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VANCOUVER, British Columbia The fuddy-duddy suits who run the Vancouver Games got their scapegoat. Scotty Lago was kicked out of the Winter Olympics. Yes, kicked out.
Do not believe the party line served by the United States Ski and Snowboard Association, nor the words of United States Olympic Committee spokesman Patrick Sandusky, who said: Scotty left on his own accord. He wasnt forced to leave. Lago, the bronze medalist in halfpipe, was forced to leave, two sources close to him told Yahoo! Sports, and did so only to prevent an even greater escalation of a situation that already had been blown far out of proportion.
Lago is the smiling 23-year-old in the now-infamous pictures of an Olympic medalist celebrating. The photos are kids play, and yet because somebody caught Michael Phelps taking a bong hit, anything anything gets the USOCs tighty-whities in a bunch.
Once the photos of Lago surfaced on TMZ.com, the USSA, in an effort to avoid USOC intervention, came to him with two options, according to sources: go home quietly and play the necessary political game, or go through a trial process and risk getting formally ejected. Lago, not wanting to torpedo any future Olympic opportunities, chose to return to New Hampshire instead of staying until the Closing Ceremony as planned, sources said.
Lago had tried to preemptively strike against repercussions. He issued an apology to the USSA on Friday morning when informed the pictures existed, sources said, in which he apologized for the lapse in judgment and said he was thankful for the opportunity to compete in the Olympics. It was not enough.
He did something pretty foolish, but its nothing illegal, Lagos father, Michael, said from his New Hampshire home. No ones hurt. Thats really all that matters to me.
Olympic athletes across all sports have been on high alert against behaving poorly in public after the embarrassment caused by Phelps....
Sources: USSA forced Lago to leave Olympics - 2010 Olympics - Yahoo! Sports
American Scotty Lago reacts after his run in the halfpipe final on Wednesday.
(Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)