Owning Up

On February 17th a small thing happened in the world of sports that became an incredible microcosm of some of the things that are wrong with us...or the U.S. if you will. A 20 year old snowboard racer by the name of Lindsey Jacobellis lost a race. She finished 2nd, "winning" a Silver Medal.

So what went wrong, you say? She won a medal didn't she? Don't rush me...I'm getting there.

Our young potential heroine made an egregious mistake. After going through 4 and 5 racer eliminations, quarterfinal and semifinal "heats", Miss Jacobellis was in the finals and the prohibitive favorite to win. As she neared the finish line less than 150 yards from personal historical immortality, she hit a jump and decided inexplicably to do some fancy show-off move.

And she fell.

A few seconds later, the racer that was clearly beaten swished by our fallen hero and collected the top prize. Tanja Frieden of Switzerland became the beneficiary of Jacobellis' gaffe. Blog after blog after blog has Americans everywhere playing apologist for Lindsey. "She's a snowboarder. That's what they do". "She was just doing what makes snowboarding so attractive to everyone". "She was expressing herself". Take a look for yourself:http://macallisterstone.blogspot.com/2006/02/snowboarders.html. And now as the wonderful Paul Harvey used to say, I give you my version of "the rest of the story".

The problem with what Miss Jacobellis did has to do with several factors, the first of which is subsidy. Everything she has done since earning her berth on the US Olympic Team in 2003 has been subsidized. Her training, her food, her housing, and her coaching. She and everyone else also rack up the bucks in Visa television commercials, while everything she wears or uses that has a logo comes at a price, and that money is gleefully placed into the personal bank accounts of the athletes. Now, before you start in on me let me state right here and now that I agree with the subsidies, and I have no problem with anyone getting paid for wearing a certain brand of ski goggle. If a kid is going to represent his or her country, I think the country has the charge of picking up the tab. If a snowboard manufacturer wants to pay a kid to use their board, that's their business. With that said, an Olympic athlete is no different from you and I. We go to work under a pre-arranged agreement with our employer that we will give them an honest day's work for an honest dollar. Once Lindsey was chosen for the team, snowboarding became her job and our country paid her handsomely to do that job. Her having "fun" is a job perk, but should in no way, shape, or form be confused with her goal or her mission. I'll bet you a nickel to $100 she knows that fact as well.

So now you have a new factor thrown in: obligation. We the People of the United States of America have recognized and acknowleged your talent, and in doing so are willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to enhance and refine that talent. You will be allowed to reap whatever benefits - financial, fame, or otherwise - that come with your successes, all we ask in return is a solid commitment and effort. And there is the rub that the apologists refuse to look at. Once that subsidy and obligation mate, the offspring is expectation. If Lindsey had been bumped off the course by another racer, failed to qualify legitimately in one of the preparatory heats, or had just fallen because the pressure of the moment was too great, no one would have said a word.

But that's not what happened.

She showboated. She hot-dogged. And she threw away 10 years of blood, sweat, and tears in one brief moment of immaturity. What she did and said afterwards is what caused people in the media and sitting in their homes to blow a gasket. She lied. She said she didn't do what probably a billion people world-wide saw her do on the T.V. Her coach admitted it in an interview later. Her teammates acknowledged the mistake as well. But here we are a week later, and Lindsey still has not. In other words, the case can be made she took the money and ran, shying away from her ultimate responsibility: being accountable for her actions. And so we are now discussing something that should never have been a topic to begin with. Lindsey Jacobellis made a mistake, compounded by her confounding lack of ownership afterwards. She failed to finish what she started and we paid for. In doing so she let down her parents, her friends, her coaches, and her country.

Admittedly, this is minor in the larger scheme of things when placed in context. However, the discussion can go on about the societal influences and problems with the boffo that happened in Italy last week. In any case, the fix is simple. No one forgives more readily or easily than the people of the United States, but Lindsey herself has to buck up and say the magic words, "I'm sorry." Until that time, the apologists are wrong, Lindsey Jacobellis is wrong, and for tolerating another episode of this kind of behavior - to a certain degree the American public is wrong as well.