Sometimes the pressure of a grand competition as the Olympics can be to much for girl of only 20 years old. What looked like a sure win and easy stretch to the finish line turned into disaster as Lindsey Jacobellis has to settle for a silver medal. World champion Jacobellis was well ahead but tried to tweak a snowboard trick, a "backside method grab," off the final jump and fell flat on her bottom. She wasn't able to recover in time and allowed Switzerland's Tanja Frieden to breeze past with arms raised in victory for the golden win.
After the race was done the news press ignored the gold medal winner and rushed to ask Lindsey Jacobellis "what the heck where you thinking?" Lindsey could only state, "I was having fun," Jacobellis said. "Snowboarding is fun. I was ahead. I wanted to share my enthusiasm with the crowd. I messed up. Oh well, it happens."
Jacobellis won silver but should have had the gold. She was well, well ahead of all the other women before showboating and falling flat on her bum. Hopefully this will be a lesson learned and an example to others in the sporting world that you should never raise your hand in victory or tweak a snowboard trick until you cross that finish line and make it 100% official. But for Lidseny Jacobellis she will have many more years of snowboard cross, and many chances to live down the disappointment of being second best.
Article comments
1 - Former Summer Olympian
To be perfectly honest, Lindsay is actually a true Olympian! You don't play safe when you are a top level athlete. You raise the stakes, you push the bar higher, it's about playing your top game at the Games and it's not about playing safe. If you never take a risk, you'll never win big. If she had landed that last trick...everyone's attitude would have been totally different. Real champions and real athletes like Lindsay, take risks when everyone else doesn't. Applause for Lindsay for saying what she said - why does everything have to be about the Gold Medal??? People know what kind of champion she is and know that she's the top and... you know what...there can only be one champion per event and you never know on what day who is going to rise to the top. Silver is not dead last...she came in SECOND in the world in the world's most prestigious sports event...so, what did you accomplish today? I hope that her words encourage other aspiring Olympians! Go Lindsay!
2 - SFC Kelley
No, she is NOT a true Olympian, true winners don't rub victory in anyones face!
3 - Anonymous
She showed very poor sportswomanship. Then, immediately afterwards, she lied and denied showboating. She needs to know the difference between a race and a style competition. Go Tanya!!!
4 - idontknow
We'll see what happens. all the above comments were good. she also does halfpipe so that's a natural for the showboating move. it's easy to see where the styling came from. it's like being a dancer and a runner, so you do a little leg kick at the end and boom, you're on your bum.
personally without her error, this would not all be news so there's a real upside to her backside.
5 - miljam
Don't blame her, blame the American culture. Showboating is the American way. It is almost un-American to succeed at a sporting event without over celebrating, taunting your opponent or performing a pre-rehearsed dance move.
This is what her culture has taught her to do.
6 - Dan
Doesn't anyone feel bad for the poor girl? She's only 20 and this is not the end of the world for her, try to some at least some constraint
7 - Chip Spear
Sometimes a person with beauty, talent, intelligence, ambition, and is about to win the biggest prize is sports makes a mistake, a goofy, immature, silly little mistake that she and almost every fan of fumbles will never, ever forget. It also probably cost her a few million dollars in endorsements. Lindsey will snowboard a whole lot more, maybe make a couple more Olympics and perhaps yet win a gold metal, but she will never forget this.
8 - Scott Butki
- NPR strongly suggested without actually saying it that the snow boarder lost becuause of showboating it.
- CNN - when I did pass by a tv - mentioned that she refused a request for an interview. So she must have been feeling some heat.
9 - Steve Sklar
Jumping right to the periphery of the matter: what about Frieden's WOO WOO WOO celebration after Jacobellis's big fall? Shouldn't she have sat down in the snow instead to compose a quick bread and butter letter along the lines of "Thank you, Lindsey, for the lovely gold?"
10 - Scott Butki
Well, no, but celebrating does seem a bit much, don't ya think?
11 - Justhinking
Here we go, give the world another reason to dislike Americans. Not only do we not fulfill our potential, we lack the grace to feel poorly about it. We offer excuses, attempt to lie, feign apathy, and when everything fails we exhibit anger and point fingers. The team does not appear to have done their best, and that's what we hoped for. Just saying so doesn't make it true.
12 - gius
i love you lindsey you are very nice and you however are the number one!
13 - Pete
Methodological winning is not what I am looking for when I watch a sporting event. I'm sure I've seen it happen, but I can't give you an example. You just don't remember it. I do remember Michael Jordan's slam dunk, launching himself from the foul line way back when. I remember Michael Johnson's golden running shoes and his celebration as he crossed the finish line in Atlanta in 1996. I'm certain that I've watched, in awe, as dominant, non-showboating athletes have won an event with grace and modesty, but a little spice at the finish doesn't hurt as long as you can stay on your feet. Keep in mind that we, the armchair critics, will spend what... a total of 15 minutes of our life talking or thinking about the mistake of a young, spirited woman? She's got the rest of her life to think about it, and there's nothing you can tell her that she hasn't already realized. Cut her some slack.
14 - bill
First... snowboarding is not about competition, it's about having fun, typically with your friends. That's what started sideways riding and the Olympics brought it in to get some additinonal $$$ (check out the stats on how viewership increased after snowboarding and curling were added).
Second, style is and will always be a part of racing in snowboarding. It's not unique for someone to throw a cross body method in the middle of a race. What's unique is for everyone to get so upset about it.