Jacobellis Again Comes Up Short in Snowboard Cross
KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia - Again, there was nothing in front of Lindsey Jacobellis but open snow, a finish line and a mountain of possibility. She was in the lead, a pack of women chasing from behind with little hope of catching the most accomplished female snowboard cross rider in history.
In 2006, at the Olympics in Turin, Jacobellis had a huge lead in the final when, after launching off the second-to-last jump, she grabbed her board with her hand and twisted sideways. She crash landed and was passed, turning gold into silver, the most heartbreaking feat of Olympic metallurgy.
This time, it was the semifinals, and it was not a showy midair move that brought Jacobellis crashing to the ground. It was a couple of rollers, gentle but devious little humps, near the bottom of the course. Jacobellis led throughout the race and appeared to be coasting to the finish when she came around a tight corner. She rose off one roller, landed awkwardly on another and spun to the ground.
She never reached the finish line, which meant she did not realize the elusive dream of turning her dominating career into Olympic gold. Four years ago in Vancouver, again the gold-medal favorite, Jacobellis lost in the semifinals, too.
'I don't think it has to do with the Olympics,' Jacobellis said. 'It's just on a fluke of when things work out for me and when they don't.'
An eight-time winner of the event at the Winter X Games, Jacobellis, 28, was placed in the 'small final,' a consolation run. She won that, officially giving her a seventh-place finish at the Olympics.
'I was really happy with how the course was coming together for me,' said Jacobellis, glumly but without obvious heartache. 'I wasn't scared. There were a lot of girls who were scared, and not really putting it together. It just didn't work out. I don't know how else to say it.'
It was Eva Samkova of the Czech Republic who dominated the event, from timed qualifications to the final race, to win the gold medal. Dominique Maltais of Canada earned silver, and Chloé Trespeuch of France captured bronze. As they crossed the finish line in a line, each raised her arms triumphantly, pleased with the result, if not simply happy to survive standing up.
'I couldn't imagine this,' said Samkova, who had painted a handlebar mustache above her lip in the national colors of red, white and blue.
Faye Gulini of the United States finished fourth, an outcome charged with mixed emotions - but mostly positive ones.
'I'm happy with fourth,' she said. 'But it is the Olympics. Being on the podium would have been nice.'
Gulini quickly came to the defense of her fallen teammate.
'People don't understand how much pressure is put on her,' she said of Jacobellis. 'It breaks my heart, because I think it takes the fun out of it for her. Just this event. She loves the sport. She's a phenomenal snowboarder. But it's in her head. With that much pressure on you - I've never had that kind of pressure on me - but I know that it just breaks her, as an athlete.'
She added: 'Maybe it was just a fluke mistake. But it's a bummer. She deserves more.'
The course of big jumps, knee-bending rollers and banked corners took its toll on the athletes from the beginning. Two of the first six women to take the course in timed qualifiers, the medal contender Helene Olafsen of Norway and Jacqueline Hernandez of the United States, were hauled down the course on sleds after nasty falls. Olafsen, who finished fourth at the 2010 Vancouver Games, appeared to hurt her knee.
Hernandez flew off a jump and landed sideways on her board, toppling onto her back and hitting her head. She lay motionless for a minute or two before sitting up and being chauffeured downhill. She was diagnosed with a concussion and released in time to watch the end of the event.
The event also featured Belle Brockhoff, who publicly announced that she was gay in August in the wake of news about Russia's anti-gay legislation. Brockhoff, one of seven known gay athletes at the Games (all women), said that she would have some words for Russian president Vladimir Putin.
'After I compete, I'm willing to rip on his' backside, she said. 'I'm not happy and there's a bunch of other Olympians who are not happy, either.'
She missed out on the final, and finished behind Jacobellis in the small final, earning eighth. Without the big platform of the podium, she offered few words on the subject of gay rights.
That kept most of the attention on Samkova, the winner, and Jacobellis, the upended favorite, denied gold again.
It was all there in front of her. She carried more speed around a hard left-hand bend in the semifinal than she had in the quarterfinal. When she hit the first in a series of rollers on a short straightaway, she flew over the one where she expected to land. She hit awkwardly on an uphill slope that faced the mid-day sun.
'It was kind of like landing in mashed potatoes,' Jacobellis said.
As it was eight years ago, it was a self-inflicted mistake in an unpredictable sport of collisions and wipeouts. As she was eight years ago, Jacobellis was philosophical about the result.
'There's worse things in life than not winning,' she said. 'A lot worse. Of course, its very unfortunate that this didn't work out for me, and I trained very hard for this moment. It doesn't come together, for who knows what reasons.'
Post a Comment for "Jacobellis Again Comes Up Short in Snowboard Cross"