Let’s talk about the Winter Olympics. Let’s be honest for a second. Most of us only watch it because there is nothing else on TV. It is cold. It is gray. It is a bunch of people doing things that normal people only do when they are trying to survive a blizzard. We sit on our couches, eating chips, judging people who are in the best shape of their lives. It is a weird tradition. But usually, it is just boring. Someone slides down a hill. Someone slides faster. Someone gets a piece of metal on a ribbon. The end.

But that wasn’t enough for Sturla Holm Laegreid. He is a biathlete. That is the sport where you ski for a while, then you stop and shoot a gun, then you ski some more. It sounds like something out of a bad action movie, but it is a real sport. Laegreid is good at it. He is from Norway. He went to the Olympics. He won a bronze medal. That is third place. In the real world, third place means you lost to two other guys. But at the Olympics, we pretend it is a big deal. You get to stand on the little box. You get flowers.

Most people would be happy with that. Most people would take the medal, wave to the camera, and go have a beer. But not this guy. Winning wasn’t enough attention for him. He needed more. He needed everyone to look at him and talk about him. So, what did he do? He went on live TV and blew up his own life.

He didn't talk about the snow. He didn't talk about his training. He didn't talk about the gun or the skis. No. He looked right into the camera and told the world that he cheated on his girlfriend. He called it the "biggest mistake" of his life. He turned a sports interview into a therapy session. He turned the Olympics into a bad reality TV show.

Why do people do this? Why is privacy dead? I truly do not understand it. There used to be a thing called shame. If you did something bad, you hid it. You didn’t want people to know. You felt bad about it in your room, with the door locked. Now, shame is just content. Your mistakes are just a way to get more likes. It is like these people think, "Hey, I did something terrible to someone I love. I bet this will get me on the front page."

Think about the girlfriend for a second. Just think about her. She is probably at home. Maybe she is happy he won a medal. She is watching the TV, cheering for him. And then, in front of millions of people, he humiliates her. He doesn't just break her heart privately. He drags her into the mud with him. He makes sure that every neighbor, every friend, and every stranger knows her business. That is not an apology. That is cruelty. That is selfishness on a level that is hard to comprehend.

He says he regrets it. He says it was a mistake. If it was a mistake, why are you telling a reporter? Go tell her. Go fix it in private. But he can’t do that. Because in this stupid, modern world, nothing is real unless it is broadcast. Feelings don't count unless an audience sees them. He wanted the sympathy. He wanted people to say, "Oh, look at poor Sturla. He is so tortured. He is so deep." Give me a break.

This is what we have become. We are a society of children screaming for attention. The Right wants to be victims of the culture war. The Left wants to be victims of the system. And the athletes just want to be famous, no matter what it costs. It doesn’t matter if you are good at your job anymore. It matters if you are messy. It matters if you have drama.

We are all to blame, really. We eat this stuff up. If he just talked about skiing, we would have changed the channel. But he talked about sex and betrayal, and suddenly we are listening. We love the trash. We love watching people fall apart. It makes us feel better about our own boring lives. The networks love it too. They don't care about dignity. They care about ratings. A crying skier is worth more than a fast skier.

So, congratulations to Sturla Holm Laegreid. You won a bronze medal for skiing. Good job. But you won the gold medal for being a narcissist. You proved that you care more about your own story than you care about the people around you. You proved that in 2024, honor is dead. All that is left is the noise. We are drowning in noise. And guys like this just turn up the volume.