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Lindsey Jacobellis
Photo: DAN HIMBRECHTS / EPA
Lindsey Jacobellis won the United States' first gold medal at the Beijing Olympics on Wednesday.
She rode hard to the finish line in her snowboard cross final, 16 years after a mistake cost her the title.
The 36-year-old racer competed in her fifth Olympic Games and claimed the first US victory in what was otherwise a disappointing event for the red, white and blue team.
Jacobellis won the final ahead of Chloe Trespeuch (France) and Meryeta Odine (Canada).
In 2006 she had dramatically missed gold in Turin.
While she was clearly in the lead, she tried an unnecessary trick, fell and had to settle for silver.
She then finished fifth at the 2010 Vancouver Games and seventh in Sochi 2014, most recently coming close to fourth at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.
The American had already celebrated numerous successes in her career.
Among other things, she was world champion six times and won nine times at the X Games.
In addition, Jacobellis is the only athlete to have taken part in all of the Winter Games since the discipline's Olympic debut in 2006.
Now she has defeated the evil spirits of 2006.
The German snowboard crosser Jana Fischer had already been eliminated in the round of 16.
The 2019 Junior World Champion had no chance in her knockout run at Zhangjiakou's Genting Snow Park after a driving error at the start and finished fourth.
Only the top two of each heat advance to the quarterfinals.
“I was actually very confident.
I don't know why I got stuck at the top either," said Fischer, who had only competed in one World Cup race this season due to injury: "One lap further would have been mandatory." On Saturday she's going to compete again in the first ever Olympic mixed team competition the start.
After the last three World Cup victories in a row, Martin Nörl is reaching for a medal in the men's race on Thursday (from 2:00 p.m. OT/7:00 a.m. CET).
After the shattered medal dreams of Ramona Hofmeister and Stefan Baumeister in the parallel giant slalom, Snowboard Germany is still waiting for the first podium finish at the Winter Games.
ara/sid/AP