so besides the overall poor performance of the x-games commentators (including mike douglas, sorry mike you're a sick skier but you can't talk) Sal Masekela has to take the cake. The words that come out of his mouth astound me. In watching snowboard superpipe, he was astounded that the bindings of one of the rider's board "broke." You can clearly see that he unstrapped them in order to walk to the top of the in-run. anyway, here's my biggest complaint:
Sal- " ok, so Shaun White has clinched the gold medal, it's time for his victory lap. He's about to go to Vancouver, he's on the top of his game, I don't see why he shouldn't go for perfection on this run."
Ok so here's the problem. Why are the commentators so obsessed with perfection???
aside: they should not have given out a perfect score at ski big air, granted it was a crazy trick, but who's to say that someone isn't going to go after him and do the same trick with a longer grab, higher, longer etc. Perfection is an absolute statement, and in the sense of subjective judging, it's isn't possible.
Ok so back to why Shaun White shouldn't go for perfection. The simple fact that he is going to the olympics is the main reason why he shouldn't. He is going to represent his country on the world stage in less than a month. That should be the most important thing on his mind. God forbid he got hurt and couldn't compete. There is no reason to strive for a personal goal when your country is on the line. Don't tell me that it would be practice for him because he's had enough practice on his damn private halfpipe (skiers don't have private pipes, they ride/train/live together.) Especially after just about knocking his head off in practice, Shaun White should have taken his gold and straight aired down the pipe. As much as I honestly don't care for Shaun White, I want to see him succeed for the sake of our nation and quite honestly his own health. I remind you of the words of the late great John F. Kennedy:
"Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."