Day two - On the mountain

Day Two - We took the train up to Bardonecchia this morning to watch the women compete in Snowboard Cross. This is the first time this sport has been in the Olympics, and just like when we were in Salt Lake and watched Short Track Speed skating for the first time - we were rivetted.
Snowboard Cross is one of those sports where it seems like there is a lot of luck involved. Four snowboarders take off simultaniously from the gates, and travel down a run filled with turns and jumps. It's wild to watch - things change quickly. One of the heats we were watching, the three girls in the lead all crashed, and the gal from Brazil who was in fourth place in the heat, missed the crash, and won the heat. It's a hoot to watch!

It was a beautiful day. It was snowing lightly when we arrived, but then the sun broke out and it was great! The only bummer was, as Toby explained it best, Lindsey Jacobellis snatched defeat out of the jaws of victory. (You will all remember Lindsey from the VISA ads where the coach says "Come on Lindsey, focus")

She had the whole thing won. She was in the final heat running for the gold, was wwwaaayyy ahead of the other three boarders, and on the last jump she did a hot dog move - fell as a result, and was lucky everyone was so far behind her, because she was able to get back on track, and win the silver. Opportunity missed. Probably a lot of lessons learned.