Which Olympians Are Getting The Dead-Relative Sob-Story Treatment?

On Sunday we saw NBC badger Bode Miller to the point of tears over his brother's death last year, a particularly brazen example of the network turning Olympic achievement into a story of overcoming personal loss. While no other athletes have been shoved and stuffed into a prefab storyline the way Miller was, several others have gone in for similar tearjerking treatment—and from media outlets other than NBC.

Over at the Salt Lake Tribune, Nate Carlisle has been compiling a (non-exhaustive) list of Olympians who've seen a personal loss become the focus of media coverage. Here's what he has so far, through Feb. 16:

Carlisle is pulling from a relatively small sample here; presumably these sorts of articles are being written in all of the dozens of languages spoken at Sochi. While we don't expect another prying NBC interview anytime soon, there are still plenty of events to be contested, which means there are still lots of athletes with lots of dead relatives to mourn. Keep an eye on Carlisle's list.

[ Salt Lake Tribune]