I just watched the women's Olympic Snowboard Cross (see yesterday's post). All four gals were about as good as they get. Our U.S. rider, Lindsey Jacobelli, who is the current World Champion, got a good start, took the lead by the first turn, and put an incredible lead on the field of about three seconds (140 feet).
She had the race won a in walk when she did an incredible thing: she threw the race away. She was making the last jump and, being of 20 tender years of age and every bit as mature as that implies, took leave of her senses and did a show-off mid-air trick and crashed upon landing. To put this in some perspective, it's like having a straightaway-length lead at the Daytona 500 (which is this coming Sunday, by the way) and doing a burn-out donut between turn 4 and the finish line on the last lap and hitting the wall.
The Swiss rider, Tanja Frieden, who must have realized she had just been handed the Gold Medal, went on for the win. Miss Jacobelli got up and finished second for the Silver. If the other two riders hadn't had problems of their own and were way behind, she might not have.
Bob Costas interviewed Miss Jacobelli. I told Mrs. G the question he should ask her and, by gum, he did it - "What were you thinking?"
To her credit, the young lady fessed up and admitted getting all excited and screwing up.
That's more mature and honest than most of the people we post about here, and I congratulate her for her Silver Medal and being a good sport, which is, after all, one mark of a true champion.
She's young and has plenty of time to set the world on fire, but it must be agonizing for her to know that she beat herself out of a Gold Medal at the first-ever Olympic Snowboard Cross. Don't ask me how I know this, but nothing can deflate your ego like getting caught doing something stupid, moreso I'm sure when the whole world is watching! She'll be the better for it. I bet she never does that again.
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