2006 Olympics
Defeat from the Jaws of Victory
By Jake Duhaime
Feb 18, 2006, 01:48

"... and now I'll just make one last move... Doh!"

TORINO, Italy -- How would you like to be Lindsey Jacobellis right about now?

One must wonder what's going through her mind, but here's my guess: "What the $%#@ was I thinking? How $%#@ stupid am I? I can't #$%^#@ believe I just cost myself a gold medal?"

Snowboarding's newly minted silver child was mere seconds away from running away with Olympic gold in the first women's snowboardcross event. But Jacobellis wasn't happy with just the gold. She wanted style points, as well.

Thus, she attempted an unnecessary grab on her second-to-last jump on the course, fell flat on her butt and cost herself the race.

Not to mention endorsements, television appearances and that squeaky clean "not-your-average-freak-snowboarder" image.

When Visa and Dunkin Donuts plastered her image over every third commercial leading up to these games, they seemed to fall in love with her "girl next door" image. She's blonde, relatively unassuming and somewhat wholesome. She loves her older brother and grew up going to some remote school in the mountains of Vermont. So when Jacobellis tried to show off en route to gold, it was certainly unexpected.

It will be interesting to see if those companies are quick to pull the plug on those aforementioned commercials. Rumor has it that Visa is scrambling right now to find a backup "face of snowboarding." This wasn't just your average train wreck, but a disaster to both her career and her sport.

Maybe Lindsey's hot dogging will go over well with the X Games crowd. Look what it's done for the careers of Joe Horn and Terrell Owens. But what if T.O. fumbled away the Super Bowl on the two yard line by starting some obscene end zone celebration a bit early? Although, as rumor has it, the people with the X Games weren't too thrilled with Jacobellis ducking this year's event with a very suspicious "injury."

This wasn't like watching Steven Bradbury luck out when he won his short track gold on a fluke fall in front of him. It was more like watching Leon Lett's infamous Super Bowl celebration/fumble, except far worse. At least Lett has a Super Bowl ring despite his idiocy. Jacobellis has only her stupidity to blame for not winning gold.

If Jacobellis had just stayed on her feet, she'd surely be having dinner with Bob Costas tonight. There'd be more Visa ads to follow, not to mention the photo shoots and movie premieres. Her star power would have reached a new stratosphere. Her sport would have received a shed of credibility among the crowd who only thinks these "extreme sports" are only in the Olympics to attract the youth of America. Now she'll be relegated to blooper films and running late night talk show jokes. A fate to which she is completely deserving.

It's sad because she really seemed like someone you wanted to embrace. Perhaps it is cruel that a split-second decision could cost her significantly over the next four years. Four years is a long time to wait for anybody. It's going to seem like an eternity for Lindsey Jacobellis.

Of course Yogi Berra must be happy somewhere. If he ever needs to explain that "it ain’t over 'til it's over" to a bunch of twelve year olds, he can always pull out the tape of this race as a prime example.

Jake Duhaime is a contibuting columnist to Atomic Sports Media covering the Olympics in Torino, Italy. He can be reached at jake.duhaime@atomicsportsmedia.com.