XXI Olympic Winter Games

justtxyank · Feb 20, 2010

Man, I had to catch a few of the ice dancers last night, and Tanith Belbin was smokin.

Cannonball · Feb 20, 2010

http://sports.espn.go.com/olympics/winter/2010/snowboarding/news/story?id=4929283

This doesn't seem that outrageous to me.

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- American halfpipe bronze medalist Scotty Lago volunteered to leave the Olympics on Friday after risque pictures of him showed up on the Internet.

Lago, who was awarded his bronze medal Thursday night, was at a party, wearing a Team USA T-shirt when somebody snapped a photo of a woman kneeling below Lago's waist to kiss his medal. That picture, and another showing him sticking the medal in the woman's mouth while teammate Greg Bretz looks on, appeared Friday on the TMZ Web site.

Lago apologized to officials at the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and decided to go home.

"Scotty Lago is a great athlete, but with that comes a responsibility of proper conduct, and his involvement in this situation is not acceptable," U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt said in an e-mail. "Scotty realizes his conduct was inappropriate. He has formally apologized and also made a decision to leave Vancouver today."

In the aftermath of several out-of-competition incidents in Turin, one of which resulted in the dismissal of freestyle skier Jeret Peterson, the USOC has made extra efforts to emphasize athletes be on their best behavior when they're at the Olympics.

Before the Beijing Games, the USOC began its "Ambassador Program" that athletes are made to complete before they travel to the games.

Lago was a member of a group of snowboarders called the "Frends," that included Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis, both of whom were badly injured before the Olympics and couldn't make the trip.

"I put all that aside and rode," Lago said.

He said he put together one of the best runs of his life to win the surprise bronze on a night overshadowed by Shaun White and his gold-medal performance.
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Master Baiter · Feb 20, 2010

Jesus, don't people have something better to do than give this guy **** about having fun? He's already won. He isn't doing anything illegal. Leave him alone and let the dude get laid.

VanityHalfBlack · Feb 20, 2010

Cannonball said:

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Asian women love Caucasian u know what... Especially the ones that win Olympic medals... That chick is fine as dime, love asian women... His father must be really proud of him, I know I would If he was my son...

JunkyardDwg · Feb 20, 2010

Maybe it's been mentioned...but does anyone else find the design of the medals ugly. The wavy texture just makes it look deformed.

I think the Torino medals have been among my favorite.

Cowboy_Bebop · Feb 20, 2010

VanityHalfBlack said:

Asian women love Caucasian u know what... Especially the ones that win Olympic medals... That chick is fine as dime, love asian women... His father must be really proud of him, I know I would If he was my son...
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Too bad asian women don't love a pig like you.

Cannonball · Feb 20, 2010

So Shuster is playing again but he's not throwing the last stones like he was before.

KingCheetah · Feb 20, 2010

Every time I flip to the Olympics it's some stupid event on ice or snow. When does Usain Bolt start running ?

ClutchCity3 · Feb 20, 2010

KingCheetah said:

Every time I flip to the Olympics it's some stupid event on ice or snow. When does Usain Bolt start running ?
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LOL...It's freaking Winter Olympics

KingCheetah · Feb 20, 2010

ClutchCity3 said:

LOL...It's freaking Winter Olympics
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I thought it was summer in Canada.

Cannonball · Feb 20, 2010

KingCheetah said:

Every time I flip to the Olympics it's some stupid event on ice or snow. When does Usain Bolt start running ?
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I think he could win some speed skating events even if he were running in socks.

Cannonball · Feb 20, 2010

KingCheetah said:

I thought it was summer in Canada.
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Australia.

I think it'd be cool to have the Summer Olympics in February (or the Winter Olympics in August) in Australia.

KingCheetah · Feb 20, 2010

Cannonball said:

Australia.
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Australia is just south of the US between Cancun and Cuba -- it's still winter there.

Cannonball · Feb 20, 2010

Cannonball said:

So Shuster is playing again but he's not throwing the last stones like he was before.
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USA wins its 2nd in a row.

mic · Feb 20, 2010

Sources: Snowboarder Scotty Lago was forced out of Olympics by top officials. Exclusive story at Yahoo! Sports: http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/vancouver/snowboard/news?slug=jp-lago022010&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

by Jeff Passan

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – The fuddy-duddy suits who run the Vancouver Games got their scapegoat. Scotty Lago was kicked out of the Winter Olympics. Yes, kicked out.

Do not believe the party line served by the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, nor the words of United States Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky, who said: “Scotty left on his own accord. He wasn’t forced to leave.” Lago, the bronze medalist in halfpipe, was forced to leave, two sources close to him told Yahoo! Sports, and did so only to prevent an even greater escalation of a situation that already had been blown far out of proportion.

