Lindsey Jacobellis’ 12-year race for Winter Olympics gold

American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis has competed in three Winter Olympics and has nary a gold medal to show for it. Her fourth attempt will come Thursday night (ET) in the Women’s Snowboarding Cross Final.

You remember Lindsey Jacobellis from the one race she wishes you’d forget.

It’s the Women’s Snowboard Cross gold medal final of the 2006 Turn Games. Jacobellis has a three-second lead over Tanja Frieden of Switzerland. As she fast approaches the finish line, 20-year-old Jacobellis, in her buoyant joy at being on the precipice of winning her first Olympic gold medal, adds a flourish to her final jump: a method grab.

You know what happens next:

Jacobellis has spent the last 12 years of her professional snowboarding career attempting to live down 12 mortifying seconds she experienced when she was 20 years old. Though she did take silver in 2006 after Frieden bypassed her to win gold, Jacobellis failed to place on the podium in the 2010 Vancouver Games and the 2014 Sochi Games. In both Winter Olympics, Jacobellis failed to even advance to the medal round after crashing in the semifinals.

Of course, those who follow snowboarding throughout the year know that Jacobellis has continued to remain not only relevant, but dominant in her field. She has won gold in Snowboard Cross at every Winter X Games since 2003, save for 2006-07 and 2012-13. Jacobellis also took gold in Snowboard Cross at the FIS Snowboarding World Championships in 2005, 2007, 2011, 2015 and 2017.

But so few people follow the sport that closely. To the audience that tunes in to women’s snowboarding every four years, Jacobellis’ career has revolved around trying to buff out the tarnish her very first trip to the Games cast over the whole thing.

Thursday night (stateside), Jacobellis has another chance to change the narrative surrounding her career.

The first qualification run of the Women’s Snowboarding Cross will air in primetime on NBC at 8:00 p.m (and can be live streamed here). Over two runs, Jacobellis and 25 other women will attempt to qualify for the elimination heats: a quarterfinal, semifinal, small final and, finally, the big final — the medal event.

While unpredictability is inherent in snowboarding — which, believe it or not, takes place on slippery snow — boardercross is even more so. In the runs leading up to the Men’s Snowboarding Cross Final on Wednesday night, we saw multiple crashes, including a terrifying neck injury that Markus Schairer suffered.

Jacobellis may crash again. Or she might win gold.

After all, she’s been waiting 12 years for this.

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