I was watching a bit of the Olympics last night. Yeah, it was tape delayed, but I hadn't caught the summary on the nightly news shows, so I decided to watch a bit of the snowboardcross competition. (Honestly...they couldn't come up with a better title for that race???)
For those who haven't seen it, it's a 3000ish foot race down a hill with many turns. Pretty neat, and potentially crazy stuff. Seems that more often than not, all four riders don't make it to the bottom. They usually bump into one another along the way, and one or two wipe out. Bumping's legal, just not intentional pushing and whatnot.
Anyways, it was the women's comp. The American, Lindsey Jacobellis, was in the finals. The race started out great for her. She managed to fight her way to the front of the pack, which is generally where you want to be, to be out of the jostling that can go on behind you, which causes crashes. One rider caught some bad air five seconds into the race, and ended up being taken to the hospital, (where she was treated and released.)
Later, 3rd place made a mistake, and went flying to the side of the course, through the wobbly mesh stuff they line the sides with. (She ended up finishing the race, and was shocked to hear she finished third. Obviously unaware that the other rider at the top never got back up.)
That left 1st and 2nd. Jacobellis had a HUGE lead. Around 150 feet, which translated to about three seconds. Skillfully negotiating the turns, she starting coming down the final straightaway to the finish line.
On the second to last jump, she pulls a showboat move (a "method air,") and lands awkwardly, ultimately landing on her back and sliding for a bit.
While getting up and getting started again, her lead disappears, and the Swede Tanja Frieden glides right past her, and finishes first, embracing friends in ecstasy while Jacobellis places second, very fortunate that the other competitors either never got back up, or fell so bad, that it took them forever to get back on the course. If all three other riders had been still racing in the same area, Jacobellis no doubt wouldn't have even medaled.
Found a short slide show of the event, but forgive me, I'm a bit uneducated on how to make it a short url:
Shortened link by saintSo...now we look at the psychology of the situation. Had her competitors been closer to her, obviously she'd have never pulled off that unsportsmanlike move right near them. She thought she had it won, then lost it by showing off.
The part that really irked me the most of the situation though, was her trying to pass it off as if it wasn't her fault. She initially claimed she caught some "bad air" or something, and tried to readjust. Did she really think the entire world was that incompetent? This is snowboardcross's Olympic debut, but we know showboating when we see it, regardless of the sport. And there was no mistaking it in this sport. That was blatant. Hours later in a conference, she finally 'fessed up.
Now how can a person really EVER get past this. She had it won. All she had to do was lazily glide down the hill and sail past the finish line. But she went stupid, and ended up losing because of it. When asked shortly after the loss what she thought about the silver medal. She replied (paraphasing,) "This is the Olympics. A silver medal's a silver medal." No doubt a ploy to shrug off the reporter, and avoid any more questions about the situation, by hinting that she's content with the silver. Yeah right. Who in the hell would be content with a silver after having the gold waiting for you at the finish line? She didn't even have to race for it at the last half of the race. It was literally WAITING for her to claim it as hers.
I suppose one day, when she has children/grandchildren, and they're in sports, she can use it as a motivational tool. She can explain to them, "This is what happens when you screw around and showoff. This was supposed to be gold. This was supposed to mean I was the best in the world. But I showboated, and I lost the gold because of it."
And on that same topic of showcasing the medal. Would you display it, proud for all the world to see, knowing that it wasn't the one you wanted, the one that should've been? I don't think I could. It would be a constant reminder of one of the grandest failures in sports. Certainly a majority of the people you live near would know your story, so you couldn't exactly parade the thing around like you were the second best. You WERE the best, you just didn't have the gold to prove you were. Most people would still be proud, but you'd still have a few of the pessimists (like me) pointing out "Shouldn't that be gold?" Truly that would be a grating question. I'd put that thing away, only to pull it out every once in awhile to remind myself. Remind myself that modesty is a virtue. Excessive pride will only bring you down.
Now to look at the opposite end of the spectrum. What does Tanja Frieden really think? Is the really a "win" in her book? Is she proud of herself? In all honesty, she's NOT the best, though the gold medal around her neck would argue otherwise. Is this truly the way she wanted to win? Off someone else screwing around? Truly, she was beaten. Badly. She was around 3 seconds away from the lead. That's an eternity in the Olympics. (Hell, even for a fleeting few seconds, I thought maybe Jacobellis would recover in time, and still win. It was a gigantic gap, and she was still sliding down, albeit on her back.) Depending on Frieden's conscience, she MIGHT be able to justify her win, and think she's the best. If that were me though, I don't think I'd be able to consider myself the best. Not in that way. I might be able to for awhile, but eventually it would get to me. I'd be happy that I have the gold (who wouldn't be,) but in the back of my mind, I would know it shouldn't have been. I'd be ITCHING for the chance to redeem myself. (Apparently at the X Games, according to the news, Frieden had a lead over Jacobellis, but slightly relaxed at the end only to be passed and beaten by 0.29 seconds. Sounds similar to this situation with the roles reversed, but the "relaxing" portion was multiplied exponentially. So all things considered, this wasn't even a relatively similar situation.) While this may be "payback" for what happened the last time, it still probably wouldn't feel "pure."
She, on the other hand, will showcase that gold for all the world to see. If anyone asks her about the conditions leading to that gold, she MIGHT give a short one or two line answer about what truly happened, and may even answer an additional quick question, but would most likely try to change the subject.
Everyone has their faults. Jacobellis just decided to show hers at the wrong time, and
it cost her her dreams.
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Topic: Olympic's new USA moron (Read 5829 times)
