A teenager is a teenager, no matter which country they're in. The same is still true of teenagers who also happen to be Olympic athletes, if gold medal-winning Red Gerard sleeping through his alarm is any indication.
According to a report by Yahoo! News, the seventeen year-old snowboarder made a mistake that hundreds, if not thousands, of American teens probably make every single day. After falling asleep watching an episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine on Netglix, he slept through his brisk 6:00 a.m. alarm.
On any other day, that might have been a simple mistake. But the day in question was not just any day. It was the final morning of competition in the men's snowboard slopestyle event. It was also the day that Gerard would go on to make Olympic history.
Reportedly, his Netflix binge had been an attempt to have a calm night, presumably in anticipation of the competition the following day. But even a low-key streaming binge didn't help him wake up on time. Twenty minutes after his alarm was supposed to have gone off, his teammate, Kyle Mack, reportedly asked the young snowboarder if he was awake, which he was not.
According to Yahoo, Gerard eventually pulled himself out of bed, and even had enough time to grab a breakfast sandwich before heading to the slopes.
At the slope, there was no indication of a sleepy morning reflected in Gerard's performance. He proceeded to earn a gold medal — the United States' first gold medal of the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. But, his accomplishments didn't cease with being first. He is also on record as having been the youngest American athlete to win gold at the Winter Games in about 90 years.
And his response, having found out that he would be awarded the top award in his competition? An expletive, of course. While hugging who are presumably his friends and family, Gerard released a resounding, "Holy f*ck!" Despite the brief delay, NBC failed to censor the curse. (Host Mike Tirico immediately acknowledged the error when streaming cut back to the studio. "Apologies for the language. You understand the enthusiasm involved here," he said.)
After the event, Gerard told reporters that 17 people were in PyeongChang to support him. Continuing to capture the media's attention, he divulged what his band of merry fans were up to that morning, while he was on his way up to the slope.
"I'd say they've been having some fun, yeah," Gerard said, before pausing a moment. "Excuse me, but I got a Snapchat this morning at like 8:30 when I was taking a bus up, and they were all shotgunning beers on their way to the mountains."
According to his website, Gerard has been snowboarding since he was two years old. He also has six other siblings, which might explain his large crew at the Games.
Gerard isn't the only Olympic teen wooing fans with his decidedly teenage personality. Another 17 year-old Team U.S.A. gold medalist, Chloe Kim, has been amusing viewers on Twitter. Twice, it appears the record-holding snowboarder tweeted while competing — both times about wanting to eat.
During qualifiers on Sunday, Kim casually tweeted, "Could be down for some ice cream rn." When a user asked if she was competing right now,s he responded, "Yes..."
Then, on Monday, during the finals, where she was currently in first place for the gold medal, she complained that she had not finished her breakfast and that it was affecting her mood. "Wish I finished my breakfast sandwich but my stubborn self decided not to and now I'm getting hangry," she wrote.
If there has been any takeaway from the 2018 PyeongChang gold medalists so far, it's that being an elite, internationally competitive teenage athlete doesn't mean you can't also be startlingly, highly relatable.
