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Red Gerard sleeps through alarm because of Netflix, wins gold medal anyway

By Griffin Youngs

PYEONGCHANG-GUN, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 11: U.S. Olympian Red Gerard poses with his Gold Medal at the USA House at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games on February 11, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for USOC)
PYEONGCHANG-GUN, SOUTH KOREA - FEBRUARY 11: U.S. Olympian Red Gerard poses with his Gold Medal at the USA House at the PyeongChang 2018 Winter Olympic Games on February 11, 2018 in Pyeongchang-gun, South Korea. (Photo by Joe Scarnici/Getty Images for USOC) /
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Despite being a now Olympic gold medalist and American hero, 17-year-old snowboarder Red Gerard is just like the rest of us deep down.

Meet America’s newest sports star, Red Gerard. A 17-year-old American Olympic snowboarder competing in his first Olympic games, and an avid Brooklyn Nine-Nine binge watcher.

The night before competing on the biggest stage of his life, Gerard was hooked on a Netflix binge session of Brooklyn Nine-Nine, forgetting about the 6: 00 a.m. alarm he had set for himself the next morning and dozing off shortly after. Once 6:00 a.m. rolled around, the most important alarm of his life fell on deaf ears.

At 6:20 am, Gerard’s roommate Kyle Mack checked to see if he was ready to go, only to discover the teenager still dead asleep. Mack managed to drag Gerard out of bed, but the teenager’s mistakes weren’t over quite yet. After a quick breakfast, Gerard couldn’t find his Olympic jacket and had to borrow Mack’s before it was too late.

Gerard made it to the slopes after his rough morning, but things weren’t looking so great early on either. After his first two runs on the mountain, Gerard sat in dead last at 12th place. Gerard went into his final run with absolutely nothing to lose, and he put on a show. A near flawless performance that oozed with creativity scored him an 87.16 out of 100, placing him ahead of Canadians Max Parrot (86.00) and Mark McMorris (85.20), claiming America’s first gold medal of the 2018 Winter Olympics.

With the victory, Gerard became the youngest American male to win gold at the Winter Games since Bobsledder Billy Fiske in 1928, and the youngest Olympic snowboarding gold medalist ever, in any country. If that wasn’t enough, Gerard was also the first Olympian born in the 2000s to claim a medal of any kind at any Winter Olympics.

Gerard started the day as an up-and-coming teenager just trying to get himself out of bed after a late night of Netflix binge-watching as well as trying to find his jacket, and ended the day with an Olympic gold medal, a number of records in his name, and the title of American sports next big star. Quite the result compared to what happens to the rest of us who sleep through our alarm.

Next: Can U.S Women’s Snowboarding team sweep the slopestyle final?

Gerard is not finished at the 2018 Winter Olympics. He is scheduled to compete in the big air contest on Feb. 24, and he is sure to carry plenty of momentum into the competition. Hopefully, he’ll set his alarm a little louder for that one. Or could it be good luck?

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