Boardercross Carnage and Gold Medal
Goddamn the boarder cross semi-finals last night were brutal. We counted at least two big crashes, one of which took out 3 of the 4 riders. Seattlest is just giddy that this sport finally made it into the Olympics, because this shit is so much fun to watch.
In the finals, American 2005 World Champion Seth Westcott slipped in an amazing slingshot lane change towards the very end of the course, snagging the gold away from Radoslav Zidek. Listening to Westcott with the announcer afterwards was a surprising lesson in actual strategery: he'd sussed up the style required by riders who use freeride, or longer/stiffer boards, and used it to his advantage. He waited patiently for one of the last banked turns, knowing that Zidek would ride it up high, to maintain his speed. Westcott sqeaked in on the inside corner, beating him to the last tabletop jump, and then tucking it in super-small to just eke past Zidek at the finish line.
The sport is getting the requisite "I can't believe people do this" coverage. The P-I likens it to NASCAR on ice [sic], which is of course being far too kind to NASCAR. Oh, oops, looks like Wescott himself started that whole NASCAR thing. Ah well. We're most amazed that this knock-down drag-out fight of a sport has gotten so ugly that some riders have taken to wearing motocross-style helmets, like we saw at least one racer wearing in the semi-finals. Giro, a long-time manufacturer of helmets for the "extreme" mountain biker set, has released a boardercross-specific helmet. Because snowboarders are sexier with all their teeth, go figure.
