The surrogacy of TV and the joy of live

RIO DE JANIERO: It costs nearly a lakh and a half to get flights to and fro from Rio. The place is expensive with a decent meal costing in the vicinity of Rs 2000

RIO DE JANIERO: It costs nearly a lakh and a half to get flights to and fro from Rio. The place is expensive with a decent meal costing in the vicinity of Rs 2000 per person. Then, Olympics tickets are, firstly, difficult to procure and then they too bite a chunk out of the wallet. For instance, the ticket for the swimming venue on Monday cost a cool 260 Brazilian Reals and that’s about Rs 5,500. That’s the hit you take for watching the best in sport. Accommodation here too has also been crazily expensive with most early bookings for hotels going in the vicinity of $200 a night. That’s Rs 3,000 plus.

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Given the sheer logistics and the economics involved, there is no doubt that watching events like the Olympics is not for regular folks. It’s only for those with enough disposable income and those with the fervour to plan a trip at least a year in advance. Is it really worth it? This is your correspondent’s third Olympics and Monday night was the first time that I was able to watch Michael Phelps live at the pool. High-profile events with major spectator interest, like swimming, tennis and gymnastics, aren’t open to all media no matter whether you have the official Olympic accreditation or not. The national Olympic bodies get mere one or two tickets for the marquee events in case their own athletes are not participating. These are then given out to the press and it’s a bit of a slug fest with a bunch of journalists clamouring for the few scraps that are thrown their way. Your correspondent lucked out when a senior athlete of the Indian team managed to get his hands on some and was looking for company.

SPECTACULAR SHOW

As a sports writer one has been enthralled by the legend of Phelps. One has attended press conferences and seen him enough times outside the pool but Monday was my first glimpse of the man in action. It was spectacular.

While all swimmers competing at this level have a physique to die for, the man ripples and dominates with his sheer physical presence altogether different. His arm-span is massive, his fluidity in the water incredible. Yes, I have seen all this on TV before but TV dictates what the fan watches. There really isn’t any choice as the producer’s proclivity is what sculpts your viewing experience. Not so in live.

I saw Phelps walk out before his 200m butterfly heat. I was a bare 10 meters away. I saw him wave to the crowd and for a moment I felt special that a man of his stature should condescend to wave our way. I saw the marks left by the Chinese suction cups on his right shoulder and upper back (he is obviously getting some treatment). I noticed how he seems to rise lesser out of the water than the others, how he seemed to surge further ahead with each stroke on account of that. I could make out the visible difference as he let go his lead towards the end appearing to be content to just qualify and obviously conserving his energy for the final.

It was all fascinating. I saw so much more in one evening than decades of watching swimming on TV. That then, is why live sport rocks. TV is an extremely surrogate experience. And I fear that as has happened to me with other sport, I may not be able to watch swimming again on the box at home. It will just feel artificial.

Packed stadiums have a different vibe altogether. There is energy in the air, the atmosphere is taut. The best moments are when the winning athletes meet their supporters later. That’s the time TV is showing you the next race, it has no time for the fringes. And aren’t the fringes of life far more important to us that the jobs which dominate our existence? For me, they are.