Medal Photos Send Olympian Lago Back to NH

American Scotty Lago, bronze medalist in the half pipe, is headed home after some risqué photos of him appeared on the Internet. After apologizing to U.S. Olympic and U.S. Ski and Snowboard officials, Lago left the Winter Olympics.

What happened was after winning the bronze, Lago was at a party. He was in his Team USA T-shirt and had the bronze medal around his neck. Someone snapped a photo of a woman kneeling in front of the Olympian, below his waist, and kissing the medal. That photo, and another of him sticking the medal in the woman’s mouth with teammate Greg Bretz viewing the whole scene, made its way around the world on the World Wide Web.

CLICK HERE to see the photos.

Hero worship? Heavy medal love? Idolatry? Silliness?

The U.S. Olympic Committee has said that after various embarrassing incidents at the Turin Games that athletes had to be on their best behavior in Vancouver.

Bad taste? Probably. But considering athletes at the Olympics receive a total of 100,000 condoms, you’ve got to wonder if this isn’t much ado about nothing?

To paraphrase Mae West, “Hey, Scotty, is that an Olympic medal in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?”

Or, to quote Star Trek, “Beam me up, Scotty!”

Finally, to semi-quote that waffle commercial, “Let go my Lago!”

Man, I wonder what she would have done if it had been gold?