But people were prepared to assume he told Max, or even that he did it as a gift to Max, based on no evidence but what we knew of his character - heck, I was one of them!
For goodness' sake, I'm not trying to shame him. I'm just disappointed that he appears not to have warned in advance. I mean, Ashley says she told Mariah early. It would be nice to know when Jason knew so we could figure out where the communication screwup occured.
And of course Max should have been training. That's a separate issue. But think about it: when was the last time, even in an Olympic year, that the third alternate was required? As Tavi said, he gambled the odds and lost.
Are you assuming that because he’s now traveling in NZ, he must have known a long time ago that he wasn’t going to accept Worlds if it were offered - i.e., that he has been planning to go to NZ all along? Because I don’t think that’s necessarily the case.
What we know about Jason is that he loves loves loves representing the US in international competitions. I don’t think he would have declined the Worlds spot unless he felt for some reason like he couldn’t represent the US to the best of his ability.
The fact that Kori was at Worlds with Laurine, but not with him, and the fact that he’s been totally silent on the matter and has just been throwing out random photos of himself hanging out in California suggests to me that he’s kind of ... rudderless now. I think that would make it very hard for him to focus and have the right mindset to compete well at Worlds. Whatever is going on, he needs time to absorb it. If it means being with a new coach, he needs time to get used to the idea that it won’t be Kori standing at the boards with him anymore.
Frankly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was simply not training well and maybe Frank or one of the other coaches he’s worked with or even someone at USFS suggested that he would be better off not competing because he was too shaky or something.
Anyway, if that’s the case, maybe he couldn’t give Max a heads up because he didn’t figure it out himself until the last minute.
The trip might have been something Jordan was already planning and once he was free he just tagged along. Or maybe they planned it as a contingency - if he didn’t have to go to Worlds they’d try to get cheap last minute tickets.
It is just really hard for me to believe that Jason would have been blasé about Worlds and about how his actions would affect his teammates.
