Road to Torino

Bronze-medal winning aerialist Speedy Peterson was unceremoniously expelled from the Olympic Games yesterday after a brawl with an American (apparently not an athlete) in Italy.

This is how the U.S. Olympic Committee announced that it had sent Peterson packing:

At the request of the United States Olympic Committee and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association, U.S. aerials skier Jeret Peterson (Boise, Idaho) has agreed to leave the Athletes’ Village and immediately return to the United States from Torino, Italy and the 2006 Olympic Winter Games.

Earlier [Friday] in Sauze ‘d Oulx, Italy, Peterson was involved in an altercation with an acquaintance from the United States. Italian authorities are not pursuing charges.

“This type of conduct is irresponsible and will not be tolerated,” said 2006 U.S. Olympic Team Chef de Mission Jim McCarthy. “Like every athlete, Jeret had an opportunity to represent himself, his sport and his country in a positive manner. He chose to do otherwise, and because of his unacceptable actions, his Olympic experience is ending early.”

No word on how much alcohol was involved. I'd just like to point out that Peterson called Bode Miller an 'idiot' on Sports Bloggers Live last month. [listen to the clip]

Karma can be such a bitch.

Peterson finished 7th in men's aerials earlier this week after he failed to land his famed 'Hurricane' trick, considered the toughest trick to perform in his sport.

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• #4 Comment from missyano 
  2/25/06 10:25 PM | Permalink

  Aww, I find it kinda sad.  There was a "Today" show clip where he gave the reporter a tour of the nightlife of Torino and the camera was panning around as they were in a club and what did you see?  Speedy's grandmother dancing on a bar with a young man.  It was hilarious!  At least he was fighting with another American, not an athlete from another country....
• #3 Comment from canalgalny 
  2/25/06 1:22 PM | Permalink

  Whats the deal with these guys? Don't they know the world is watching them and listening to their name calling..Speedy calls Bode a jerk and now Bode gets to call Speedy a jerk...Perhaps they can share seats on the official early Jerk flight back to the states.. Out of the two jerks I think Bode is going to have a harder time explaining his [boozing] behavior during the olympics at least Speedy waited to the end of the games to tie one on... Bottoms up!
• #2 Comment from grandmat141 
  2/25/06 11:26 AM | Permalink

  These young...Xgames participants...haven't a clue ! their mannerisms,language and the it's all a big party (Olympics) attitude, is a disgrace to we Americans!
  
  The same goes for Bode Millers' behavior !
• #1 Comment from odewriter 
  2/25/06 10:53 AM | Permalink

  Big surprise... When the Winter Olympiad turned into "the X-Games" with a bigger audience, I knew this was coming. Biggest (only?) surprise here is that somehow it was limited to one (s0-far) alcohol related incident and no dugs were involved...  I'm sure if we all wait a day or two, the young lad will tell us all that it was someone else's fault.