LACES OUT DAN

I must say that I am mostly impressed with the winter olympics in Torino, Italy. I have watched several events, some of which left me wondering exactly why they were an olympic event and some left me wanting to be in the athlete's position.

I am not a very sports-oriented person. I skateboard and snowboard, but that's about it. I do have to say that two athletes bothered me in their approach to the games and the arrogance they carried with them. Bodie Miller and Lindsey Jacobellis utterly crapped the preverbial bed when it was their time to shine. At least that's what we were led to believe. You see, both athletes are very good athletes, don't get me wrong, but with their TV commercials and general build up of their image and ego have made their heads huge.

Case in point is Jacobellis and how she shit the bed by throwing down a trick on the last jump of the snowboardercross (SBX). She had such a lead and could have literally coasted to the win, but instead chose to showboat by doing some sort of grab off of a jump. Her explanation was that she was trying to "steady herself" in mid-air. I am not buying it. I have gone off of a few jumps in my day and been off-balance plenty of times. When I try to steady myself in the air, I don't pull a trick; my arms tend to flail about, reaching for balance. She paid the price for it though. Showboating dummy.

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