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snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis and "the media"

cmc

Turbo Monkey
Nov 17, 2006
2,052
6
austin
I haven't been watching Olympics or heard of Lindsey Jacobellis, just read this article this morning. What do yall think? I think this journalist has a bitchy tone. Trying to create this aura of disappointment and shame, when in fact every athlete knows that sometimes shlt just doesn't go right and you get over it if you still love the sport.


Jacobellis’ shot at redemption ends in sorrow

By Jeff Passan, Yahoo! Sports, February 17, 2010, 9 hours, 55 minutes ago
WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Lindsey Jacobellis’ final pass down Cypress Mountain came in an event called the Small Final. It is what it sounds like: a downhill trek of inconsequence for the snowboardcross riders who flopped into the consolation round. The Small Final might as well hand out copper, nickel and zinc medals.

Nothing precious, not for the biggest goat of the 2006 Winter Olympics, who turned into the biggest turkey of the Vancouver Games on Tuesday afternoon. Earlier, Jacobellis landed awkwardly off the first big jump in her semifinal race. She pitched right, then left, clipped a gate and spun off the course, an automatic disqualification. While the other three riders raced down the hill, the 24-year-old Jacobellis took her sweet time before arriving at the last jump.

Lindsey Jacobellis of the U.S. walks out of the finish area after her semifinals disqualification.
(Mark Blinch/Reuters)

And with a little nod to her past, Jacobellis soared toward the crowd, reached down and clutched her board with both hands. A truck-driver grab, it’s called, technically more difficult than the method grab that caused Jacobellis to crash off the final jump of the Turin Games and lose the gold medal.

“I was just having fun,” she said. “Since everyone was waiting for me to come down, they’d be watching, so I figured I’d have some fun and show them I still have a deep passion for the sport.

“It’s unfortunate the rest of the world only sees this race and four years ago. So I don’t have a great track record for the general public.”
Outside of the snowboarding world, Jacobellis’ name is not so much a name as it is a dictionary entry, and it gained a new definition Tuesday. A proposal, to Messrs. Merriam and Webster, for their 2011 unabridged.

Main entry: Jacobellis
Pronunciation: JAKE-uh-BELL-is
Function: Verb
Dates: 2006, 2010
1. To cost oneself athletic glory and sentence oneself to a lifetime of smarmy people using surname as a verb, esp. through youthfully hubristic hot-dogging.
2. To spin out and end an Olympic Games in disappointment.
Synonyms: Van de Velde.

The more recent definition, of course, is far less inglorious. Jacobellis wasn’t the bad guy Tuesday. She blew off the media at first, and frankly, after spending four years working toward redemption and watching it go down like a Zeppelin, it’s tough to blame her. Later, after she took her drug test and commiserated with her family, she returned to discuss what happened.
It was simple: On a course shrouded in fog all day and with some snow that, in Jacobellis’ words, “felt like mashed potatoes,” she bit it. She caught huge air on the jump, enough that she almost landed on the board of Canadian Maelle Ricker. Jacobellis ended up leaning on her front foot heading into one of the snowboardcross course’s hairpin turns, where anything but optimal balance is an invitation to eat snow.

When a piece of the gate snapped into the air, Jacobellis lifted her arms in anguish before smacking her helmet. The jumbo screen along the side of the mountain stayed with her for a few extra moments, forgetting the race and focusing on the woman who can’t conquer the Olympics.

Even worse, after she crossed the finish line, Jacobellis needed to go down to the ski lift and jump a chair back to the top. The Small Final beckoned. It was an inconvenience, an indignity and an insult, and the ride was the longest of her life. Jacobellis looked down on the mountain, back to the fans, surveyed the entire scene. She had blown it. She had blown it again.
It evoked sympathy. The Turin disaster was her fault. This was … snowboardcross. Men fall. Women fall. The best fall. The worst fall. Jacobellis treated the Small Final like her medal round and shredded the competition to win the figurative copper. She hung around for the Big Final, in which Ricker, the world’s top-ranked rider and Jacobellis’ presumed competition, tore down the mountain and went into the last jump with about a 50-yard lead, the same length Jacobellis held in 2006.

