Four years ago a young American competitor, Lindsay Jacobellis, was leading the world in the finals of Snowboard Cross until she tried to pull a Method Air off the next to last jump and crashed.
"What was she thinking?1?" Asked incredulous fans and announcers, many of whom haven't seriously given thought to competitive sports since sometime around the Ford administration, if not before that. Then Jacobellis stood up in front of all of the cameras and went to all of the interviews and basically said: "Yup, I flubbed it." Then she laughed a little bit and went on her way.
The above is not news. If you've paid even the slightest bit of attention you know this. Fast Forward 4 years.....
Last night a veteran Olympic competitor from American came off of the momentum section, just outside the starting gate, in the Semi-finals of Snowboard Cross and....
Was disqualified because her board veered 6 inches off course, running through a boundary flag and ending Jacobellis' dreams of redemption. There would be no Gold medal in these games, no silver either. Jacobellis would be left with the image of her Olympic glory fading away after a heard fight for hole shot position in a sport that's as rough n' tumble as they get.
In short: Jacobellis got beat. As opposed to 4 years ago when she lost. There's no shame in getting beat, and that's very important to remember.
After being DQ'd in the semi-finals that could have been the end of the Jacobellis story, but it wasn't. In Snowboard Cross they run a "B" final so that the standings can show the top 8 finishers for each contest. This is typically done for World Cup Series points etc. After crashing out of the semi-finals and watching four years of pining for retribution come up empty.....
Jacobellis won the "B" final.
Lindsay Jacobellis will never read this blog, so she'll never know that the wife & I were proud of her when she came back and won, truth be told she doesn't care. (I wouldn't) That being said, it's stories like that which keep me tuned into the Olympics every evening, waiting for the "next" chance at redemption.