More cowbells? How about more fog horns at parallel giant slalom?
This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.
The finish line of his long, storied career was a few gates away.
Never mind that Jasey-Jay Anderson probably couldn’t see it, not with the blindingly bad conditions at Cypress Mountain.
What was one more hurdle for the 34-year-old veteran Canadian snowboarder?
Anderson, incredibly, overcame a big first-run deficit and was trailing in the second run against Benjamin Karl of Austria but rallied, winning the men’s parallel giant slalom gold medal by 0.35 seconds. American Chris Klug, 37, finished seventh, losing in the quarterfinals to eventual bronze medalist Mathieu Bozzetto of France.
There will be, suffice to say, a lot of celebrating on Anderson’s blueberry farm in Quebec. Anderson, indeed, is a blueberry farmer and had contemplated retirement. But he simply couldn’t miss the Olympics in his own country.
Anderson, on CTV, said he didn’t know what to say immediately after the victory, looking stunned at winning his first medal in three Olympics.
“I had so much to make up -- in these conditions, it’s virtually impossible,” Anderson said, adding that there was a problem with a starting gate. “True athletes thrive on adversity, so I tried to be a true athlete.”
Adversity, thy name is Cypress Mountain.
Karl used a descriptive and unprintable term to describe the conditions. The women competed in rain and slush Friday, and Saturday, the men had to deal with fog, on top of it all, and a couple of snowboarders mentioned technical problems at the start.
“You’re swimming all day -- you can’t see anything,” Anderson said. “You have to rise above that.”