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This clip is from the 1996 season finale of the fine modern entertainment, American Gladiators. In order to win the prize and ten thousand dollars, contestants must duke it out with a variety of gladiators, the 1990's counterparts of the Ancient Roman profession. What interests me in this clip is not the end of the race itself (as pulse-elevating and heart-stopping as it was), but how the winners (and losers) are treated after the race. There are two winners, a woman (Tee Sorge), and a man (Pat Czimazy); each must give a speech as they accept the trophy for the kleos they won during their athlos with another contestant. Note how Tee's speech begins: "It's a dream, it's a dream come true": for an ancient hero--- or ancient athlete -- the moment of victory literally is a dream come true. The whole of their life has arched towards that particular telos, toward a victory over another in a contest of either strength or will. Tee's moment of ecstacy is so complete that she is unable to take in all at once the enormity of her victory; she confesses that later, at night, her victory will "hit her like a rock." Pat's speech is even more revealing of the mind-set of a winner of a contest. His experience of triumph deprives him of the very power of speech; his grammar is as fractured as his victory was complete. The interviewer asks what is next for Pat; Pat alreadyhas his eyes on his next victory, for he has a "sprinting, explosive schedule." Note how Pat's lexical choices are entirely the vocabulary of an athlete: in the moment of victory, he is the prototypical, idealized, athlete -- one for whom the world is constructed solely as a series of agones. He will have only the briefest of moments in which to enjoy this victory, before moving on to his next trial.
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