Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis has won the United States' first gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics.
Her snowboard cross win is also Jacobellis' first Olympic gold and the culmination of a long journey for the 36-year-old, who swept to victory in her fifth Olympic appearance.
The win had been at least 16 years in the making, since she suffered a brutal fall that cost her gold in her Olympics debut at the 2006 Torino Winter Games.
Outside the Games, she has racked up five individual world titles and 10 individual X Games victories.
Still, until now, an Olympic gold had remained elusive.
Jacobellis claimed silver in 2006 despite the fall, which came after she took a massive lead into the final jump. She came in fifth in 2010, seventh in 2014 and fourth in 2018.
With the win, Jacobellis rewrites a few entries in the Winter Olympics history books. She became the oldest U.S woman to win a gold; also, the 16 years marked the longest gap between medals for any U.S. woman.
After her victory, she addressed her journey from ignominious silver to gold in Beijing.
“They can keep talking about it all they want,” Jacobellis said of the 2006 incident. “Because it really shaped me into the individual that I am. It kept me hungry and really kept me fighting in this sport.”
“It doesn’t define you,” she said when asked what message she’d send to younger racers about mistakes of the past. “Especially if you’ve made it to this stage, you’re a winner. And look at what you’ve learned from the experience, and take that with you later in life.”
Asked whether she considered Wednesday's win a form of redemption, Jacobellis said she never thought of it that way.
“That was not in my mind. I wanted to just come here and compete,” she said “It would have been a nice, sweet thing, but I think if I had tried to spend the thought of redemption, then it’s taking away focus on the task at hand, and that’s not why I race.”
