Olympics are for mature at heart

Winning "on the road" is difficult in any sport. But winning on the road at the Winter Olympics can be all uphill. The disappointing showing by several United States athletes has borne that out. Still, it is hard to win a race when you shoot yourself in the foot. And more than a few young American Olympians have almost seemed determined to submarine their own efforts.

Two aging sports maxims come to mind here. The first: "Don't believe press clippings." That might apply to Bode Miller — the bad-boy of American snow sports — whose renegade style has endeared him to journalists and young rascals. Miller seemed bent on self-destruction from the first race. He not only imploded, but — to borrow an outdoors line — folded like a homeland canoe. Miller's meteoric fall has come to symbolize, for many, the fatal flaw of this year's team: hubris.

Maxim No. 2: Sport doesn't build character but reveals character. From the pouting hissy-fits of skaters Chad Hedrick and Shani Davis to the "Hey, Mom! Look at me!" antics of snowboarder Lindsay Jacobellis, the world has seen more American characters than character this time around. The grace and sportsmanship of past Olympians was hard to come by.

Those who looked, however, could find it. Not everyone was pulled into the vortex of moody misbehavior, of course. Michelle Kwan's classy exit showed how things should be handled. And the goodwill and simple goodness of the sport could be seen in the teamwork of the U.S. women's bobsled team, the breath of fresh air that Utah's Ted Ligety displayed, and the generosity of skater Joey Cheek when he donated his winnings to charity. They brought the right attitude to the Games and took home medals.

For others, who have failed and looked bad trying, former Olympian Picabo Street summed up the feelings of many when she said if the U.S. Olympic team is to eventually triumph, team members need to "mature."

It was Street's gracious way of saying, "Grow up!"

But then Americans — especially American performers — have always been mystified by this "maturity" business. Stateside, people are often praised for acting and looking half their age and refusing to bend to the years. Many end up looking silly trying to stay forever young.

But maturity is not about age. It's about realizing the world is much larger than a single person's ambitions and wishes. The novelist Wallace Stegner said that self-centeredness is the great sin of modern America.

Much of the behavior at the Olympic Games has born that out. Fortunately the country — and its corps of young warriors — will have four more years to try to figure that out.

We wish them good luck.

Even more, we wish them good manners and maturity. We wish them Ernest Hemingway's famous definition of "courage" — the ability to show grace under pressure.