Vermont-schooled snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis has won the United States’ first gold medal at the 2022 Beijing Winter Games.
The Stratton Mountain School graduate won in the women’s snowboardcross Wednesday, 16 years after infamously stumbling in the homestretch of the 2006 inaugural race — the first domino in a line of Olympic falls in 2010 and 2014 and a flameout in the final in 2018.
“That was not in my mind,” Jacobellis told reporters after her victory. “If I had tried to spend time on the thought of redemption, then it’s taking away focus on the task at hand.”
With her win, the 36-year-old five-time Olympian became the oldest snowboarder ever to medal and the oldest American woman to secure gold at any Winter Games.
“This level that all the women are riding at is a lot higher than it was 16 years ago,” Jacobellis told reporters. “I felt like a winner just that I made it into finals.”
The gold medal should significantly change how Jacobellis is covered by the media.
“With 30 World Cup wins, 10 X Games gold medals and six world championships, she is the greatest snowboardcross racer in the sport’s history,” ESPN.com has written. “But at the past four Olympics, she earned a reputation for falling short when it counts.”
The victory also gave a glimmer of hope to fellow Vermont-schooled teammate Mikaela Shiffrin, who fell in alpine skiing’s giant slalom competition earlier this week, then did so again on the slalom course just hours before Jacobellis’ win.
Shiffrin — a 26-year-old graduate of Burke Mountain Academy in the Northeast Kingdom — nonetheless impressed reporters who spoke with her after.
“Mikaela spent 20 minutes with us,” said Rutland writer Peggy Shinn, who’s covering the games for the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s website, TeamUSA.org. “She answered every question honestly.”
Jacobellis, for her part, expressed no regrets about her fall that started it all.
“I probably would have quit the sport at that point because I wasn’t really having fun with it — there was so much pressure on me to be the golden girl,” Jacobellis told reporters. “It really shaped me into the individual that I am and kept me hungry and helped me keep fighting.”
Find out how to watch the two dozen athletes with Vermont ties here.
Correction: This story has been clarified to say Jacobellis is the oldest American woman to win a gold medal at any Winter Games.
