I've been waiting for someone to mention the deep voice of encouragement from deep in the cavern of the starters' gate. At first I thought he might be a personal pumper-upper for one of the skiers, but then when the next American came up he did the same thing. He was even pumping them up on training runs, which leads me to believe he is a paid member of the team. But here's my question - if Bode's "the man," how can Rahlves also be "the man?" If I were either skier, I might feel like this shouting man was being a bit disingenuous, as he is telling me I'm the man five minutes after giving my teammate the same sentiment. That could cause me to not get pumped up, but rather to question who this guy was really rooting for, and the top of the downhill is no place to be questioning things. I blame him for Team USA's collective out-of-the-medals performance thus far. He either needs to find unique things to say to each skier - a la their song of choice, or just stop...because now he's just getting in their heads.

I agree completely that SBX is a joy to watch. I, too, am impressed with Shaun White's ability to fly around a halfpipe, but who's to say his routine was any better than the next guy's...or the next guy's? Judged events always leave a bitter taste in my mouth, and if I were a competitor, I would be furious knowing that my fate rested in the hands of someone who was deciding if my flips were a little better than the next guy's. And you're right, after about 3 runs, it's incredibly repetitive and boring.

You mentioned Lindsey Jacobellis in your story - I imagine by now you've heard. If you haven't heard and don't want to, stop reading here. Apparently Ms. J was leading the gold medal race by a ridiculous margin when she decided to pull a trick off the last jump...show the crowd what a star she is. Well the SBX gods must have been watching, because she bit it, took too long to get up, and was overtaken for the gold. Of course she's trying to play it off as something that is part of her technique for staying low to the ground, but fellow SBX'er Seth Wescott said she was definitely showing off. Not to try to turn this into a symptom of a larger problem, but how many internationals saw that and said to themselves "yep...she's definitely an American." What a chicken brain.

...about Jacobellis probably being more disappointed that she blew the trick than having lost the gold medal.

I do agree that it's been refreshing to watch the X-Gamer types who seem to be having a lot more fun with the whole Olympic experience than the stodgy, grew-up-at-the-Olympic-training-center types. But there are some reasons for that - first off, most of these athletes are professionals and sponsored, making hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars per year off their sport. To them, this is just another event. They have not trained their whole lives for this, or sacrificed their youths, and they don't have the pressure of an entire nation riding on the events. Of course this is probably a much healthier approach, but you can't compare them to the skiers or the figure skaters. Because there is far less riding on it, they are able to loosen up and have fun with it. As far as Shaun White & Co. are concerned, they may win or lose, but next week they'll be in some other exotic winter locale, with the red carpet rolled out and the girls screaming. Chad Hedrick can't make the same claim.

And as for Jacobellis, the problem is that her event involves going fast, not pulling tricks (or illusions). If one of the half-pipers had gold locked up but went for some ridiculous trick instead of playing it safe and fell, I would respect them. But she was leading the race and instead of winning graciously, she decided to show off. I'm sure she feels humiliated, as she should.

First off, I figured that Shani was the first black athelete to win an individual gold medal at the winter olympics. Sometimes all it takes is a little international competition to point out how pervasive our political correctness and jingoism have become, because I'm sure *most* people never stopped to think that there is a difference between African-Americans and blacks, that difference being what country they're from. It gives me great pleasure to watch people writhe in discomfort as they try to describe a black person that isn't from America.

Labels aside, I wish America's third-leading-most-watched-during-prime-time network would actually attempt to uncover the story behind the US Mens' Speedskating "team" - team meaning they wear the same outfits. There is obviously some very bad blood there, and I strongly suspect it runs far deeper than Davis' refusal to participate in the relay races. But that might put a tarnish on the gleaming image we all have of our olympians, who are all either shining beacons of perfection or heartwarming stories of overcoming obstacles, right? None of them have any character flaws, do they?

And I've kind of changed my original tune on Ms. Jacobellis, which was originally "Jackass" by Beck. Although I still find it in poor taste to attempt to show-up competitors who are miles behind you, she was simply trying to emulate what the men had done the day before and what her sport represents - the shred-till-you're-dead mentality. And I'm still glad that it cost her the gold. If she were the personality type that could pull it off, we wouldn't be having this discussion - if she was the Chad Johnson of SBX, we'd all be shaking our heads and smiling. But she's just a young, talented, soft-spoken athlete who decided to get a little cocky - and it cost her. I doubt she'd do it all over again if given the chance.