Thursday, February 18, 2010

And The Flying Tomato Wins The Gold!

Honestly, did you really think he wouldn't? The guy is dynamite when his feet are strapped to a snowboard. Makes me wonder if he was born with one attached to his feet. I must confess, I know very little about the sport of snowboarding, let alone about the kind of internal balance and patience one must possess in order to stay on a snowboard. But after last night's jaw-dropping, gravity-defining program, I do know one thing for sure: no one else's performance in that competition even compared to Shaun White's precedent-setting spectacle.

After his first run, when he had soared higher and more gracefully than the rest of his fellow competitors, Shaun White had already won the gold. You knew that he knew it, too. That big goofy grin spoke for itself when he triumphantly completed his first run, jumping up and down like a giddy schoolboy. Logistically, he could have taken it easy during his second run. But after consulting with his coach about whether or not to pull out the big guns, his coach simply said, "Don't do this unless you're going to stomp it."

And stomp it he did. Shaun White's Double McTwist 1260 might sound like some kind of Big Mac on steroids, but really, it is so much more: it is a trick that has re-defined the sport of snowboarding, all because one kid had the guts to pull it off, even when it wasn't necessary for him to do so. And that, ladies and gentleman, was a stunt that is all things Olympic: record-setting, gravity-defining and above all, absolutely beautiful.

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