Burlington Free Press.com | Top Stories — What makes this mishap worse is her excuse making. The poor girl screwed up and then blamed it on the wind. All during the Olympics I thought the American women snowboarders were all acting a little goofy and dorky as if they were all 14 years old. They all talked in snowboarder argot and were making gang signs, mugging to the camera and jumping around like dingbats. Did anyone else notice this? This was the finishing touch watching this one tumble to second when she had the race won easy. Now she’ll forever be known as the girl who blew it.
In a bizarre ending, Jacobellis tumbled, then fumbled away a 50-yard lead and a sure gold when an overly embellished jump went awry. The crash, in sight of the finish line, made Switzerland’s Tanja Frieden a sudden champion, and left Jacobellis with silver — and some explaining to do.
Snowboarders acting goofy? They are snowboarders what else would you expect. That is the type of person that excells(sp?) in the sport.
Hey John, I agree. The American sowcrossers were definitely cocky. Jacobellis must have bought into all the media hype about her. Now she can go back to abscurity.
ABC Sports can use that footage for “The Agony of self-Defeat!” 🙂
I guess she’ll have to console herself with the millions she made in pre-Olympic endorsements.
I hope people have this whole Jacobellis episode taped..it has all sorts of elements from watching Dad to watching her stand next to the celebrating winner in disbelief. A classic. As critical as I am, you can’t help but feel sorry for what this girl now has to live with. She should put her medal and a pic of herself falling on the mantle as a reminder to get the job done before celebrating. You see this in college sports a lot where a team is celebrating before time has expired. Then losing. The all-time football classic is Super Bowl XXVII: “Leon Lett is about to give Dallas a 59-17 lead over Buffalo with a long fumble return, when Don Beebe comes out of nowhere to knock the ball out of the showboating Lett’s hands just he crosses the goal line.” (from ESPN) It would have been the record breaking score and a nice trophy for Lett. Instead he is used as a bad example for kids.
I think this Jacobellis event is one of the top stories of the Olympics.
It may even turn into a catch-phrase. He/she pulled a “Jacobellis.” Has a nice ring to it.
who cares, as far as i’m concerned watching sports is boring, cheering your country on just because you live in that country is boring, caring wether or not your country beats another country in a medal count is boring, the only thing thats not boring is acutally playing the sport!
why waste your time on such matters that are boring and trivial?
The video is here.
The poignant shot was her standing alone three feet behind the girl who won and her team celebrating, just looking at them. Summed it all up.
the NYT had a nice take on this. It’s just a game:
Too funny, they should make her go on a public-service circuit to high schools, warning kids not to repeat her mistake, like they do drunk drivers.
Oh, and congrats for dusting off “argot” for a blog post.
Agreed with the earlier comment: She got the endorsement money for being attractive. Hope that was better than the gold medal.
I think this Jacobellis event is one of the top stories of the Olympics.
And another is the way Michele Kwan took her leave when she couldn’t be competitive.
I was worried, when she was allowed to bump the third-place qualifier – who took being bumped rather well – that Michelle would then try to stay in the games, even if she wasn’t sufficiently recovered to give her best.
It was nice to see Michele give Emily’s chance back, without any pity-party theatrics.
Its just games, the important thing is how you play them.
What about the person who won the gold because of her mistake? He/she will be always haunted by the fact that she got gold not by merit, but rather by folly.
Winning is over-rated anyway.
In the scheme of things Jacobellis will be more famous than the winner and more famous than she would have been winning the event. Fame is interesting.
Pride comes before a crash…
Did anyone see the Brazilian snowboarder who won her heat after the 3 other competitors fell? Very funny. She looked so wobbily.
Like it or not, that attitude IS snowboarding. The snowboarding athletes aren’t in awe of the olympics like the other athletes. That’s the culture of the sport. The olympics is just another event to them. They probably feel more pressure competing in the Winter X Games. The only people surprised are the people who don’t regularly watch and support the sport.
Oh really? then why was she so reticent and nearly depressed when she was interviwed by Costas? She even kept with the litany that it was just a privilege to compete..and she was happy to be there. Sounds typical Olympian to me.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the Olympics are the biggest over-promoted nonsense in history, but they do their job and create this incredible show. And the athletes buy into it and become the entertainers working for nothing except hopes of an endorsement deal. The key to success is the long time between Olympics. There is no “next year” when you lose.
I see your point, however, anyone can be made to feed bad and depressed about what they have or haven’t done when being grilled by numerous reporters. It’s human nature to start questioning one’s feelings on an issue when in that circumstance. You are right about marketing of the Olympics, but you also made that point that she was happy just to compete. That says that winning isn’t everything, and her silver medal wasn’t a dissapointment to her. So what’s the problem? Bob Costas, NBC, and the USA Olympic comittee are the ones with the expectations. I just don’t believe that ALL of the athletes feel the same about the Olympics, and you can tell but some of their actions.
whatever
yeah so she is by far one of the best snowboarder and if some of you people can’t handle that then shut up. You dont know Americans and i think Lindsey is a really good snowboarder she’s won a lot and at least she was in the olympics ..it was her first time and she did it for balance but took the wonrg grab so i would shut up if you dont know what your talking about..id like to see you make it into the olympics and at least place..