Snowboarder Scott Lago Sent Home After Getting His Half-Pipe Bronzed
The latest scandal coming out of the Vancouver Olympics involved snowboarder Scotty Lago. Lago, who won bronze in the half-pipe, the same event Shaun White dazzled and took gold in on Wednesday, was given an ultimatum from the USOC regarding some suggestive pics which emerged on the internet: apologize and leave, or be ejected from the Olympic Village.
The pics, which first appeared on tabloid news site TMZ, showed Lago sporting his Olympic bronze medal below the waist, with a female "fan" kissing the medal. The offending pic caused U.S. Olympic officials to go into spin control mode. Lago, chose the obvious and headed home. He tweeted this upon his return from the games:
"Got home this morning to all my homies," he said on his Twitter site. "Such a good Olympic experience. Keeping my medal in a safe spot for now haha."
Sounds like the USOC isn't messing around after the shenanigans at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, when a slew of embarrassing mistakes overshadowed the U.S. athletes. They even took steps to curtail this type of "unsightly" behavior by setting up an "Ambassador Program" which is designed to train U.S. athletes in appropriate behavior and etiquette while representing their home country during the games.
For the most part, I'd say they've been successful in this endeavor. The once disgraced Bode Miller has more than redeemed himself, and celebrated gold-medalists Shaun White, Evan Lysacek and Lindsey Vonn have come across as gracious, humble and articulate. Short-track speedskater Apolo Ohno has cemented his Olympic legacy, and even the outspoken Johnny Weir forced us all to take him seriously as an Olympian — at least on the ice. So if this is the worst the U.S. athletes do while in Vancouver, then I'd say we are doing well. Plus 24 medals, including 7 golds, is pretty impressive so far.
Scotty I forgive you, however, that chick should be embarrassed as hell. You only get on your knees for gold ladies. GOLD!
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