Lindsey Jacobellis finally claims Olympic SBX gold

Finally, on Wednesday, it was time for the snowboard cross athletes to get their Olympic showdown started at the Zhangjiakou cluster at the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games.  

To differentiate the occasion of the major event a little bit from the usual World Cup routine, the women’s and men’s competition are taking place separately and the field of women also contained 32 athletes.

The big day started off with the time trial seeding runs at 11:00 LOC and at exactly 14:30 LOC it was time for the final showdown and the first time for the Olympic gate to drop.

For the big final of the 2022 snowboard cross Olympics, the following four women were ready to rock’n’roll: Winningest SBX athlete of all times Lindsey Jacobellis from the USA, Sochi 2014 Olympic silver medallist Chloe Trespeuch from France, Australia’s Belle Brockhoff and 24-year-old Canadian Meryeta Odine.

It was dead silent, seconds before the gate dropped. Jacobellis was absolutely on fire throughout the entire Olympic competition, having only one goal in mind – finally grabbing that Olympic gold medal. And with that mindset, she shot out of the start gate and took the lead from the beginning, but already over the first elements of the start section, where Brockhoff made a big mistake, which resulted in the Aussie falling behind in fourth, Chloe Trespeuch managed to take the lead for a brief moment, but then the American fought through and got in the lead again.

Jacobellis stayed in the lead for the most part of the heat and it seemed as if Trespeuch would not be able to pass until, one right bank turn, where the French athlete tried to take the inside line to pass the American, however Jacobellis with all of her routine did not allow for that to happen and stayed in front.

The final part of the course was a roller section, which the American pressed hard and gained more speed with Trespeuch and Odine sitting in second and third respectively. Brockhoff was not able to make up for the mistake from the start section and therefore never got out of fourth position.

Out of the roller section and over the final jump, 36-year-old Lindsey Jacobellis finally was sure of taking what she had been waiting for 16 years (since her silver medal win of Torino 2006) and at her fifth Olympic Winter Games: The Olympic gold medal in Snowboard Cross. That truly was an incredible moment to be witnessing here at Beijing 2022, as it was also the first gold medal so far at the Beijing 2022 Games.

“This feels incredible because this level that all the women are riding at is a lot higher than it was 16 years ago. So, I felt like I was a winner just that I made it into finals, because that’s been a challenge every time. 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,” Lindsey Jacobellis commented after her victory.

Meanwhile, Chloe Trespeuch was able to claim her second Olympic silver medal after Sochi 2014, showing the world that she was back on top.

And then there was 24-year-old Canadian, Meryeta Odine, who was not able to compete back in 2018 due to an injury, but gave it her all and everything at these Games and making Canada proud by claiming her first Olympic bronze medal.

The brand-new Olympic champion said after the race on whether she feels a sense of redemption after missing out at Torino 2006:

“I never thought of it that way. That was not in my mind. I wanted to just come here and compete. It would have been a nice, sweet thing, but I think 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.”