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, and came in fifth in 2010, seventh in 2014 and fourth in 2018.
Meanwhile her World Cup record has seen her take 52 podiums and 30 wins in individual snowboard cross alone, with the snowboarder placing third this season in back-to-back World Cup competitions in Krasnoyarsk, Russia.
