I enjoyed my previous rant, it was very therapeutic and liberating, so I thought I’d give it another try.
Boy did I find the perfect recipient! Her name is Lindsey Jacobellis.
Lindsey won the silver medal in the women’s snowboard cross on Friday. That is an amazing accomplishment in a brand new and exciting Olympic event that would normally be celebrated if it weren’t for the fact that Lindsey should have won gold, except she committed an act of Olympic-sized stupidity that she may be too dumb to let bother her for the rest of her life.
Here’s the gist of it…
It’s the final round of the women’s snowboard cross. In the final race were two Canadians, a Swiss and an American. Early in the race, Maelle Ricker of Canada wipes out on a jump. Next out was Dominique Maltais, also of Canada who took a header into one of the fences. This left the Swiss boarder Tanja Frieden in second and American Lindsey Jacobellis with a commanding lead. She was so far ahead that Frieden couldn’t even be seen behind her.
All Jacobellis had to do was stay on her board and finish the race and she would have won gold. Instead, on the second-to-last jump, she decides she’ll pull a …”backside method grab”…a trick she rarely tries and one that included a flashy 60-degree twist right in front of the grandstands…1 causing her to fall on her ass.
All she could do then was scramble to her feet and watch the Swiss boarder zoom by hoping that she too would fall in disbelief that she was about to win gold…it didn’t happen.
Apparently, someone hasn’t read The Tortoise and the Hare when they were a child. In the case of Lindsey Jacobellis slow and steady really would have won the race.
When asked about it after, Lindsey responded, “I was caught up in the moment…I was having fun…Snowboarding is fun. I was ahead. I wanted to share my enthusiasm with the crowd. I messed up. Oh well, it happens.”1
When asked if she thought what she did reflected poorly on Americans she said, “I don’t think that at all…Just because we win a lot doesn’t mean we’re showboating.”1
You’re right Lindsey, winning doesn’t equate to showboating. Showboating equates to showboating—and that’s precisely what you did. You can put any spin on it you want. You were ahead. Thanks to some unfortunate accidents, no one else was close. You decided to have some fun and you blew it for yourself and your country.
What gets lost in all this crap, is what the Olympic games are supposed to be about…friendly competition between nations and sportsmanship.
Not enough has been made about people like Bjornar Haakensmoen, the Norwegian coach who handed Sara Renner of Canada a ski pole after hers broke, helping her win the silver in women’s sprint cross-country skiing. The Norwegian team finished 4th, just out of a medal. If he hadn’t helped the Canadians, they would have undoubtedly fallen out of contention and Norway would have had at least a bronze.
Stories like these underline what the Olympics games used to be about. Unfortunately, for every one of these stories, there seems to be 10 stories of cheating and unsportsmanlike conduct. Lindsey Jacobellis is simply the latest example.
1 From “Quite Simply, an Olympic-Size Blunder” on www.washingtonpost.com, Saturday, Feb. 18 2006
What are you thinking?