Czech Woman Wins Snowboarding Gold in Patriotic Fake Mustache

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On Sunday, Czech snowboarder Eva Samkova snagged a gold in the women’snowboard cross event in Sochi, Russia, which is pretty rad in its own right. But what she did to her face before she won it ratchets her up to Imaginary Best Friend Status: before competing in quarterfinals, she had her coaches draw a mustache on her lip in the colors of her country’s flag.

According to USAToday, Samkova’s stache is something the 20-year-old does for “luck” and started the tradition three years ago for “fun.” Her gold is the first snowboarding gold ever won by a Czech boarder, a victory Samkova credits partially to the people who waxed up her board so she could speed ahead of her competitors.

Here’s the part where I make a joke about the mustache and snowboarding:

Talk about a mustache ride.

This concludes the joke portion of this post.

Samkova’s stache is so funny and fun and cool that it kind of makes me think that every sport should encourage novelty gender bending hairstyles during competition. Imagine figure skater Gracie Gold with magnificent mutton chop sideburns, or hockey savior TJ Oshie with thick Viking braids flying behind him as he streaks down the ice. God. What a loose bunch of cool customers, those Olympians.

I think I speak for many American Olympic watchers when I say this: Eva Samkova, please come to the US and hang out with all of us. Bring your gold medal. I will bring snacks.