An open letter to Pete Bevacqua, Chairman of NBC Sports

The following is with regard to the doping controversy at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. It’s a letter expressing dismay over the apparent lack of good sportsmanship and decorum exhibited by at least two NBC sportscasters, in condemning before a massive TV audience, not only the Russian team but 15-year-old Kamila Valieva.

Dear Mr. Bevacqua,

As the former CEO of the PGA, I am sure that good sportsmanship and decorum are subjects well known to you. As I type this I am thinking of Arnold Palmer, Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, and great sports legends in other fields, such as figure skating. To the purpose of my letter sir.

Two of your commentators broadcasting at the Beijing Olympics have not only broken every rule of good sportsmanship I ever heard of, but they also laid waste to your TV network’s reputation for many of us old-school athletes and fans of sport. Former Olympic great Tara Lipinski and her colleague Johnny Weir (Aka The Official Johnny G. Weir) broke silence and decades of tradition in ridiculing Russian skater Kamila Valieva, on the air, and before any in-depth investigation has even been carried out of the doping scandal in Beijing. To make matters far worse, the pair could not contain their hate and hypocrisy at the crucial moment. When Ms. Valieva fell apart on the ice, in front of billions of onlookers, these two announcers of yours cheered.

A little girl, already obliterated and shattered by all that has gone on, has had to be subjected to a kind and degree of cruelty Jesse Owens did not experience in Berlin, in 1936. Lipinski, and those in our industry of athletics like her, would be well served to remember their days in the sun. For this, I suggest they reread about track and field legend Carl Lewis on the subject of our own Olympic Committee, the same committee in place when winter Olympians skated at Nagano.

I mention this for reasons which may not seem obvious to the casual reader. You see, had the same punishment the Russians got been applied for hundreds of Americans who were doping back in Lewis’ and Lipinski’s era… Well, perhaps the latter would not have become the youngest Olympic women’s champion, after all.

This brings to light another facet of this disgraceful behavior on the air. Had Ms. Valieva won, she would have eclipsed everything Lipinski ever accomplished. At least, this is how the American competitive mind seems to work. And the insinuation cannot help your TV sports network any more than having Tonya Harding commentating would. Maybe Ms. Lipinski would be better suited to covering boxing or MMA fighting?

I know that Comcast, NBC, and especially NBC Sports believe in fair play, human decency in the face of bitter odds, and the immutable spirit of sportsmanship the Olympic Games has always symbolized. I can remember so well, all those heroes that inspired us back when. I recall Bob Hayes in Tokyo. The story of Al Oerter, the unprecedented discus legend who instead of a heart transplant in later life, refused a transplant, saying famously:

“I’ve had an interesting life, and I’m going out with what I have.”

There are so many more examples. I guess we’ve all seen so many. But the question is, “How are you going to go out on this one Mr. Bevacqua?” Will “Thank God” exhaled in front of the entire world, and especially in front of little kids, be allowed to stand? Is this who we have become? At the very least, these two announcers need some time to reflect. I hope you agree.