Olympic half pipe Bronze medalist Scotty Lago has volunteered to leave Vancouver on Thursday after a photo of a girl holding the medal up to his junk and kissing it appeared on TMZ.com. It ran along side another photo of Lago holding the medal while the girl bit it (the medal not his junk). See photos here: http://www.tmz.com/2010/02/19/scotty-lago-olympics-vancouver-photo/

In an email statement U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association President and CEO Bill Marolt wrote, "Scotty Lago is a great athlete, but with that comes a responsibility of proper conduct, and his involvement in this situation is not acceptable. Scotty realizes his conduct was inappropriate. He has formally apologized and also made a decision to leave Vancouver today."

I get that an Olympic medal is coveted but does winning one mean you waive all rights to be yourself? After it was hung around his neck was Scotty taken to a back room and made to sign a contract saying, ‘I, the undersigned, do solemnly promise to never again party like I just don’t care’? (Apparently there is a caveat just below that sentence that states you are, on occasion, allowed to throw your hands in the air. See photo above.) 

Why do we expect the physical skills of athletes to be linked to their ethics? Have you ever thought, ‘Wow that was the sickest Double Cork I’ve ever seen. It must be the result of his high moral character’? Yet for some reason athletes are supposed to behave as if they’re Mother Teresa once their run, game, whatever, is over. I have feeling what Scotty is really thinking is something similar to the immortal words of Natalie Portman: “I never said I was a role model.” Once you’ve been given the medal it should be yours to do with as you please. At least they didn’t go as far as to try and take it away from him.  

Bill Marlot displays exactly the kind of conservative attitude that makes it easy to question what snowboarding, with its focus on creativity and freedom of expression, is doing in the Olympics. Snowboarders have always pushed conventional boundaries and broken the rules. It’s a large part of what made snowboarding so successful.

Earlier in the week Japanese shred Kazuhiro Kokubo found himself in a conduct-based mess with the Ski Association of Japan when he showed up at the airport with his shirt untucked and tie hanging loose. He continued to ruffle some suits when he commented that the Olympics “were just another snowboarding event.” [See Dean Seguin’s blog about it all here: http://www.snowboardcanada.com/Blogs/post/62/Kazu-Kokubo-Olympic-Badass]

The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association and the Ski Association of Japan, whether intentionally or not, attempt to water down the culture of snowboarding. On the one hand I’m sure they love the popularity of snowboarding—or are at least forced to acknowledge it because of the popularity—but on the other hand they get pissed when snowboarders do exactly what youth always do: party and cause shit. Organizations like this have an incredibly narrow definition of what sport is, which puts them natuarally at odds with snowboarding. There are those who would argue snowboarding is more sub-culture than sport. 

I’m glad the Games didn’t go by without snowboarders creating at least of bit of controversy. In a world of institutionalized sports and corporate sponsorships it shows we’ve got a bit of life left in us yet. Scotty you’re welcome back in Canada any time buddy.

[For the record I was surprised how hyped I got every time a Canadian has dropped in for their runs this week, be it Boardercross or Pipe. More on that in a blog coming soon.] - Gerhard Gross