They’re Snowballing Along

Hold on to your helmets ...

Snowboarding is back in the Winter Olympics after a five-day layoff and that means Tyler Jewell, the only U.S. entry in today’s parallel giant slalom, has had plenty of time to come up with something to keep the U.S. rolling.

Ten days ago, Shaun White, a.k.a. the Flying Tomato, started things off for the snowboard team -- and for the U.S. in general -- by striking gold in the halfpipe.

He then caught a plane for New York to make the rounds on the talk-show circuit, and rumor has it he still hasn’t come down to Earth.

Almost lost in White’s shadow was Danny Kass, who won silver for the second consecutive Olympics.

Not to be upstaged, the U.S. women took their turn in the halfpipe a day later. But first, Hannah Teter and Gretchen Bleiler took a few powder runs, returning to the venue with only minutes to spare, via an off-limits run.

Snowboarders will be snowboarders, they explained, after winning gold (Teter) and silver (Bleiler) and likewise becoming Olympic stars.

Snowboarders had become the champions of these Games, as they were in 2002 at Salt Lake City, and to keep things going, Seth Wescott made a thrilling late pass to win the snowboard cross by a nose.

He was trumped a day later by Lindsey Jacobellis and the infamous “Lindseygate” episode, which the athlete from Stratton, Vt., may never live down.

Clearly the best female snowboard cross rider in the world, Jacobellis opened so big a lead that she couldn’t resist trying to nail a method-air board-grab off a jump near the finish line. Down she went and, as she struggled to get back on course, Tanja Frieden of Switzerland zoomed by to steal the gold.

Jacobellis tried unsuccessfully and ingloriously to convince the world that she had not been showboating, but merely trying to stabilize herself after losing control, and that she was overjoyed to have won the silver.

Poor Tyler Jewell of Sudbury, Mass. How can he follow all this?

The answer, it turns out, is simple: If he rides his heart out and wins a medal, he’ll become another big snowboarding story because here is a man who could not even meet the initial qualifying criterion by finishing in the top four of a World Cup event.

Essentially, the U.S. had to pick someone and he appeared to be the best man for the job. But his strategy seems sound: Qualify in the top eight to ensure racing initially against those at the lower end of the 16-man field, then ride the momentum into the medal hunt.

“He has gotten in the top 10 in a World Cup competition -- he was ninth,” said an optimistic U.S. coach, Steve Persons. “This is not a World Cup so the field is smaller, so his chances are really good of at least doing that.”

Of course, even Jewell would probably acknowledge that to get anywhere near the podium today he would need to turn in an absolute gem of a performance.