Keep Moving Forward

An athlete is running very fast and is about to make a new world record for a marathon. This athlete is five feet from crossing the finish line when he trips and becomes unconscious and falls into a coma. When this athlete wakes up he finds out he did not win, but decides to keep trying. Lots of athletes have faced defeat, but those that keep going will continue to be better and may actually win.

Snow cross is one of the Olympic events. In this event snow boarders race to finish first while fighting the other athletes. These races are very unpredictable because anything can happen. The athlete that starts in last may end up in first by the end of the race, or the person in first may take off and the other athletes may not have a chance. These athletes train four years sometimes to just face plant it right on the first hill. One example of this is Lindsey Jacobellis. Four years ago she was on her way to win a gold medal. She made it to the finals. Lindsey got in head of everybody and was going to win, but on the last jump something went wrong. Lindsey fell and she got passed. Lindsey Jacobellis still earned the silver medal, but this proves that if one little thing goes wrong then the gold medal can vanish before an athletes eyes. This year on one of the first races Lindsey Jacobellis lost control and got disqualified. There are other athletes that have too lost with the slightest movement. Many athletes also lost by crashing in the women’s downhill.

On the women’s downhill a few days ago many athletes were falling. The women that raced in the downhill only received one practice run. They practiced before it was icy, and because of this many athletes crashed. Most of the athletes that fell, fell on the last jump. These athletes would catch more than expected air and landed wrong. Some of the athletes prepared for the crash and new what to do. Other athletes were thrown around and it looked pretty painful. There were also some athletes that crashed in other places. One of these athletes was pulling out, lost balance, and crashed even before the first gate. It is sad that these athletes train so hard for four years, and crash so they do not even get a chance. Many snowboarders also crashed and lost their dreams.

Many of the athletes were falling on the half pipe this year. The snowboarding half pipe is about 20 ft tall this year. Many athletes landed one jump slightly wrong and got marked down a ton for it. Shaun White four years ago took a pretty hard fall by hitting his head on the side of the half pipe. Shaun White did not give up. He did another run and earned the gold medal. In the past four years Shaun White has become better even so that this year he earned a 48.3. He received a 96%, which is an A. Shaun has created new tricks one consisting of two flips and three and a half rotations. Shaun White is amazing, and anybody else can be if they set their minds to it.