LIVIGNO, Italy — No sport at the Winter Olympics is more chaotic and arguably more exhilarating than snowboard cross, which whittles down a 32-person field with a series of four-man heats that resemble a human version of the Daytona 500 combined with a touch of Kentucky Derby — on a snowboard, of course.
But on Thursday, at least from an American perspective, it was equal parts inspiring and maddening.
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On one end of the spectrum, you had Nick Baumgartner, five-time Olympian coming just a photo finish short of making the final and having a chance to become the oldest medal winner in Winter Games history at age 44.
On the other, you had 21-year old Nathan Pare making his Olympic debut, crossing the finish line first in his quarterfinal heat before learning a few minutes later that he’d been disqualified for — as the jury saw it — deviating from his line going into a turn and unintentionally taking out Spanish rider Lucas Eguibar.
“To go from winning the heat to [being] ranked last,” Pare said, “it’s impossible to explain how that feels.”
You do not need to be particularly well-versed in the particulars of snowboard cross to understand both how absurd it is for someone like Baumgartner to be racing against men less than half his age at the biggest sporting event in the world and how common it is to see accidents like the one that ruined Pare’s Olympics.
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This is what their sport is. In NASCAR, they say “rubbin’s racin’.” In snowboard cross, there is simply no way to have four riders contest a race that lasts about 65 seconds in tight quarters on a course with curves and ramps and have everyone come away clean.
Most of the time, someone’s going to get in someone else’s way. Every now and then, one of those parties is going to get wiped out.
“It’s part of the sport,” Pare said. “It’s why the sport’s so exciting to watch for the fans. As a rider, you try to do everything you can to avoid the contact, but sometimes it’s uncontrollable and has to be okay.”
Pare’s Spanish colleague, as you might expect, saw it differently — and criticized Pare for saying he did nothing wrong.
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“The rule is really clear,” Eguibar said. “If another rider is outside, you can take the line of the other guy if you are in front. If you don’t touch the other rider, it’s alright. I respect the lines. In turn four, Nathan got really aggressive to the inside and really aggressive to the outside and I was there. If you do this and you crash with the other rider, you are out.
“I don’t understand why he was complaining after the decision. He can say that it was not on purpose, but it was really clear.”
But that bit of drama was only an appetizer for what would come a few minutes later when Baumgartner went into the starting gate, needing to finish in the top-two of his semifinal heat to advance.
Laying in third most of the race, he made his last, desperate push in the final 20 seconds with Canadian Eliot Grondin and Austrian Alessandro Haemmerle in his sights. As the finish line approached, Baumgartner leaned back and lifted the front of his board, hoping to get a nose on the wire first.
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But the photo was clear: Baumgartner was .08 seconds behind Haemmerle, who went on to win gold in the final.
Nick Baumgartner (yellow) narrowly lost to Eliot Grondin in a photo finish. (NBC screengrab)
“Man, it was super fun racing those guys,” he said. “Those are two of the fastest guys in our sport right now, and to go out there at 44 years old and almost nip him at the line — and the only reason I didn’t is because I made a mistake — and he went on to win the Olympics.”
In the final 17 minutes later, Grondin crossed the finish line first to win gold.
“So if I had beaten him, I would have won the Olympics,” Baumgartner continued. “[That’s] old-man math, and I’m going to stick with that and take this confidence and I’m going to go to the next race and I’m going to kick some butt and then I’m going to get back to work and I’m going to come back for the next Olympics because I’ve yet to get that individual gold medal and I’m not giving up on it.”
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Wait a second. Did we hear that right? Baumgartner, already a legend in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, is going to try to make an Olympic team four years from now when he’s 48?
Indeed, Baumgartner has even mused about the possibility of trying to hang on until 2034 when the Winter Games goes back to Salt Lake City, giving him a chance to say goodbye to the sport in front of his home fans.
Who knows what lies that far down the road for any of us, but in a sport this crazy? Who knows.
“We’re gonna keep going,” he said. “You give me a course that’s set up for me, I’m dangerous.”
Baumgartner’s Olympics aren’t over. He’s still going to contest the mixed relay event, which he won with Lindsey Jacobellis four years ago to finally take home a gold medal after years of trying.
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But he also knows, despite his competitiveness this time, that the window is closing because of competitors like Pare.
“I feel bad for the kid,” Baumgartner said. “But guess what? He’s young. He’s got something you can’t coach. He’s got that competitor inside of him, and there’s a lot of victories in his future and I’m excited to be along for his ride. And if I can ever beat him again — I don’t know that I will. He’s so good. I know he’s down right now, but good things are coming. He’s a dog.”
This time, that “dog” may have been what got him in trouble. When these things happen in snowboard cross, there’s not much you can do. Spain did lodge an objection with the jury, and Pare was pleading with the technical delegate not to disqualify him, but ultimately they saw it how they saw it.
“To have a call like that at the Olympics, pretty much stripping it away from me, it’s hard to deal with,” he said. “I did everything I felt was correct. I would probably go retake the line again if I was given the option.”
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Eguibar wasn’t exactly thrilled to have his Olympics end that way, either, being wiped out by a competitor he felt broke the rules.
“This is our sport,” he said. “I’ve been racing professionally for 13 years and it happens to me another time and also happens to me in the opposite side. I feel really sad this time, it was different, because I think he ride — I don’t know — really illegally. That’s it. I tried.”
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