Ricker didn’t grab her board.
She won Canada’s second gold of the Games.

And soon thereafter, Jacobellis escaped down the side of the mountain, along a path nobody but officials and athletes could trod, free of questions and comments. She didn’t need any help bathing in her disappointment.
“I feel OK, though,” Jacobellis said. “Sometimes you can’t control the things you want to.”

She didn’t try to make any excuses, either, as she did at first in the Turin Games, when she said she grabbed the board to stabilize herself. Eventually, she copped to styling, and then she started to cry, a 20-year-old girl who screwed up ripe for the world to criticize. To the righteously indignant, she was everything that is wrong with kids these days and just another snowboard bum and an insult to her city, state, country, world, galaxy and universe.

The 2010 Games gave Jacobellis an opportunity for redemption, and while NBC didn’t climb about her bandwagon as it did prior to 2006, it is always willing to sate those who froth for such pabulum. Jacobellis failed. Redemption, if she even believes in such a thing, will have to wait for another four years.

For now, Jacobellis is the turkey, and guess what: It’s just as bad as being the goat, even if it’s not as sexy and controversial and doesn’t cause nearly the firestorm. She neared Olympic greatness twice. She bungled both chances. And by the end of Tuesday, no matter how much consolation she took in her effort or bad luck, Jacobellis felt much like her final race: small.


. . . .





 
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sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
I looked over her record, and damn, she is good.

But this is the flipside of hiring yourself as a spokesperson. The old people might remember Reebok, Dan vs Dave campaign, two decathlon competitors who both failed to do anything in the Olympics.

Keep a lower profile, more people are sympathetic if you screw up.
 

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
40,138
16,535
Riding the baggage carousel.
I looked over her record, and damn, she is good.

But this is the flipside of hiring yourself as a spokesperson. The old people might remember Reebok, Dan vs Dave campaign, two decathlon competitors who both failed to do anything in the Olympics.

Keep a lower profile, more people are sympathetic if you screw up.
:stupid:

paging Bode Miller to the white courtesy telephone........
 

Jeremy R

<b>x</b>
Nov 15, 2001
9,698
1,053
behind you with a snap pop
I'd love to know what that pen pushing pussy has accomplished in his life that
compares to how badass Jacobellis is.

When she crashed out, she was going for it. Pushing hard, so she could get out front, and make sure she was in the top 2 to move on. She can't just cruise down and coast into the finals. The field is too stacked. She crashed from racing hard, which is a part of racing if you are trying to win, something that douche journalist knows nothing about.
 

TheTruth

Turbo Monkey
Jun 15, 2009
3,893
1
I'm waving. Can you see me now?
The funny part is that they tested her for drugs.

"Johnson, this girl just did a truck driver off the last jump! That was just sick and disturbing. We must drug test her, there is something wrong here."
 

I Are Baboon

The Full Dopey
Aug 6, 2001
32,383
9,287
MTB New England
I looked over her record, and damn, she is good.

But this is the flipside of hiring yourself as a spokesperson. The old people might remember Reebok, Dan vs Dave campaign, two decathlon competitors who both failed to do anything in the Olympics.

Keep a lower profile, more people are sympathetic if you screw up.
Dan won the gold in decathlon in a subsequent olympics. But that year...yeah, one of the greatest advertising failures in history.
 

golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
Fvck the media. I don't give a crap what some overpaid, over appreciated windbag has to say about something that they don't know anything about. I do wish they'd leave the girl alone... It's the olympics, she lost... why rub salt in it? WTF is wrong with people!

Edit: To one of the comments above... yeah, how far did that reporter get in his/her olympic dream? Probably not worth a crap at anything other than b!tching and complaining.
 
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kickstand

Turbo Monkey
Sep 18, 2009
3,441
392
Fenton, MI
50% luck?

Come on, I used to race bordercross, I was taken out a couple times by another rider, but let's be real here, 50% is way high.
 

chuffer

Turbo Monkey
Sep 2, 2004
1,527
869
McMinnville, OR
SNIP I don't give a crap what some overpaid, over appreciated windbag has to say SNIP
Overpaid? I don't have a clue who the guy is, but he appears to be just another internet expert for crying out loud. Do people get paid for that at all? Think of all the salary potential here on RM!

