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Lindsey Jacobellis’ Fall Ends Her Olympic Dreams, Again

By Patricia Didelot
Published on: 13:34 PST, Feb 16, 2014

Lindsey Jacobellis fall once again ended her Olympics dreams of redeeming her two failed attempts at obtaining the gold medal.

For the American, who has been the best female snowboard cross racer in the world for years, all the hard work of the last decade was in vain.

Even though she has ruled her sport and most believed that Lindsey Jacobellis deserved to finally win an Olympic medal as a culmination of her career, it was not to be as her fall didn’t even allow her to finish the race.

Snowboarding cross racing is a crazy sport that sees four to six competitors go down an obstacle course — sort of like go karts on snow — the one that gets there first wins.

But along the way there are jumps, sharp turns, and your rivals to contend with and the smallest mistake or hesitation can be costly.

And the unfortunate thing is that the best isn’t necessarily the one that wins in this sport, sometimes it’s the luckiest, as it was on Sunday with American Lindsey Jacobellis.

On the first run of the competition the United States competitor breezed through her quarterfinal heat and was leading on the semifinal, with what looked like a great chance of finally getting the elusive gold medal.

However, Lindsey Jacobellis once again fell and crashed, effectively ending her Olympic dream yet again.

This painful Olympic story began in 2006 at the Torino Winter Games when the 20-year-old, three-times X-Games defending champion was the favorite to win the gold medal in the new event.

Lindsey Jacobellis breezed through to the final and was ahead of the competitors appearing to have pocketed the gold medal before even finishing the race.

Then — to the shock of everyone watching — on the final jump, she showboated and fell. She got up, but the gold was gone and she had to settle for silver.

In 2010 at the Vancouver Winter Games, Lindsey Jacobellis once again failed to complete her final run after falling and crashing, ending her hopes for the gold.

On Sunday, Lindsey Jacobellis tried to explain what happened in Sochi:

“I don’t think it has to do with the Olympics. It’s just on a fluke of when things work out for me and when they don’t.”

“I was really happy with how the course was coming together for me. I wasn’t scared. There were a lot of girls who were scared and not really putting it together. It just didn’t work out. I don’t know how else to say it.”

For Lindsey Jacobellis it’s about the perseverance of coming back from defeat and disappointment in the most public of ways, but you just have to accept it and move on.

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