Bob Sledding

​We watch the Olympics throughout most of the day, so that you don't have to.

Actually, I wasn't planning to post a column in the morning, but hold off until this evening as usual.  However, plans sometimes gets changed.  More on that shortly.

In fact, I hadn't planned on writing much at all for today.  That's because yesterday meant watching a lot of "X Games"-type of snowboarding events, which for the most part don't interest me.  They do for some people, and I do tend to watch some of them to a degree, though more in the background, and not for extended lengths of time.  I do find a few of the events more interesting than others, like the snowboard cross -- which are real races, just on an exceedingly hilly course.  And the halfpipe which I find moderately interesting, since it makes no pretense to be anything other than what it is, air flips, and as a result isn't totally dissimilar to the gymnastic rings or uneven parallel bars, rather than jury-riggings unrelated skills together to try and create a sport.  But any event that's described by its "tricks" just has less interest to me personally as an Olympic sport.  A race where you have to spin and twist in the air can be great fun to watch, to a degree, and require great talent - and incredible courage -- but ultimately is more entertaining gimmick than Olympic Sport for my taste.  Something that would be tremendous on the vaudeville stage, in the circus or on America's Got Talent.  In much the same way that, as entertaining and highly-skilled as ice dancing is, any event that has the required cha cha and tango are not - to me - Olympic Sports.

So, though I watched on-and-off throughout the day, and enjoyed some of it, I don't have aspects of it all that I found interesting enough yesterday to write about them.  They were.  Some people love these events.  I leave the commentary to them.

Which brings us to Lindsey Jacobellis.

As I said, I hadn’t intended to write much of anything at all, most-especially considering what I said about these types of events -- I'd even written the column in the early evening yesterday and put it aside.  But happily, I did mention above that one of the few of the X Game-type events I did like was snowboard cross.  Which, as I said, brings us to Lindsey Jacobellis.

You likely remember her.  She was the 20-year-old at the 2006 Winter Olympics at Turin who came into the Games as the charmed one, with lots of commercials and attention.  She was leading the snowboard cross finals with less than 100 yards to go, far ahead for the Gold Medal – and on her final jump, when all she had to do was land and almost glide in, she decided to do a totally unnecessary twist-in-the-air hot-dog trick, something that isn’t even part of the discipline, but other X Game events, and fell, losing the Gold Medal and getting the Silver instead.

It followed her for years – the past 16 years, in fact.  Unfortunately, deservedly so.  It wasn’t that she made a mistake, but she made an intentional mistake…at the Olympics…in the Gold Medal finals…to just be a hot dog and show-off.  For me, and I know this is just personal, hot dogging is one of my bugaboos.  And it not only defined Ms. Jacobellis, but sort of how I feel about all these X Game events (which in their very earliest incarnation were even known as hot dog competitions).  I felt very bad for her – but she knowingly brought it on herself.

And so, when she made the next Olympic team in 2010, I didn’t care much either way if she won the Gold Medal to finally win the Gold she at last deserved after not getting it in 2006 – because she didn’t get it in 2006 as the result of someone being better that one day or by a total accident, but because she herself intentionally, arrogantly threw in a show-off move at the end of the Gold Medal race that was hers.  And she not only didn’t get a Gold Medal, but she didn’t get any medal.

Nor did she get a medal four years later at the 2014 Winter Olympics, her third, which surprised me that she was still competing.

In fact, she had become the top snowboard cross athlete in the world, but still hadn’t won a Gold Medal, and no medal at all since her silver.  I felt bad for her when she didn’t win anything in her third Olympics, and I’d have been happy for her if she had – but again, arrogantly hot dogging is one of my bugaboos, so I still didn’t care one way or the other.

When she made the Winters Olympics in 2018, I was amazed, and finally softened a bit (yes, I can sometimes be a tough cuss, especially when it comes to showing off arrogantly…), and thought, okay, it would be nice if she finally got her Gold Medal.  Or at least any medal.  But – she didn’t.  Nothing.

And then, when the snowboard cross came on TV late last night, I was utterly stunned to see Lindsey Jacobellis there yet again, in her fifth Olympics – at age 36, when most of her competitors are in their early 20s.  And she wasn’t there are on farewell tour, she was still winning on the international circuit, considered the best of all-time in the sport, with the most victories in tour events and world championships, yet only that one Silver Medal 16 years ago (which was not a Gold Medal because of her screw-up).

And that was plenty-enough for me.  If intentionally and arrogantly hot dogging defined her 16 years ago – then persevering, pushing herself, and becoming the best-ever in her sport for 16 years, participating in her fifth Olympics defined her today.  It’s remarkable and deeply admirable.  So, I got over the hump and was pulling for her to finally win her Gold Medal.  But any medal would be okay.

And she won her first qualifying race, leading almost all the way.  And then her second.  And third, making it into the finals.  Leading all of races almost the entire way.  She was snowboarding great.

(Before the finals, one of the announcers said, “One thing we can be sure we won't see here from Lindsey...is panic.”  And all I could think was – NO!!  If there’s one thing we can be sure we won't see here from Lindsey it’s that if she’s winning -- she will not jump up in the air and do a twisting trick.)

Well…she got into the lead, again.  And…and…after 16 years, at age 36, the best ever in her event, but who never had won a Gold Medal -- Lindsey Jacobellis finally won her Gold Medal.

It was seriously impressive.

I was thrilled for her.  And even pumped my arm when she won.  Yes, I know others were rooting for her as far back as 2010.  I know I was slow getting to this point.  But that’s me.  I fully acknowledge it.  She unfortunately built the kind of hurdle I just personally have a hard time getting around.  I wasn’t rooting against her all those years for her mistake when a kid, however intentional it was.  But I just didn’t have a reason to personally root for her.  But I did at least finally start coming around four years ago – and made it all the way rooting her on this year.  And that’s because of her.  Her profound perseverance and skill are truly remarkable.

Good for her.

And the glow on her face when she crossed the line was all you needed to see.  And her happy, gracious, thoughtful interview afterwards spoke highly for her.

NBC has encoded the video so that it can't be embedded in other websites, but you can watch the final race here.  It begins with an edited version of Jacobellis's semi-final race. The "Big Final" (as it's known) begins at 1:45.

And her post-race interview is here.

Which leads to the final story here.  And there just isn't much to say about the great Mikaela Shiffrin spinning out of her second race in a row, both in her best discipline, after five seconds.  The sight of her sitting alone in the snow, eventually joined by her coach - who's her mother - for 25 minutes said almost everything…with the added perspective of all the pre-planned Mikaela Shiffrin commercials that were already scheduled to run.  All I will add is that, impressively, she didn't avoid the press and agreed to do a brief interview with NBC which speaks loudly about her character.  And does all the more so since, in the midst of her clear heartbreak, her voice choking at times, she had the mature presence of mind to note that there were far worse problems going on in the world than her disappointment.  But that it was still very disappointing to her.  (And points to NBC reporter Todd Lewis who was put in a tough position, yet managed to ask very solid questions, but gracefully -- and ended the interview at the right time without dragging it out.)

More to come…