After 16 years of battling, Lindsey Jacobellis at last stood atop the podium. Olympics Beijing2022
United States' Lindsey Jacobellis celebrates after winning a gold medal in the women's cross at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Wednesday, Feb. 9, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China.Lindsey Jacobellis is finally an Olympic gold medalist.Jacobellis, a Westminster College alum, helped make the wild sport of snowboardcross famous.
Jacobellis was 20 when she made the mistake in Turin. Now 36 and in her fifth Olympics, she became the oldest U.S. woman to win a gold. The 16 years is also the longest gap between medals for any U.S. woman.“They can keep talking about it all they want because it really shaped me into the individual that I am,” Jacobellis said. “It kept me hungry and really kept me fighting in this sport.”
She skidded out just a few seconds into the slalom, a quicker exit than two days earlier when she crashed out of the super-G. “GS and slalom, those were my biggest focuses. So it really feels like a lot of work for nothing,” she said. Petra Vlhova won the gold, Slovakia’s first Olympic medal in Alpine skiing. Katharina Liensberger of Austria took silver and Wendy Holdener of Switzerland got the bronze.Shaun White failed on his signature trick on his first run down the halfpipe, the Double McTwist 1260, and was in 19th place in men’s qualifying. But the defending Olympic champion came back in his second try and nailed the same run to make it through to the medal round.