Lago is the smiling 23-year-old in the now-infamous pictures of an Olympic medalist celebrating. They are PG-13, kids’ play, and yet because somebody caught Michael Phelps taking a bong hit, anything – anything – gets the USOC’s tighty-whities in a bunch.
More From Jeff Passan

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American Scotty Lago reacts after his run in the halfpipe final on Wednesday.
(Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)

Once the photos of Lago surfaced on TMZ.com, the USSA, in an effort to avoid USOC intervention, came to him with two options, according to sources: go home quietly and play the necessary political game, or go through a trial process and risk getting formally ejected. Lago, not wanting to torpedo any future Olympic opportunities, chose to return to New Hampshire instead of staying until the Closing Ceremony as planned, sources said.

Lago had tried to preemptively strike against repercussions. He issued an apology to the USSA on Friday morning when informed the pictures existed, sources said, in which he apologized for the lapse in judgment and said he was thankful for the opportunity to compete in the Olympics. It was not enough.

“He did something pretty foolish, but it’s nothing illegal,” Lago’s father, Michael, said from his New Hampshire home. “No one’s hurt. That’s really all that matters to me.”

Olympic athletes across all sports have been on high alert against behaving poorly in public after the embarrassment caused by Phelps. Athletes were warned repeatedly heading into the Vancouver Games to conduct themselves well, particularly with cell phone cameras ever present. Oh, how rich that it was a snowboarder, a participant in the one sport that brings verve to an Olympic movement that grows more constipated by the year.

Whether Lago broke any formal code of conduct is unclear. Rule 4 of the USSA’s code says: “USSA members shall maintain high standards of moral and ethical conduct, which includes self-control and responsible behavior, consideration for the physical and emotional well-being of others, and courtesy and good manners.”

“It’s important for athletes to not just follow a code of conduct,” said Sandusky, the USOC spokesman. “It’s more than just about an individual. They’re here representing Team USA.”

And Lago was representing his country in the best fashion possible: showing off the spoils of his hard work, allowing strangers to bask in the glory of an Olympic medal, enjoying life when it’s at its finest. While the photograph may have been in poor taste – a woman kissed the medal while Lago held it below his belt – by no means did it merit the sort of treatment he received.

Lago planned on spending the rest of his time in Vancouver watching hockey and spending time with halfpipe teammates Louie Vito and Greg Bretz and soaking in an Olympic experience with exponentially more meaning thanks to his bronze.

Instead, the IOC used him. It hung Lago out, his pelt there for the rest of the athletes to see, and said: If anyone thinks about acting up – or, heaven forbid, celebrating – this is what happens.
Scott Lago (left) and Shaun White (right) of the United States snowboard team pose with hockey great Wayne Gretzky and their Olympic medals.
(Christopher Polk/Getty Images)

No wonder the backlash among youth is so acute. The generation gap is evident. It’s not just that the IOC and NBC think it’s a wonderful idea to tape delay events completed for hours. It’s the general attitude toward snowboarders, the hypocrisy in pimping them for ratings and selling them out because they’re the easiest targets.

Lago got caught in the moment – and a compromising position. He hadn’t slept for 36 hours, TV appearances and media hits and all of the other Olympic duties calling. He fulfilled them, and with grace, honoring his friends Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis, both medal contenders before injuries left them unable to compete.

Lack of sleep is no excuse, of course. It happened. Lago owned up to it. And the USSA could have accepted the apology, broadcast it and let Lago move on. Only it didn’t, the power of the Olympic overlords forcing a rash decision.

“This was about one incident,” USSA spokesman Tom Kelly said, and it was an incident that, in the end, earned Scotty Lago millions of new fans. He was an American kid celebrating the way an American kid should – out on the streets, with the people, happy to give the world a look at his shiny new toy.

The suits turned him into a loser, a derelict, someone told to leave Vancouver and not come back. It’s a shame. The Olympics were better for having Scotty Lago. The same can’t be said for the people running them.
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sbyang · Feb 21, 2010

The suits turned him into a loser, a derelict, someone told to leave Vancouver and not come back. It’s a shame. The Olympics were better for having Scotty Lago. The same can’t be said for the people running them.
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Not true, he just got lots of free publicity.

david_rocket · Feb 21, 2010

Cannonball said:

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Is he kinda doing the nash in the first pic? LOL

Honey Bear · Feb 21, 2010

LOL.

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I recommend checking out the entire TIME series on youtube, it was very informative.

rocketsjudoka · Feb 21, 2010

I'm really looking forward to Ski Cross.

Kam · Feb 21, 2010

What time and channel is USA vs Canada in Hockey?

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