America's 10 biggest busts of Olympics
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Hockey
If somebody had told you before the Games that the U.S. women’s hockey team wouldn’t play for gold, you’d have expected the next bit of information from this source to be that the Bush administration planned to levy heavy new taxes on the top 10 percent of incomes.
Utterly unbelievable.
Yet, it happened when plucky Sweden beat the U.S. women, knocking the world’s second-most dominant team into the bronze-medal game, which they won. It was the first time the Americans did not play for gold in either the Olympics or any other major world tournament, their opponents always being the Canadian women. After the loss, USA Hockey came under heavy fire for the way the team was put together — most notably without leader Cammi Granato — and trained.
Hopes for the men’s team weren’t as high, but the results were still depressing. In five preliminary games, the team managed just one win and a tie. In the quarterfinals, with a very good chance to beat Finland, the team started sluggishly and ended with a rash of stupid penalties and a one-goal defeat.
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Lindsey Jacobellis
The snowboardcross rider was on her way to gold and glory, leading the final in the event by a humongous margin over Tanja Frieden of Switzerland. Being a snowboarder, she couldn’t resist grabbing her board and hotdogging a little on the final jump of the race. After all, what’s the good of winning if you can’t show off a bit?
Unfortunately, the grab made Jacobellis lose her balance and crash. As Frieden whizzed by to a gift gold, Jacobellis slid home with silver. The moment will go down as the first time a snowboarder ever lost something of value for showing off.
Sliders
There were high hopes for the folks who go down frozen chutes on their backs, bellies and in bobsleds, and, but for the women’s two-man bobsled, which took silver, every one was crushed.
The meltdown started before the action began, when women's skeleton coach Tim Nardiello was suspended after being charged with sexual harassment. Then Zach Lund, the best hope for a skeleton medal, got the boot for failing a doping test — the medicine he was taking to help regrow his hair turned out to be on the banned substances list. Seldom has the price of vanity been so high.
But maybe Lund was the smart one. At least he avoided the embarrassment of blowing up on the track.
Doubles luge medal hopefuls Mark Grimmette and Brian Martin crashed to end their Olympics. Samantha Retrosi also crashed — horrifically. Everybody else — except the women’s two-man — simply faded away. It was one of the worst team meltdowns of the Games.
Michelle Kwan
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And she brought with her undeniable star power. After twice missing gold medals, the nine-time national champion and five-time world champ was also a sentimental favorite.
Alas, during her first practice, she was unable to land relatively simple jumps as the groin injury that kept her out of the nationals proved to be insufficiently healed to withstand the rigors of the Olympics. She didn’t even stick around to see how her replacement, Emily Hughes, did, choosing to leave Italy and go to Disney World.
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