Redmond “Red” Gerard is the first athlete at the Winter Olympics born after the year 1999 to win a gold medal.
The snowboarder for Team USA stunned with his come-from-behind victory at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympics, moving from last place to first with a score of 87.16 out of a possible 100 in slopestyle. While his first two runs were sloppy, it was clear in the last one that he was aware he had nothing to lose. Then again, it’s hard to blame someone for being a bit sloppy after a late night of Netflix leads to a morning of sleeping in.
Yes, that’s right.
Red Gerard slept through his alarm after staying up watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine. He then couldn’t find his jacket and needed to borrow that of his roommate, Kyle Mack, and, when it came time to compete, he lived out the climactic moment of every sports-themed Disney Channel Original Movie in existence. Red Gerard is 17.
And in victory, Gerard is still humble. In an interview with ESPN, he was quick to praise the talents of the second and third place medalists, Canada’s Max Parrot and Mark McMorris. “First of all, just competing with the best of the best in the Olympics—y’know, Mark and Max are right there and, y’know, like … It was crazy. It was really wild to me that I got first place.”
Gerard isn’t the only member of Generation Z to make an impression, though. Over on the half-pipe, Team USA snowboarder Chloe Kim also struck gold with her amazing performance, but she really became a sensation for her tweets during the competition.
What a champion.
Now, in the constant feuding between Baby Boomers, Gen Xers, and Millennials, Generation Z is ignored more often than not. For instance, while Forbes defines Gen Z as anyone born between the mid 1990s and the early 2000s, said demographic is often lumped in with Millennials by news media. Some people have criticized the two athletes for their behaviour, calling them typical lazy Millennials (or, in Chloe’s case, just calling her a “little hot piece of ass”). To these people I would like to say the following:
First off, Patrick Connor, you are gross. You are a gross person who talked about fucking a 17-year-old girl on a radio show. You looked up her birthday so that you could count down to her being legal. You only apologized for doing this once criticism grew too much, and you excused yourself in your apology by calling it a joke. You are a bad person.
Second, these two were both born after the turn of the century. They are Generation Z, not Millennials.
Third, there is not a single person who shouldn’t be in awe at these two. They are Olympic gold medalists in the most iconic way possible. If they are an example of what the latest generation will be, then the future is radical.