Gotta love Jimmy Kimmel… Gotta love Kimmel even more when Scotty Lago is on!  This past Friday, US Olympic half pipe bronze medalist Scotty Lago appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel show to talk about what it was like to win an Olympic bronze medal … and how it felt to be sent home a couple days later.

In case you didn’t catch it, Olympic snowboarder Scotty Lago was asked to leave the Olympic games (or face a disciplinary hearing) 2 weeks early after some “mildly suggestive” photos appeared on TMZ, depicting Lago “using his bronze medal for snowboarding to score chicks.”

Personally, I think the Olympic committee overreacted in their decision to ask Scotty to leave the games.  When I first heard about the incident (without seeing the photos, firsthand), I expected him to be stark naked or something!  Really, the photos weren’t that bad, and the only reason the Olympic committee got upset is likely because Scotty was wearing a T-shirt with the Olympic logo plainly visible in one of the photos.  I understand the perspective that the medal is sacred (or whatever) and should not be treated in an incriminaing light, however, I’m sure every athlete parties a little bit and wants to show off their new, shiny piece of medal.  Especially around attractive females! :)  After all, Olympic athletes are human, too.  Scotty just happened to use his medal to lure in the female fish … while also reeling in the paparazzi.

This incident brings up two good points.  First, this is the first Olympic games where new media played a huge role.  New media tends to accelerate the news cycle, and I don’t think athletes this year were adequately prepared to address.  Second, Scotty became a celebrity basically overnight.  In chatting about the incident with some of my coworkers a couple of days after, one of them said quite brashly, “what do you expect from a snowboarder?”  Ok, no.  What do you expect from any normal teenager?!  Case in point, and if anything, the Olympic committee should have taken stronger measures (and a long, boring seminar isn’t quite what I consider a measure) to enforce appropriate conduct at parties that athletes consider safe from the limelight.

All said and done now, Lago’s voluntary exit doesn’t change the fact that last week he became an American hero.  But it was his home town that supported him the most.  The Olympic games and the athletes that bring them to life are important, because they give small town kids big dreams, dreams they will work hard to achieve.  And the day Scotty won the bronze, thousands of kids around the world thought, “Wow.  That will be me someday.”

Despite being sent home from the Olympics prior to the closing ceremonies, Jimmy Kimmel came through and threw Scotty a closing ceremony of his very own!  The incident is something that will be left in the dust, and at least Scotty has a good attitude about it.  In the words of Lago, “It is what it is.”

Related Posts

• Olympics - Share Your Thoughts
• Announcing Your 2010 US Winter Olympic Half Pipe Team
• White and Clark Dominate (again) in US Snowboarding Grand Prix, Park City