Yes, it was risky. Yes, it was youthful exhuberance. Yes, she fell within walking distance of the finish witha 140 foot lead on her nearest competitor.
But FOR THE LOVE OF ALL THAT’S HOLY, she didn’t deserve the vitriolic montage on NBC’s coverage after her fall. “Dewey defeats Truman”? It’s a sport, and a new one at that! Sport is about competition, yes, but when it comes right down to it, it’s about showing that you’re better than someone at something, for your own glory.
In essence, sport *is* that showboating that Lindsey Jacobellis perpetrated, and for Bob Costas and his pasty-faced sportswriter crony to rake this gal over the coals for “One of the all-time biggest gaffes in sports” just confirms one thing: The Olympics are dead. They need to villanize a mistake to take advantage of the ratings coup for the girl who screwed-up.
We’re watching the olympics for the same reason we watch NASCAR: The carnage, the screw-ups, the blown tempers, and the blown opportunities. This is our collective schadenfreude, served-up in high-def.
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Most delicious thing about it? This gal will survive this. Unlike the 1919 White Sox, Pete Rose’s gambling addiction, or even Tonya Harding, she can’t be constrained by any one sanctioning body. She’ll be back on the world stage, at the X-Games, and in competition in defiance of conventional wisdom.
That’s what I kind of relish about my generation. We’re handed a world that pretty-much sucks (thanks, Boomers!), and we give it the finger and get on with our lives.