too.

True, Parra is the first Latino from the U.S. to win an Olympic medal, and he's Mexican-American. What an Olympics--the first Latino, the first Black American, Vonetta Flowers--plus Apolo Anton Ohno, Michele Kwan, that gorgeous BOBSLED TEAM, all the snowboarders, and the rest of the U.S. team--this is a diverse country, and it's beautiful to see the medal tallies reflecting this!

Now, if only the NBC announcers weren't so smarmy and jingoistic, and everything weren't TAPED!!!

[ February 23, 2002: Message edited by: fantomas ]

They have had a decent amount of live coverage. As for the announcers being jingoistic, that's probably never going to change.

Actually, I think the coverage has been far, far better than the Summer Olympics. Half the time in the summer olympics, if an American won the gold, they didn't even bother to tell us who won the other medals. If there were no American medalists, they simply skipped the competition entirely in the summer. I didn't have to sit through quite as many stupid montages about Michelle Kwan as I did about Marion Jones, either. They actually showed the performances of most of the contenders in most sports. All in all, while it was not flawless, it was far better. I'm hoping that's because they listened to some of the criticism from Sydney, rather than just because there are fewer events to cover.

Doesn't matter if he is Hispanic, Cuban American, or whatever, he is first and foremost an American, and we are very proud of him, and everybody else, who has represented their country so magnificently these past 2 weeks.

[ February 24, 2002: Message edited by: puckman45 ]

Generally I don't have a problem with the NBC jingoism. They're the American broadcaster. The Germans, Australians, Canadians, Italians, etc. have their broadcasters here too. They get to be singlemindedly for their teams, I have no problem with NBC doing the same.
However, in coverage of the minorities who have won medals, their jingoism gets in the way just a bit. Vonneta Flowers is not merely the first African-American to win a gold medal; she's the first person of African descent period to win a winter gold. Similarly, Jerome Iginla of the Canadian Men's Hockey Team is the first Man of African descent to win Winter gold. I suppose as a Canadian he could be technically be called an African-American, but that would be splitting hairs unnecessarily. Iginla, Flowers, Parra and the gentlemen in America-1 are pioneers who should be recognized for their worldwide accomplishment, not pigeonholed in North America.