American Seth Wescott makes it through the rough-and-tumble, takes gold in snowboardcross

In huge comeback, Wescott gets snowboardcross gold

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Even in a sport as wild and unpredictable as snowboardcross, it shouldn’t come as too big a surprise to see the Olympic champion defend his title.

But really, snowboard fans — where in the world did Seth Wescott come from?

Heading into the last half of Monday’s final, the 33-year-old from Maine was barely within shouting distance of Canadian Mike Robertson. Then, out of nowhere, Wescott closed the gap, overtook the Canadian and held him off at the finish to take the gold medal — his second straight and America’s second of these Winter Olympics.

“That kind of gap, most people — well, really, nobody, overcomes that,” said America’s snowboard coach, Peter Foley.

Tony Ramoin of France won the bronze, finishing ahead of American Nate Holland, whose spinout about a third of the way down the course set up what seemingly looked like a breeze for Robertson, an underdog who was going for his country’s second gold medal of the games.

Wescott made up the distance over a series of four turns and five jumps that can sap speed if not handled correctly — and win the gold if they are.

“I’d made some mistakes in there earlier in the day,” Wescott said. “I knew if I came back and executed it correctly, I could do it. It wasn’t a situation of looking for a miracle at all.”

The crowd, about half Canadian and half American, gasped and cheered. Wescott crossed the line first and fell to the ground, then draped the stars and stripes across his shoulders — the same flag he held four years ago in Turin, the one that was given to his grandfather by the U.S. military.

“That was part of the motivation to get to this moment,” Wescott said. “I brought it so if I got to this moment, I’d have it here.”

His win this time was hard to believe — not so much because of his history in the sport but because of his last two months.

Wescott dinged up his leg and pelvis at an event two months ago, couldn’t walk for two weeks and came to the Olympics admittedly not riding his best.

He finished 17th of the 32 riders in qualifying — not up to his standards — and was one of the few riders who would acknowledge that the conditions at weather-plagued Cypress Mountain — slushy, flat light, inconsistent snow — were crummy.

“You’re pretty much riding blind in there,” he said between qualifying and the finals.

His low seeding meant he had to wear the black vest for the final three of the four races he ran (the top seed in each race gets to wear red, No. 2 blue and No. 3 yellow).

But the man in black, a technician who prides himself on finding the winning paths down any course, won gold, in part because he stayed patient at the end — knowing Robertson would be in the early lead because he got the best lane choice for the final and Wescott got the worst.

He overcame the big deficit and emerged unscathed through four races during which almost anything can, and usually does, happen.

The fastest rider in qualifying, Aussie Alex Pullin, wiped out in the first race.

This year’s top-ranked rider in the World Cup, France’s Pierre Vaultier, got mixed up with Canadian Drew Nielson and wiped out.

Last year’s World Cup champion, Markus Schairer, came in with broken ribs and left early after a wipeout.

American Graham Watanabe, who qualified second, got beat in a photo finish, and his teammate, Nick Baumgartner, slipped and went sprawling into the netting.

Another Canadian, Francois Boivin, did a somersault and a face plant.

On and on it went until Holland, the American who won his fifth straight Winter X Games last month — made the final mistake, a spinout that knocked Wescott back to third, way behind Robertson, who missed the wreck.

Wescott finished his comeback to close his winning day at Cypress Mountain.

A day that, thankfully, finished with no need for anyone to be taken off in a stretcher or worse — an issue that came to the fore after the death of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili during a training run last week.

Like many of the winter sports, there’s in inherent danger in snowboardcross, and anyone who steps onto the board knows it.

The message Wescott sent, however, is that his sport, for all its craziness, isn’t so unpredictable after all.

It has been in the Olympics twice, and Wescott has won them both.

The sport was brought to the Olympics in 2006 to inject some life and youth and X Games attitude into games that were, by many measures, falling behind the times. It did that. So much so that the Olympics are introducing its cousin, skicross, to the program this year.

These races are must-see TV, NASCAR on ice, some crazy crash or unseen stumble lurking around or behind every one of those bumps and jumps and, in this case, even a few ledges to keep everybody honest.

Organizers even got two of the riders, Baumgartner and seventh-place finisher Mario Fuchs, to wear mini-cams on their heads to give TV viewers a first-person view of what it’s like skidding down the hill at 30 mph, trading paint, and elbows, in a constant struggle for position.

They were both bystanders at the end, getting to watch the man who, for all intents and purposes, is the godfather of snowboardcross.

As if this sport would have such a thing.