'The blog post had some of the meanest things ever said about me.'
Malta's Jenise Spiteri reacts after falling during the women's halfpipe qualification round at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China.It's been a long, strange trip for San Francisco native Jenise Spiteri to get to the Winter Olympics, and not everyone believed that she would ever get there.
Back in January 2012, Spiteri, then a college student, posted a Facebook status that read, “Wanted: someone to teach me how to ride pipe tomorrow. anyone available??” The post garnered two likes, 10 comments and one share. A decade later, Spiteri, 29, competed last Wednesday in the women’s snowboarding halfpipe competition at her first Olympics. She was the first snowboarder to compete for Malta in a Winter Games and the only athlete representing the country this year in Beijing. She decided to represent Malta to honor her late grandfather, who emigrated from the island nation after World War II.
But when Spiteri moved to the Lake Tahoe area 12 years ago to train and pursue her dream,"some guys" posted on the Internet about"how by the end of the season, I guarantee she will crawl home to mommy and daddy." According to Spiteri on her TikTok post,"The blog post had some of the meanest things ever said about me, but I saved it for 12 years for this satisfying moment."