“Feels incredible, didn’t seem real at that time” – Lindsey Jacobellis wins USA’s first gold at Beijing Olympics
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Lindsey Jacobellis
American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis won the first gold medal for her country at the 2022 Beijing Olympics in women’s snowboard cross on Wednesday. As a result, she finally found redemption after her career-defining failure at the Turin Games 16 years ago.
The Connecticut Jacobellis was within meters of winning the event in 2006 when she threw in a showboating trick, only to fall and get overtaken at the line. Coming back to Beijing 2022, Chloe Trespeuch of France took the silver while Canada’s Meryeta O’Dine finished third on the podium.
“That was not in my mind,” Jacobellis, 36, said not long after she secured Team USA’s maiden gold medal at the ongoing event. “I wanted to just come here and compete. It would have been a nice, sweet thing, but I think if I tried to spin the thought of redemption, then it’s (not) the task at hand. And that’s not why I race. That’s not why I’ve been a competitor.”
“Just seemed like an unbelievable moment for me”
Lindsey Jacobellis had been doing consistently well over the years but a podium finish was something not there in her list of accolades. Since Torino, she missed in 2010 (fifth), 2014 (fifth) and further missed out on a bronze medal by a hair and came in fourth in 2018.
Talking about her majestic triumph in the capital of China, the Olympian reckoned that things initially seemed unreal to her and she had to take a hot lap.
“It kind of just seemed like an unbelievable moment,” Jacobellis said. “It didn’t seem real at the time. I had to take a hot lap.”
She added: “This feels incredible, because this level that all the women are riding at is a lot higher than it was 16 years ago.”
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Sachin Arora
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