A heart-warming and heart-stopping story from the Winter Olympics. Red Gerard, a 17-year-old snowboarder from Cleveland came from last to win gold in a dizzying routine of a “Backside triple cork 1440”— turning backwards off the take-off, four full rotations in the air (four times 360º is 1440º), and three off-axis dips to make it a triple. Televised when the result came through, all he could utter were several swear words and “Hoooly shiiiiit!”
He said he hadn’t expected to make the finals and crashed on his first two attempts. Then he stepped up to the podium to collect the US’s first gold of the games, became the youngest snowboarding gold medallist ever, and the country’s youngest male gold-medallist at the Winter Olympics since 1928.
Born 29 June 2000, the second youngest of seven, he’s a Sun Mars in Cancer on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Pluto sextile Neptune. What’s fascinating about his chart is that it is similar to Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps, 30 June 1985 who is also a Sun Mars in Cancer with Mars on the focal point of a Yod inconjunct Uranus Moon sextile Jupiter in Aquarius. If anything Phelps is the luckier chart, especially with that odd mid degree Aquarius placing which top athletes often have. Though Gerard does have Jupiter conjunct Saturn in Taurus square Uranus, so he’ll be nothing if not determined and adventurous.
Cleveland gets lots of “lake effect” snow off Lake Erie, and Alberta Clippers, so there is no lack of practice snow. Rock on, little dude, rock on!