For a long time, snowboard cross athlete Lindsey Jacobellis has been pursuing gold at the Winter Olympic Games. However, she never quite escaped her devastating debut loss in Turin, Italy in 2006 in the Women’s Snowboard Cross. 

Maintaining her lead from the starting gate, Jacobellis looked set to win her first-ever Olympic race with 140 feet left of the course and a three-second lead, but in a celebratory moment over the second to last jump, she attempted a method grab, holding onto the heel side of the board, but on her return, she landed on the edge of her snowboard and fell. With no time to regain momentum, Swiss competitor Tanja Frieden swooped past and snatched the gold, leaving Jacobellis with silver. 

Despite the continuous conversation about her 2006 Olympic results lasting 16 years, every Winter Olympic Games Jacobellis attended she entered as a gold-medal favorite.

“They can keep talking about [2006] all they want because it really shaped me into the individual that I am and kept me hungry and really helped me keep fighting in the sport,” Jacobellis said. 

The determined athlete returned at the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games in 2010 and finished fifth, then Sochi, Russia in 2014 placing seventh.  She went on to finish fourth in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018, just missing out on a podium finish.

Not letting her past Olympic performances define her was part of the reason Jacobellis continued to fight in her Olympic career, training two to three hours a day. In the spring and summer she “focused on aerobic and muscle endurance” and in summer and fall worked on “building muscle mass and strength.” 

After five Winter Olympic Games, the 36-year-old Snowboarder finally got her hands on not one, but two gold medals at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. 

She received her first Olympic gold medal in Women’s Snowboard Cross, securing the first gold medal for Team USA in Beijing. Later, she shared another win with Nick Baumgartner in the first-ever Mixed Team Snowboard Cross. 

“It just seemed like an unbelievable moment,” Jacobellis said of crossing the finish line. “It didn’t seem real at the time. This feels incredible because this level that all the women are riding at is a lot higher than it was 16 years ago.”

The Olympic gold medalist said she doesn’t feel a sense of redemption from her past Olympic performances.                               

“I never thought of it that way. That was not in my mind. I wanted to just come here and compete,” Jacobellis said. “If I had tried to spend (time on) the thought of redemption, then it’s taking away focus on the task at hand, and that’s not why I race.”

To Jacobellis, competing was not all about the win, but about proving to herself and others that she is capable of greatness. 

“All these ladies out here have the potential to win, and today it just worked out for me that my starts were good, that my gliding was great, and everything just worked for me today,” said Jacobellis. 

Outside the Olympics, Jacobellis has secured six world championships, ten X Games championships, and 31 World Cup wins throughout her career, building quite the athletic resume, but was never able to add Olympic gold-medalist to it until Beijing, 2022. 

Jacobellis continues to spread her story and legacy as an inspirational leader and mentor for Super Girl Snow Pro, guiding younger athletes in their snowboarding journey and empowering the next generation like her professional snowboarder brother Ben Jacobellis did for her. 

To learn more about Lindsey Jacobellis’s story and achievements visit her website here: Lindsey Jacobellis.