More musings on the last few days of Winter Olympics

More on snowboard cross. I do detect a strategy now: Stay the hell out of the way and be the last one standing. The announcers keep saying that “anything can happen” in snowboard cross. The top riders can end last, and vice versa. So, is an event in which anything can happen a sport or a throw of the dice? The women’s final was “total carnage,” according to the announcer, as if that’s a good thing.
Lindsey Jacobellis’ showboating that lost her the gold was the talk of the Mammoth ski area, of course, as the video clip ran over and over again in the lodge. Too easy to call it a symbol of American hubris abroad? Probably. Hard to know whether it was the joyful irreverence of an upstart sport or the lack of discipline symptomatic of a gen-x diversion masquerading as sport.
Denis Petukhov, the Russian who became an American citizen last year to perform for the US said in an interview that he’s the “best example of the American dream.” Huh?
Shani Davis. We can’t hold him to a higher standard for being African-American, of course, but it is too bad his role model for potential young skaters from a new demographic (urban, Black, whatever…) has to include the prima donna act. Hedrick was not too much better by the time it was all over.
Memo to Canadian Joannie Rochette, re: figure skating, short program. “Like a Prayer” scored for chamber orchestra not a good idea.