If you ignore one big thing about Red Gerard, 17, you could mistake him for any other American kid.
He passed out while watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine late on Saturday night. He slept in the next morning. Despite the cold, the kid couldn’t find his jacket, so he rushed out the door with one borrowed from a mate. Snapchat notifications from his posse flickered across his smartphone screen as he set off for the day.
That’s all well and good. But Gerard went on to spend his Sunday winning America’s first gold medal at the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, thanks to an absolutely insane slopestyle snowboarding run featuring moves like this:
So, no, he’s not just any teen, even if the other facts – the late-night, the binge-watch, the subsequent sleep-in, and the misplaced jacket – are all completely true.
But it was only after Gerard successfully executed a switch backside 1260, and a backside triple cork 1440, that Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Passan revealed the details of the decidedly un-Olympic night before.
As for the Snapchat notifications, Gerard said his family and friends were straight-up shotgunning beers before 8.30am as they prepared to watch him soar into the history books.
Red Gerard said he got a Snapchat this morning around 8:30 a.m. from his group of 17 people that is in Pyeongchang, South Korea to support him for the Games: “They were all shotgunning beers on the way to the mountains.” pic.twitter.com/JORk5m3pH5
— USA TODAY Sports (@usatodaysports) February 11, 2018
One more thing: Gerard dropped a cheeky televised f-bomb. Bless.
So, @NBCOlympics aired snowboarding on delay and still couldn’t delete the “holy f*ck” after Red Gerard won. #NBCdelayed #NBColympics #olympics pic.twitter.com/Z8sct2t8Qo
— bobby (@GoBobbo) February 11, 2018
Gerard will next take to the slopes for the Big Air event. For his sake, we’re hoping some late-night Andy Samberg makes a return to his routine.
