Updated Feb 9, 2022 - Sports

Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis wins U.S. its 1st Olympic gold in Beijing

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USA's Lindsey Jacobellis celebrates her win in the snowboard women's cross final during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Genting Snow Park P & X Stadium in Zhangjiakou on February 9 — Team USA's Lindsey Jacobellis celebrates her win in the snowboard women's cross final during the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games at the Genting Snow Park P & X Stadium in Zhangjiakou, China, on Wednesday. Photo: Marco Bertorello/AFP via Getty Images

Lindsey Jacobellis won the women's snowboard cross on Wednesday to earn the U.S. its first Olympic gold medal of the 2022 Beijing Games.

The big picture: The 36-year-old from Connecticut is the most decorated snowboard cross athlete ever, but this is her first Olympic gold. She's also the oldest Olympian to win a snowboarding medal, NBC Sports notes.

Jacobellis has competed in five different Winter Games and has now tied the Olympic appearances record, per NBC.

By the numbers: She's previously won a silver Olympic medal, at the 2006 Torino Games, five world championship golds and eight X Games titles.

Flashback: Jacobellis was on course for gold in Torino but slipped while attempting a trick on the second-to-last jump.

What she's saying: Jacobellis said the 2022 Games "was never about redemption" for 2006, according to Olympics.com.

"I just wanted to have fun, being my fifth appearance at an Olympics," she added.
"My thought going into this was, 'it's either going to happen or it's not', and 'it could be my day or it could be another one of the ladies' days', so it just happened that all the stars lined up for me, for it to be my day."

Go deeper: The Winter Olympics medal tracker

Editor's note: This article has been updated with new details throughout.

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Snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis wins U.S. its 1st Olympic gold in Beijing

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