Lindsey Jacobellis triumphs in Women’s Snowboarder X at Winter X Games 15
Lindsey Jacobellis continued her domination of the the Snowboarder X as she grabbed her seventh gold medal at this year’s Winter X Games (WX), held at Aspen, Colorado. Silver went to the Alaskan snowboarder, Callan Chythlook-Sifsof. Deborah Anthonioz of
France won her first Winter X medal after coming third and securing a bronze.
Lindsey Jacobellis, the snowboarder from Vermont, won her first gold at Snowboarder X in 2003, and since then she had been defending her title quite consistently.
She lost the gold to California’s Joanie Anderson, but regained her throne the very next year, not letting it slip out of her hand ever since and sitting on her second three-peat before she entered this year’s competition.
Jacobellis lived up to her reputation at this year’s contest. She made her way to the final after leading in the qualifying round and finishing second in the semi-final, Canada’s Dominique Maltais beating her to the finish line by a few seconds.
The final however turned out to be a comfortable win for Jacobellis. Five seconds into the final, Maltais wiped out, forcing the rest of the finalist to swerve around here.
Jacobellis, who is also known as LUCKY LINDSEY, really had her lady luck smiling at her, because she had already grabbed the holeshot, and this wipe out only earned her a comfortable lead, a lead that had extended to 100 yards a third of the way down the
course.
Her massive lead allowed her to play it safe by reducing her speed while going into the last bank turns. Her time of 1:38.943 saw her off to yet another victory at the WX Snowbroarder X event.
"I didn't even see Maltais go down", the 25-year-old Jacobellis claimed. "Once I got to the top of the butter box, I looked back and was kind of shocked that no one was behind me. That's why I threw that little speed check in there, because those rollers
got really deep. So I tried to play it a little cautious going into those last bank turns. And then everything was nice on the way home".
The silver medal went to Callan Chytlook-Sifsof, an Alaskan native who had finished at the eighth position in last years’ WX competition. She finished at 1:39.681. This was her first podium, an accomplishment she achieved in her fifth WX appearance.
The French snowboarder, Deborah Anthonioz, made a comeback to the WX platform after 4 years, and walked away with her first bronze of the contest. Her time in this year’s final was 1:40.026.
Emily Aubry of Switzerland and Alexandra Jekova from Bulgaria came at fourth and fifth places respectively. Dominique Maltais ended up at sixth after her wipe out. Joanie Anderson, who had deprived Jacobellis of gold in 2007, landed at seventh position this
year.
Jacobellis has been winning the Women’s Snowboarder X for such a long time that one expected it to become mundane for her. When questioned about it, she replied, “No, because it's always different, it's still hard, and I still have butterflies no matter
what kind of race I'm in. I put a lot of expectations on myself, and I think that's where most of the stress comes from".
We will just have to wait patiently for next year to find out if the Snowboarder X queen is able to retain her throne and make it to a five-peat next year, or maybe we would see an upset happen, something similar to what we saw in this year’s Men Snowboarder
X finals.
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