Bad luck seems to hound Team USA snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis every time she takes a shot at Olympic gold. She has tried twice before the Sochi Games: in Turin in 2006, and Vancouver in 2010. The gold was hers for the taking in Turin, until an unnecessary trick made her fall, and she went home with the silver instead. During the semifinals in Vancouver, she crashed into a gate and was disqualified.
For Jacobellis, the phrase “third time lucky” just didn’t apply to her, when she overshot a landing during this year’s Olympic semifinal round. Her miscalculated landing resulted in a nasty fall. She recovered but there was no way to catch up.
It was an awfully bad stroke of luck, since she had actually posted the second-fastest time during the event’s time trial held at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park. Though her Olympics reputation shows otherwise, she really is an exceptional athlete. To date, she has won a total of eight gold medals in the X Games.
Jacobellis wipes out in Turin 2006
Jacobellis, however, isn’t being superstitious about not winning a gold medal at Sochi. She believes what happened was “just a fluke”. Considering what happened eight years ago, she had already braced herself for how people would take the news of her loss. She knows some people will be disappointed and might even act negatively. She thinks some may have even been expecting to see her fail once again.
“People don’t understand how much pressure is put on her,” said snowboarder Faye Gulini of Team USA. Gulini is well aware of the extreme pressure that gets placed on prominent athletes, and she knows how difficult it must be for her teammate.
Jacobellis took things in stride this time, and said that there are worse things in life than not winning. Naysayers will say what they want, but Lindsey Jacobellis maintains a positive attitude and looks toward the future.
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