Oops, I spoke too soon....

Thanks to TiVo, I am watching the Olympics, but not in real time.

Tonight we saw the cluster**** by Lindsey Jacobellis the other night. YIKES!

Just when I was starting to warm up to this new generation of Olympians, something like this happens, and now my view is completely changed. In case you either detest the Olympics or you've been living under a bridge for the past couple of days (hey, stranger things have happened), let me bring you up to speed.

Lindsey Jacobellis was the US hopeful for women's snowboard cross. It's a new sport added to teh Olympics this year - kind of a cross between motorcross and snowboarding. It's a gnarly track (to use the snowboarder's terminology) and 4 boarders race simultaneously. In a triple qualification, Lindsey Jacobellis made it to the finals.

The amazing part is that not only did she take the lead, but she ended up a good 50 yards ahead of the pack, which is practically unheard of in this kind of sport where the competitors are so tightly packed, their boards are sliding over each others and there are many collisions (or "carnage" as the announced liked to keep referring to it).

As she is entering the home stretch, virtually guaranteed the gold medal unless something unspeakable happens, Lindsey looks back to gauge how big of a lead she has over the other girls. (I say girls because I don't think a one of them is over age 22). Seeing that she has a massive lead on the others, she does a little showboat maneuver adn grabs her board as she passes over hte 2nd to last jump. Now, keep in mind that the object is to win with teh fastest speed, so "big air" is NOT what you want in this sport.

Unfortunately, her little stunt backfired, as she landed badly (on her heels, apparently a bad thing for boarders...what do I know? I ski, for pete's sake!) and fell, giving the 2nd place girl plenty of time to catch up.

So Lindsey lost her massive lead and was lucky to even score a silver medal at that point.

Or as the smarmy announcer put it, "That is not the face of someone who just won a silver medal. That is the face of someone who just lost the gold!"

As if that wasn't bad enough, in an interview immediately following the race, she backpeddles out of it, explaining it away. "oh, I have had trouble with that jump, so I tried to stabilize by grabbing my board, but it didn't work out. Hey, at least I won a silver!"

Shame, shame, shame Lindsey. Don't you know you are a role model for young women and young atheletes all across hte U.S.? Why not just have hte integrity to own up to what you did? You saw you had a big lead, you got excited and you showed off a little. And you cost your country a gold medal and tainted your Olympic memory for years to come. Oh, don't think for a second the media won't have the gall to throw it up in your face again and show instant replays 4 years from now in Vancouver. They'll just eat that stuff up. And Americans watching everywhere will shake their heads and continue generalizing about snowboarders and your generation.

Later, during another interview, Lindsey was asked point-blank whether or not she was showboating (we all saw the instant replay, so we know the answer...but we just wanted to see whether or not she would admit it). Her response was slightly better than earlier, but still pretty lame. "I don't know, maybe a little. But I was just so darn excited, I couldn't help it!" And thus teh problem with our society today.

Yes, I am on a rant today, folks. That was certainly NOT the Olympic spirit in action. Even two of the US men's team totally "dissed" her when she walked up to them just after the race. They turned their backs and walked away.

But poor Lindsey. If only she had admitted her weak moment, she could have been free from it forever. How much more would we admire her if she had said, "Yeah, that was really stupid. I can't beleive I did that. I could have had the gold in my hands, and now I am lucky to even have a medal at all." We would have admired her honesty, and forgiven her. And it would have been so much easier for her to forgive herself for that moment of weakness -- of humanness.

But no, that's not what happened. She tried to cover it up, and now she'll have to keep justifying her reasons in her own mind, adn to the press. Poor, poor lindsey. And too bad for those few snowboarders who really do work hard and take their sport seriously. I'd venture to say that credibility for boarding just slipped a few notches.

Yeah, I thikn I'll stick with skiing, and leave the competitions to the pros (and Olympians). I'm happy cruising my greens, adn the occasional blue, enjoying hte scenery and hanging with my hubby. Oh, and making sure my integrity stays intact.

The reason I'm on a rant about this today is because success chases integrity. If you are not having success, it's directly due to your total lack of integrity. But more about that tomorrow. I promised myself I'd do 100 situps every morning and night, and it's time to fulfill on that commitment yet again.

Integrity takes practice. Few people grow up with a true understanding of their word as their bond. Your word is all you have. Period. I get that now, and I am practicing being in integrity every day.

Here is your question du jour:
Where in your life are you "covering up" instead of "coming clean"? Getting into integrity starts by telling the truth about areas where you've been inauthentic. Clean it up and move on. Then practice keeping your word and doign what you say you will do. Success will naturally follow - it simpy must.