We’ve all had those nights where we just binge out on Netflix and then wake up late in the morning, sometimes missing classes or exams. We always tell ourselves that we’ll go to bed after this next episode, but Netflix’s auto-play just starts counting down and we don’t have to click anything before the next episode rolls right onto our screens. For Redmond “Red” Gerard, that was all too true for the night before his Olympic snowboarding run. Red was binging Brooklyn-Nine-Nine late on Saturday night with a friend, which also happens to be one of my favorite shows as well. After a night full of binging, Red ended up oversleeping and didn’t wake up until 6:30 a.m. instead of his planned 6 a.m. for the men’s snowboard slopestyle. Once he woke up, he “was running around the house in the morning. [His] jacket was missing, so [he] had to borrow [his roommate’s] jacket.” Red describes his roommate, Kyle Mack, as “a lifesaver” given that he also woke him up in time to eat breakfast and catch the bus to the slopes.
Courtesy: Joel Reichenberger
So here Red is, running to catch the bus to his big day while his family gets ready to cheer him on at the bottom of the slope. Red describes the feeling as really relaxed, he tried to treat the day of competition as if it were like any other day. I mean, I can’t even treat exam days like normal days, let alone exam days I wake up late for. Just imagine being in a foreign country where you’re representing your country doing the thing that you love the most and waking up late because you were watching Netflix all night long. If there was one feeling I’d use to describe that, it sure as hell wouldn’t be relaxed. But despite the odds, Red made it to the bus and got to the event on time, and his family was even there to support him at the base of the slope!
Courtesy: David Ramos
Red went on to take his three slopestyle runs, falling during the first two runs but eventually nailing his final one. During his last jump, Red was thinking “Just don’t blow it. In the air [he] was like, ‘Come on, let’s put it down here, let’s not ruin it on the last jump.’” He ended up with a score of 87.16, enough to beat our Canada’s Max Parrot (with an 86.99) and Mark McMorris (82.20) for the gold. At just 17, Red Gerard had won the United States’ first gold medal of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics. After oversleeping, misplacing his jacket and stumbling twice during his runs, Red still managed to take the gold for the U.S.A. If that’s not an inspirational story then I don’t know what is. So next time you wake up late because you’ve binge-watched your favorite show all night long, let Red Gerard inspire you to put your best foot forward and go for the gold!