Perhaps it’s inevitable that we in America idolize sports figures the way we do. We know we shouldn’t, because when you idolize someone you don’t actually know, you’re asking for heartbreak when you inevitably find out they’re a wife-beater or a drunk or addicted to painkillers.
But we do it anyway — I’m no exception — even though the idea of grown men worshipping other grown men and viciously defending their reputations just because they throw a ball hard or run fast is, well, ridiculous.
It’s in our nature, that feeling of wanting to belong to something, especially in this modern era when our small tribes have scattered and our warriors have disappeared.
So we separate. I’m Boston, you’re New York. I like the Giants, you like the Cowboys. I think Ali was the greatest, you think Tyson would have killed him. We don’t know ’em. We never will. But we love ’em anyway.
Then someone like Vitali Klitschko comes along.
If you don’t follow sports, you’re probably not familiar with him, although if you’re vaguely aware of boxing you might recognize him as "that huge Eastern European dude who reminds me of Drago from ‘Rocky IV.’"
And huge he is, standing at 6-foot, 7-inches tall and weighing in at a lean 243 pounds — but that’s where the similarities to Rocky’s nemesis end.
When he emerged as one of the top heavyweights in the world 10 years ago, it was an immediate and welcome departure from the maelstrom of drama that wreaked havoc on the boxing world during the Tyson years. Klitschko, after all, has a PhD in sports science, speaks four languages, enjoys chess, and often works with UNESCO.
Inside the ring, "Dr. Ironfist" was all we could ever want: a tough, hardworking assassin who loved to fight and always went for the knockout when blood was in the water. His only losses were stoppages due to injury, and over the course of 16 years, he was never knocked down.
When he retired in December of 2013, it was assumed to be more out of boredom than old age. No one had given him a run for his money in years, and what good is the warrior without a war?
But there was a bigger battle looming that many of us in the America were ignorant of, and I had no idea that when he said that he wanted to focus on politics in his home nation of Ukraine, that path would lead him into far greater danger than he ever met in the squared circle.
Now, one look at any news channel tells us all we need to know. Kiev burns through the night as Ukrainians, desperate to free themselves of the yoke of Russian influence, engage in running streetfights with police who represent a government intent on breaking the will of its people.
The violence has reached levels not seen since the breakup of the Soviet Union, and thousands have camped out in Kiev’s aptly named Independence Square, the epicenter of what looks more like civil war than civil strife.
And who is in the middle of it all but Vitali Klitschko, the man who has all the money and all the fame he could ever ask for, but has put himself squarely in the crosshairs anyway.
Elected to the Ukrainian parliament in 2012, he has led the opposition to President Viktor Yanukovich’s regime and proven himself an effective leader, calling for restraint from police and protestors both when it would prevent inevitable bloodshed.
But like any good fighter, he knows when the hands that can sign peace accords must ball into a fist. And as the pictures stream in from a ravaged Kiev, it appears now is that time.
"We will not go anywhere from here," he told a crowd of 20,000 who gathered in the square last Wednesday. "This is an island of freedom, and we will defend it."
Two dozen had died defending it the day before. Scores more would die at the hands of government snipers the day after. The future of a country hangs in the balance. The doctor is in and seeks to save a patient of unprecedented importance.
If you’re looking for a man who truly warrants admiration, look no further.
Email: janoski@northjersey.com
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http://www.northjersey.com/news/ex-boxer-s-hands-hold-the-fate-of-a-nation-1.731742
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