Seems like its not the first time in this Olympics that one of ours has blown it for stupid reasons, Bode Miller and Apolo Ahno come to mind.
msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/5340282BARDONECCHIA, Italy - An Olympic celebration turned into a mountain-sized embarrassment for Lindsey Jacobellis.
Coasting to what should have been an easy victory, the American made a hot-dog grab of her board on the second-to-last jump. It caused her to fall and while she scrambled to her feet, Switzerland's Tanja Frieden sped past and became the first champion in the strange and wild sport of Olympic women's snowboardcross Friday.
Jacobellis won silver, but should have had the gold. She was well, well ahead of Frieden, and the other two women in the four-rider final had fallen long before.
Snowboarding is about style, though, so Jacobellis decided to show off for the fans in front of the grandstand near the end of her ride. But after she landed from her grab, she caught an edge, then went tumbling outside the blue line. When she recovered, she trailed Frieden over the finish line, then put her hands on her knees and held her palms up.
U.S. coach Peter Foley fell onto the ground in disbelief.
Yes, it was hard to think the only American rider in the finals — one of the best in the world — could blow this one, but she did.
Canadian Dominque Maltais won the bronze while teammate Maelle Ricker fell and failed to finish the four-woman finale. Maltais had smashed into the fence but managed to continue to the line.
In the men's competition Thursday, Canada's Drew Neilson dominated qualifying but was knocked out 5 seconds into the first round of the finals when his board got crossed with that of an opponent and he fell.
"I talked to him yesterday and found out what happened," Ricker said. "Hopefully I've got a game plan to not have that happen to me."
Ricker won this year's X Games in part because Jacobellis, the three-time defending champion, sat out to rest her sore knee. The American and Canadian have had some good head-to-head races, most notably in Chile last September, when Jacobellis beat Ricker in the finals.
Pomagalski, ranked eighth in the world and expected to contend for a medal here, went third in both qualifying rounds and had trouble with the snow buildup. Her first time left her out of the top 16. Forced to push in the second run, she wiped out into a gate toward the end of the run.
"We had to clean the track for the others," she said. "I'm disappointed."
Frenchwoman Karine Ruby will have a chance to add a third Olympic medal to those she won in 1998 and 2002 in the tamer snowboard discipline of giant slalom racing. She also had a tough first round. The first rider in each heat, she ran poorly in the first round, but made it through in the second. She is seeded 11th.
"It's a disadvantage to be the first qualifier," she said. "They didn't take (the snow) off, so I had to take it off for them."