Snowboard Cross. The newest sport at the winter Olympics. This new sport is truly engaging, fast, entertaining, and fun. 4 racers on snowboards race down a track with curves, jumps and twists. The first to cross the finish line wins, and unintentional contact is allowed. This has been the one sport in the Olympics I have been watching. Last night was the Womens’ final for medals. The four contenders were at their posts. One American, Lindsey Jacobellis. Two Canadians. One Swiss, Tanja Frieden. The gates were down, the four cruised off and began their race. An important part of snowboard cross is that you go faster on the ground then in the air. When jumping, racers attempt to get back to the ground as fast as possible. No tricks. Not big airs. At least, there shouldnt be…

As the racers took an early jump, three made it over, but somehow one of the Canadians took a bad fall and landed on her back. She was pretty much out. She got up later and continued the race but all hope for a medal was pretty much crushed in her mind. Soon, however, the other Canadian took a bad turn and plummeted into the fence taking a very gruesome fall. She needed medical attention and was completely out. This meant that the first Canadian now had clenched Bronze. As we move to the two leaders, we find the American had pulled out to a tremendously. Seriously, it was over. She had an enormous length in front of the Swiss. Now here comes the terribly sad part. Two jumps left. That’s it. Two more jumps, 100 feet and you’ve got Gold. Ummm. No.

Jacobellis flows over the second to last jump, pulls a method trick and lands. Bam. She pulled too much. She landed on her heels and took a nasty roll. I believe she even came off the track. As she struggles to pull herself up and get back on the track, crushed dreams racing through her mind, the Swiss racer flies by her, over the last jump and accross the finish line.

Crushed. Ended. Ruined. Broken. Hanging her shattered head, Jacobellis could only barely manage to cross the line, tears forming in her eyes. Her chance to take Gold was diminished.

Here we find an important lesson, and luckily this lesson applies to not just Americans, who by most other countries would be considered the most vulnerable to this. The athletic “hotdoggin” was Jacobellis’ downfall. Seriously. How many times will that video be playing in her head? How many times will she be reworking her every move in that race. The swift turns. The rush of racers. The total unnecesarry trick that led her to lose the Gold medal at the 2006 Olympics. Sympathy was all I felt. I didn’t even feel a bit like she deserved it. Why? Has our society become so accustomed to showing off. To hubris. To pride. It really seems like it. It seems like it was expected. All other Snowboard Cross races where a leader was way ahead, American or not, they all pulled tricks on the final jump. Is winning a gold not enough? I hessitate to say “Is winning a gold not enough for these people?” because I know we are all cursed by this. It just seems like this is a perfect example to help people realize the lack of need for this type of show-boating. Hopefully we can all take a piece of advice from Lindsey Jacobellis. Let’s not have our careers and our goals shattered and destroyed by such trivial traits like hubris and over-abundence of pride.

With your weekly dose of thought.
-Dustin