olympic drama
I love watching the Olympics, winter or summer. I especially enjoy winter though, because I like skating and the downhill sports. And so far, Torino has been all about the stories - people coming back from injuries or having some great story of their road to the Olympics. The pairs skating competition had some great moments, so did men's skating. Speed skating was interesting, and the half-pipe snowboarding competition was definitely worth watching - men and women.
So tonight's big story was the first ever snowboard cross - basically a downhilll race on snowboards which has been around in the world cup and x-game scene but not olympics until this year. Last night the American Seth Wescott had an awesome run for gold, and tonight USA looked to world champion Lindsey Jacob Ellis to get gold. And she almost did, until she fell on the last jump and took silver. Why did she fall? Because instead of just taking the jump, she did a trick, because she was way ahead of anyone else and got caught in the moment, but landed it badly and fell, giving the second place skier time to get around her. Now the press and the world is critizing her because she got overconfident and cocky - but I don't think it was that at all. Hell, if I was at my first ever olympics and I was 150ft. in front of the nearest person and thought I could do the trick, I would! It wasn't even like a spin or anything, it was just a grab. If she had landed it, everyone would have thought it was totally amazing, but because she didn't, it gets turned into the "what were you thinking" moment of the olympics.
Sigh. What would the world be like if there wasn't someone to point fingers at?
So tonight's big story was the first ever snowboard cross - basically a downhilll race on snowboards which has been around in the world cup and x-game scene but not olympics until this year. Last night the American Seth Wescott had an awesome run for gold, and tonight USA looked to world champion Lindsey Jacob Ellis to get gold. And she almost did, until she fell on the last jump and took silver. Why did she fall? Because instead of just taking the jump, she did a trick, because she was way ahead of anyone else and got caught in the moment, but landed it badly and fell, giving the second place skier time to get around her. Now the press and the world is critizing her because she got overconfident and cocky - but I don't think it was that at all. Hell, if I was at my first ever olympics and I was 150ft. in front of the nearest person and thought I could do the trick, I would! It wasn't even like a spin or anything, it was just a grab. If she had landed it, everyone would have thought it was totally amazing, but because she didn't, it gets turned into the "what were you thinking" moment of the olympics.
Sigh. What would the world be like if there wasn't someone to point fingers at?