On February 16th, 2006, twenty-year old American snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis was poised to win the first gold medal in women’s snowboard cross. With a seemingly insurmountable lead over other competitors all she needed was a clean run and the gold medal would be hers. But as Lindsey entered the last 100 meters the unthinkable happened, choosing to add some flare to the run, she grabbed the back edge of her board then lost her balance and fell.
It was a mistake that would go down as one of the biggest “unforced errors” in sports. For the next 16 years Jacobellis endured the criticism and second guessing of Olympic commentators, sports writers, and attractors. Day after day she persevered and trained harder on the snow and with her life coach. She learned what the sport really meant to her and the power of resilience. She discovered that though it may not seem like it, life happens in just the right way that you end up where your meant to be.
At the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics she reached the podium as a two-time Olympic Gold Medalist. She writes about all of those times in her new novel “Unforgiving: Lessons of the Fall.” Lindsey Jacobellis joins us at The Roundtable to tell more.