The Agony of Defeat

May 16, 2007 10:26 PM

One man appeared more often than any other on the sports anthology ABC's Wide World of Sports: Yugoslavian ski jumper Vinko Bogataj, whose spectacular 1970 crash was shown in the show's opening montage to the words "and the agony of defeat." (Despite the brutality of the crash, he suffered only a concussion.) He still lives in his hometown of Lesce, Slovenia, and since retiring from his factory job in 2005 has devoted himself to critically acclaimed painting. Charmingly enough, he had no idea of his celebrity status until he was asked to appear during a special to mark the show's 20th anniversary in 1981.
posted by maxwelton (18 comments total)

Nice timing, maxwelton — this post on the day after Falwell!
posted by rob511 at 10:33 PM on May 16, 2007

Nice post, maxwelton! My parents watched WWOS religiously- the theme music began playing in my head the moment I read "agony of defeat".
posted by oneirodynia at 10:38 PM on May 16, 2007

In Aus, we venerate Rick Disnick for a similar achievement.
posted by pompomtom at 10:54 PM on May 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

pompomtom, I've seen that clip a million times in various "pwned" compilations, and never knew anything about it. Thanks!
posted by maxwelton at 11:03 PM on May 16, 2007

Here is a little bit of info on the composer of the theme music. And you can listen to it here.
posted by bowline at 11:06 PM on May 16, 2007

Nice one! I was just thinking about that clip and the fate of that guy the other day!
posted by redteam at 11:50 PM on May 16, 2007

If only he could get paid for all those airings of his defeat.
posted by Goofyy at 12:03 AM on May 17, 2007

These paintings do seem to portray how the world must look when you're flying past it at 80mph
posted by Flashman at 1:28 AM on May 17, 2007

I always thought if they were gonna update that montage, it would be fun to remove the hapless skiier and replace it with the Nancy Kerrigan knee-whacking incident that Tonya Harding arranged.
posted by DenOfSizer at 4:01 AM on May 17, 2007

Can you imagine seeing that crash on live TV today and hearing the announcer exclaim, "Ohh, baby!!"
posted by cribcage at 6:32 AM on May 17, 2007

Every time I saw that clip, I WWOS, I always felt sorry for the poor guy who I assumed had seen that clip over and over again and had to relive that moment every week knowing that he had become the embodiment of "the agony of defeat."
posted by deanc at 6:45 AM on May 17, 2007

This is a GREAT post!
posted by bukvich at 7:16 AM on May 17, 2007

great post...and he was on scrubs? whats the story with that?
posted by milestogo at 9:17 AM on May 17, 2007

This is great, thanks.
posted by Kraftmatic Adjustable Cheese at 9:21 AM on May 17, 2007

Thanks, that was really interesting.
posted by languagehat at 12:01 PM on May 17, 2007

Nice post. And a great name, Vinko Bogataj. It says on his biography page that Muhammad Ali asked him for his autograph!
posted by LeLiLo at 12:32 PM on May 17, 2007

(y/t) Werner Herzog: The Great Ecstasy of Woodcarver Steiner.
posted by acro at 5:12 PM on May 17, 2007

I like his paintings. Fun post.
posted by philfromhavelock at 5:29 PM on May 17, 2007