Thursday, February 16, 2006

The Eighth Place Medal

I know it would cause as much controversy as the Gold medal itself, but sometimes I think it'd be nice to award a fourth medal to deserving Olympic athletes- the Platinum Medal.

This medal would not supplant the Gold as the first place, but go to the athlete that was the special one, the real world winner, not just the one who came in first.

Last night in the women's Downhill Ski, Lindsey Kildow finished in eighth place, but what an eighth place it was! Just a few days before, she was airlifted off the same mountain, training for the same race, and spent the night in the hospital. Yet there she was, 48 hours since her accident, competing.

The Olympic winners and losers are usually separated by only a few tenths or hundredths of a second. There is not a lot of room for errors. Kildow's sore body made to many of these errors and she, although favored before the accident, landed in eighth place.

For just getting up the courage and forcing herself down the same stretch of snow that sent her to the hospital, she deserves the Platinum medal.

How about Kelly Clark in the women's Halfpipe? She wasn't injured but clearly the best out there. She got no medal, because she went for icing on the cake, did one last hard element and sat down on her butt for two quick nanoseconds. I'd give her the Platinum as well.

And just to show I'm not a homer, I would also award the Platinum as a double bonus to the skating pair of Zhang and Zhang. For one reason Zhang and Zhang is fun to say and also because she, Zhang, fell early in the competition right on her knees and couldn't even stand up for a short period of time. Yet they continued on and won the Silver Medal. Wow! After the hit her (Zhang) knees took, I'd still not be walking!

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