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Remember Vinko Bogataj, the Slovenian ski jumper?
No? Sure you do. Vinko was that guy:
One of the ironies of Vinko’s infamous appearance on the opening credits of Wide World Of Sports was ABC endlessly replaying his ‘agony of defeat’ was as close to true success as he ever got - prior to that disastrous crash, his best performance was placing 57th in a downhill event in Austria in 1969.
Despite becoming an almost iconic representation of bad luck and failure to many Americans, Vinko himself was completely unaware of his fame in the United States. Despite being somewhat bemused upon receiving an invitation, he attended ABC’s 30th anniversary of Wide World Of Sports, and was stunned when other famous athletes, including Mohammed Ali, asked him for his autograph.
“Every time I’m on ABC, I crash,” he would later observe.
The agony of defeat became his legacy. This was blatantly unfair, as Vinko never really achieved any relative success. He didn’t fall apart; he didn’t choke. Basically, he lived up to his ability, which was pretty mediocre to start with.
Other athletes have been far more deserving of this mantle of failure who, through self-hype or that imposed upon them by the media, have crashed and burned in a far more telling way, although perhaps not quite as visually spectacular.
With respect to Vinko, then, it’s time to give the guy a break. Move over ABC - here are five sporting blunders that are far, far more deserving of Vinko’s unfortunate title than the great man himself.
Isiah Thomas (1987 NBA Conference Finals)
Having lost to the Celtics in six games in 1985, Thomas and his Detroit Pistons returned to face Boston in the Eastern Conference Finals two years later. With the series tied at two games a piece, game five at the Garden was always going to be critical. With 17 seconds to play, Thomas made a clutch jumper that put the Pistons up by one. When Larry Bird’s drive to the hoop was swatted away by Dennis Rodman and then out of bounds off a Celtic with five seconds to play, it looked all over for Boston.
But no - Isiah had to rush his inbound pass straight into the hands of Bird, who whipped it to Dennis Johnson for the game-winning layup.
Mikael Pernfors (1987 Wimbledon Fourth Round)
In 1986, Pernfors reached the finals of the French Open, defeating Boris Becker and Henri Leconte before eventually losing to Ivan Lendl. A year later, ranked #10 in the world, Pernfors led 34-year old Jimmy Connors 6-1 6-1 4-1 in the fourth round at Wimbledon. With the light fading and nursing a leg injury, Connors would go on to win eighteen of the next twenty-five games, taking the match 6-2 in the fifth set, as Pernfors’ game completely disintegrated.
“My ego was hurt. I had to do something. So I decided to fight even harder,” Jimmy would say afterwards. Pernfors left SW19 without comment.
Chris Webber (1993 NCAA Final)
With Michigan trailing North Carolina by two with 19 seconds on the clock, Chris Webber goes out of his way to fail, first of all travelling his ass off (but somehow getting away with it, despite the ref looking directly at his feet) and then calling a timeout… when Michigan didn’t have any left. Cue a 77-71 Tar Heels victory, and a big fat zero next to the ‘W’ column in Webber’s career.
Greg Norman (1996 US Masters)
Despite a pair of British Open titles, Greg Norman’s career is littered with last-second anti-heroics, with hole-outs from Bob Tway and Larry Mize denying him major victories in 1986 and 1987, and numerous other spectacular all-or-nothing shots from players not really at Norman’s status robbing him of PGA tournament wins that seemed near-certainties just moments before.
For the most part, however, you - and Norman - could make a pretty decent case that, with one or two exceptions (the ‘86 Masters springs to mind), it was down to nothing more than sheer bad luck for the popular Australian. This was until the 1996 US Masters, when Norman played out of his skin for 54 holes to build a six-stroke lead over Nick Faldo, before blowing it totally in the final round. Norman’s closing 78, to Faldo’s 67, turned a six-shot lead into a five-shot demolition, and his career never recovered.
Jean Van de Velde (1999 British Open)
In the 1999 Open Championship at Carnoustie, Jean Van De Velde arrived at the 18th tee needing only a double-bogey six to seal victory, and in doing so become the first Frenchman since 1907 to win the tournament.
Driving wildly off the tee, Van de Velde then sliced his approach into a grandstand, where it ricocheted and ended up in deep rough. His third shot found water, and moments later a curious scene that saw Van de Velde remove his shoes and socks and enter the shin-deep stream prompted commentator Peter Alliss to suggest that he had gone ‘ga-ga’.
Instead, he elected to take a drop and then hit his fifth shot into a bunker. His sixth found the green, and Van de Velde would then make the put for a triple-bogey seven, forcing him into a three-way playoff.
Which he lost.
Van de Velde made a comeback of sorts in the 2005 French Open, losing a playoff after again finding water on the 18th.
Epic fails, each and every one of them. Each far more deserving than poor old Vinko Bogataj. Each a far more definitive realisation of the agony of defeat.
What can we learn from this? That the line that separates absolute glory from total failure is often wafer thin. When the game is on the line, it really isn’t the best time to lose your focus. Stay in the moment, and finish the job.
And just in case this has made you lose all hope, Lance Armstrong shows us how it’s done, snatching the thrill of victory from the agonising jaws of defeat.
Don’t have nightmares.
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