Redmond Gerard: How binge-watching Brooklyn Nine-Nine almost cost him Olympic gold
17-year-old Redmond 'Red' Gerard joined a short list of American gold medallists at the Olympics, after grabbing the gold at the slopestyle snowboarding event in the 2018 WInter Olympics. It was not just his first-ever Olympic medal, but also the first for Team USA at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games. He's got all eyes on him again on February 7, when he will compete in his second Olympic tournament.
The Ohio-born snowboarder is one of the many contenders for Olympic glory at the 2022 Beijing Games, with people hoping he can emulate his success from the previous games. Others we've got our eye on include figure skater Nathan Chen and speed skater Erin Jackson. Despite the many controversies overshadowing the games, there is hope that Team USA can do better than its 23 medal haul in 2018.
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Interestingly, that 23 would have been 22 if Gerard missed his snowboarding finals, which nearly happened! With the finals due to take place soon, and Redmond having qualified, here's a fun story about how he nearly missed out on Olympic glory the last time.
When Netflix binging nearly cost a medal
Unlike the Beijing Games, the games at Pyeongchang were far more relaxed in terms of security. In fact, Gerard felt so relaxed he decided to spend the night before his competition binging Netflix. He and his teammate Kyle Mack were "trying to keep a low profile", and so decided it would be a good idea to binge something on Netflix. "He had zonked out the previous night during an episode of “Brooklyn Nine-Nine," recounted Gerard's brother Tieghan.
That meant Gerard didn't get up at 6:00 AM like he was supposed to. At 6:20, Mack asked, "Red, you out of bed yet?" It was a bit of a struggle, but Gerard managed to roll out of bed, grab an egg sandwich but couldn't find his jacket. Not wanting to waste any more time, he borrowed Mack's and sped away to Olympic glory. Of course, his delayed start wasn't the only mishap of the day. Gerard's family missed out on his first run because of a ticketing issue, and Team USA ended up spoiling his Gold win news.
Rather than stream it live, the broadcaster decided to show it on a 30-minute tape delay, meaning Gerard had already won Gold and was busy celebrating before American viewers even got a chance to watch him compete. However, it appears Team USA's social media team didn't get that memo. The moment Gerard one, Team USA tweeted "HE’S GOLDEN! @RedmondGerard wins the men's #snowboard slopestyle event with an 87.16 to give #TeamUSA its first medal in PyeongChang!!!" That tweet came a full 30 minutes before the stream showed Gerard was the Gold medallist.
HE’S GOLDEN! @RedmondGerard wins the men's #snowboard slopestyle event with an 87.16 to give #TeamUSA its first medal in PyeongChang!!! 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/ajq7Vdf7Rx
— Team USA (@TeamUSA) February 11, 2018
To make matters worse for NBC, their broadcast didn't censor any explicit words, which were fully audible during his celebrations. It meant host Mike Tirico had to later apologize, telling viewers, "Apologies for the language. You understand the enthusiasm involved there." Hopefully Gerard is better prepared this time round, and won't need a late wake up call!
Gerard has qualified for the finals of the event after finishing in fifth place during the Qualification run 2. If you want to watch him in action, you can do so via Peacock or NBC Olympics. The slopestyle finals are scheduled for 8:00 AM on Monday, February 7, 2022.