Snowboardcross

The crash-prone four man races down a winding track full of jumps (like a downhill motocross track) lived up to my hopes for more mano-a-mano competition than is normal in the Winter Games.

In snowboardcross' early rounds, with the top two finishers advancing, typically one snowboarder would grab the lead immediately and keep it all the way to the finish line, which was a little disappointing. Unlike a running race where the frontrunner often comes back to the field as he runs out of gas, there's no disadvantage to being in first place in snowboarding since it takes no more energy. Moreover, the leader gets to pick his line and stay out of tangles. But the guys fighting for second place would often bump and go flying, which was fun.

In the gold medal final, however, Seth Westcott (great name for a man from Maine) trailed the Slovak for most of the race, but blew by him on a late turn and then held on to win by inches.

Girls snowboardcross will be on TV Friday evening.

Diana Moon's Letter form Gotham says:

The Winter Olympics vibe used to be one of European elegance and glamour (Jean-Claude Killy, Alberto Tomba) mixed with dazzling Nordic competence. Now it strikes me as heavily stoner. Am I the only one to think this?

My published articles are archived at iSteve.com -- Steve Sailer