Sports documentary details the extraordinary drive and dedication it takes for someone to get to the Olympics, the “overwhelming” reality of being there, and most keenly of all, the suddenly steep climb to stability that awaits them once they’re home. It enlists Olympians like Phelps, snowboarder Shaun White, speed-skater Apolo Anton Ohno and figure skaters Sasha Cohen and Gracie Gold to detail their lives in and out of the Games with unprecedented candor.
There’s enough material to fuel an entire docuseries in the immersive vein of something like “The Last Dance” — and yet, “The Weight of Gold” clocks in at just under an hour in total. With precious little time to spare its dozens of narrative avenues, this well-meaning documentary just can’t do justice to everything — and everyone — it wants to highlight.
There could be an entire episode in the lead-up to the Olympics, when children become singleminded athletes who believe that, as Ohno puts it, “everything that’s not catered to you performing at the highest level in sport is a nonstarter.” Understanding that perspective more intimately seems key to more clearly understanding how athletes come to view everything outside the Games as, in the words of Cohen, “an obstacle” to “push aside.
For one, trying to cover so much ground in so little time results in unfortunate shortcuts that sometimes undercut the documentary’s own conclusions. About halfway through, for example, Phelps’ narration tells us that “however [The Olympics] end, the bigger point is that it’s over.
This documentary wants to show civilians that Olympians aren’t nearly as impervious as their otherworldly skill might convey. On that count, it succeeds. In fact, it’s persuasive enough on this front that its ultimate inability to delve into every issue it raises becomes even more frustrating than it might have been if it were just straight up bad.
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