On another note, Jeff Passan, the author, comes across like a sniveling little bitch.
 

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
85,559
24,182
media blackout
That's not true at all. That's like saying DH racing is all luck. Granted, there definitely is SOME luck involved (as with most sports) but 50% might be pushing it.
50% luck?

Come on, I used to race bordercross, I was taken out a couple times by another rider, but let's be real here, 50% is way high.
yea, i've raced boardercross too. Hole shot is crucial, also is the most likely place for things to get FUBAR'd as its the only time in the race that you are guaranteed to be in close proximity to your competitors.
 

golgiaparatus

Out of my element
Aug 30, 2002
7,340
41
Deep in the Jungles of Oklahoma
Overpaid? I don't have a clue who the guy is, but he appears to be just another internet expert for crying out loud. Do people get paid for that at all? Think of all the salary potential here on RM!

On another note, Jeff Passan, the author, comes across like a sniveling little bitch.
I thought I read that on a Yahoo column.
He got paid something... that something was too much.
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
Who ever thought that Chinese Downhill was Olympic worthy?

I could give a ****. Also, that may be the only girl in the world that looks better with a helmet ON.
 

Silver

find me a tampon
Jul 20, 2002
10,840
1
Orange County, CA
Wat?

Not you Silver. Anyone else, but you're racist against me?


:stupid:
It's an old skiing term, enshrined in the lexicon after the 1984 classic, Hot Dog... The Movie (1984)@@AMEPARAM@@http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTg5ODEzNjIzNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTk4ODcxMQ@@._V1._SX97_SY140_.jpg@@AMEPARAM@@BMTg5ODEzNjIzNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTk4ODcxMQ@@@@AMEPARAM@@SX97@@AMEPARAM@@SY140. It's an event that happens on the slopes...uh...I mean the side of a mountain covered with snow.
 

kickstand

Turbo Monkey
Sep 18, 2009
3,441
392
Fenton, MI
Much like 4X perhaps?
I'd think so yes.

You get a good holeshot and get out in front and it's tough to catch someone. That's my biggest complaint with bordercross, if you don't get the holeshot unless the lead guy fals you can pretty much race for 2nd place...which is what I usually did :(
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
It's an old skiing term, enshrined in the lexicon after the 1984 classic, Hot Dog. It's an event that happens on the slopes...uh...I mean the side of a mountain covered with snow.
Hot Dog was the first time I saw a boob, and it was of course, Shannon Tweed.

I was trying to describe Chinese Downhill, and the only thing I could was a Chinese Firedrill.
 

Ithnu

Monkey
Jul 16, 2007
961
0
Denver
So the local hero wins some cash and respect. The German dude keeps his sponsors and continues on as a pro and earns more money.

That movie is awesomely terrible. In the bike realm its Rad. The local hero wins, but did anyone else notice he wins by ducking tape? So the moral of that movie is that if you cheat, you can beat the pros.
 

sanjuro

Tube Smuggler
Sep 13, 2004
17,373
0
SF
I think the real story is that the entire movie I believe was filmed at Squaw, before Tahoe totally blew up.
 

SkaredShtles

Michael Bolton
Sep 21, 2003
65,375
12,529
In a van.... down by the river
Skiercross and Boardercross are dumb. They're even dumber as Olympic events. It's roller-derby on snow.

Why not just have a race against the clock on the run?

Oh, wait... then it wouldn't get good TV ratings. :rolleyes:
 

rockofullr

confused
Jun 11, 2009
7,342
924
East Bay, Cali
^^^

You sir , clearly underestimate the importance of the words RAD and X-treem

also any sport with X (motoX, borderX, Xetera) in the name automatically scores x-tra x-treem points.
 

hopsalot

Chimp
Dec 21, 2009
16
0
Denver
I can't believe that the U.S. Olympic committee let her back on the team after her poor display of sportmanship four years ago. She started celebrating to early, told lies to cover up actions, flip flopped on her previous statement, showed no remorse for letting her team and county down and is rewarded with a second chance that she squandered. I agree with this reporter, athletes that have the privilage to represent their countries at the games must take great care with this responisibilty.