Bobsleigher bashes brains and ballet dancers

British bobsleigher Dan Money appears to have suffered a little brain damage along with a gashed calf when his upturned car turfed the brakeman onto the track last week at Vancouver’s Winter Olympics. 

Following the crash, Money played tough-guy and dismissed his injury. 

“It’s just one of those things... but it’s bobsleigh,you know, not ballet dancing,” Money said, displaying the sort of intellect for which athletes are so often celebrated. 

Apparently Money let all the satin-and-tulle fool him into thinking ballet is safe. The chief of Sadlers Wells, London’s legendary ballet theatre, had a few good-natured things to say about the sledder’s ignorance on BBC4. 

Alas, Alistair Spalding didn’t go into the truly gory details of the ballet world. That safe art includes include dancers performing on broken ankles and bleeding feet and wearing away the cartilege in knees and hips until they’re just grinding their bones. Then there’s the injury most common to those poncey-boys-in-tights -- their jumps are so big they often fray-then-rip  their Achilles tendons. 

Good times!

Someone should tell Money that athletes involved in sports that require physical skill -- as opposed to just hanging on for the ride -- often take ballet classes to improve their core strength, balance, coordination, jumps and turns. Or that many also embrace ballet's therapeutic offspring, pilates. 

Or better yet, maybe the Beeb could film him and his slider pals in a ballet class. Now that’s a sporting event I’d really like to see. 

For the record, Money and his partner John Jackson placed 26th in the Olympic two-man event.