After Securing Bronze, American Snowboarder Doesn’t Hold Back

WEST VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Near the bottom of the halfpipe at Cypress Mountain, the American snowboarder Scotty Lago dedicated his bronze medal to friends and family and his New Hampshire town. It was less of an interview and more of an awards speech.
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Lago had myriad reasons for the elation. A year ago, he wanted simply to make the Olympic snowboarding team. Even when he finished his first finals run here in second place, Lago said his chances did not feel tangible, that winning any medal remained far out of reach.

Yet there he stood, minutes later, the unlikely medal partner for the surest bet in snowboarding, the gold medalist Shaun White. Lago started by thanking the academy. Actually, he thanked everyone but the academy.

“I’m so happy!” he shouted, unprompted, in the middle of the interview.

This was for the Frends crew, the group of snowboarders who banded together and gave themselves a nickname, dropping the I in friends to signify their collective spirit. This was for Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis, two members of the crew who sustained serious injuries in recent months.

Davis had injured his back and pelvis in an all-terrain accident after winning an Olympic qualifying event in January. Pearce sustained a severe brain injury and is in a brain-rehabilitation hospital, relearning how to walk.

Every time a camera came within 10 feet of Lago, he shouted out his friends. He spent Wednesday morning text messaging with Davis and spent Wednesday afternoon thinking about Pearce.

Of the crew, Lago said: “I know those guys were watching. I really wish they were here with me.”

This was for the folks back home in Seabrook, N.H., the ones who gathered for a viewing party at Common Island Café, mistakenly arriving hours ahead of schedule. Mike Jr., Lago’s father, said the group stayed at the restaurant anyway, wearing their camouflage and hunting gear, getting “good and liquored up.”

Those in Lago’s hometown had watched his career arch, the way he always stunned everyone in practice, but often stiffened up in competition. Lago said he usually choked when he should have stomped, and Mike Jr. called it “cash or crash.”

But tonight, Mike Jr. said, his son “unleashed it.”

This was for U.S. Snowboarding and its proud and still growing halfpipe tradition. Lago’s coach, Mike Jankowski, described his pupil as a “snowboarder’s snowboarder,” a favorite of men who spend their lives twisting and turning down these halfpipes.

Jankowski said Lago always showed a unique and explosive style, but rarely put together a full run when it mattered most. Lago said this year he met with a sports psychologist and read books on sports psychology, and eventually, he started to understand what people meant when they talked about living in the moment.

Lago did that Wednesday. He ran through his run afterward — backside method, frontside 1080, cab double cork 1080, frontside crippler, backside 900 — and if that sounds like a foreign language, understand that it was also a foreign run, in that Lago compiled one of the best sequences of his snowboarding life on the biggest stage his sport affords.

“Absolutely, it’s extra special,” Jankowski said. “He was representing those guys, representing his family, representing his town in New Hampshire and representing snowboarding in a most amazing way.”

When it ended, Lago was definitely living in the moment. He gave White bunny ears during their postrace news conference. He talked about visiting Pearce in the hospital. He joked that he did not want to eat the flowers in his hand because he still had to go through doping control.

But mostly, he dedicated his medal to the Frends crew and New Hampshire and his family, including his father, who told his son he wanted them to party together for the first time Wednesday night. Asked if that would change his routine, Lago answered, “There’s no holding back tonight.”

Not at these Olympics, where Lago learned to let go and ended up grabbing bronze.