Lindsey Jacobellis relying on experience to stay atop SBX
ASPEN, Colo. – At 30, Lindsey Jacobellis knows she needs to rely on her wealth of experience. So with snowfall here altering the X Games course before competition on Sunday, she trusted her judgement in making adjustments.
It paid off as she won an 11th consecutive medal and 10th gold in Snowboarder X at Buttermilk Mountain, drawing from previous races to beat Olympic gold medalist Eva Samkova by .04 seconds.
“That’s the only difference in my riding right now with these younger girls that have a lot of life in their legs and energy,” said Jacobellis, “so I have to come at it in a tactful way.”
With heavy snowfall Saturday night and snow falling throughout the day Saturday, the course was slower than it had been on training. So Jacobellis adjusted.
Instead of going over the center of the butter box as she had been all week. By that point, about midway through the race, Jacobellis and Samkova were alone in front.
From watching Samkova race, Jacobellis knew she would go wide on a late turn in the course so she took the inside line to pull ahead.
The two were in a dead heat at the finish, but Jacobellis slid like a baseball player to edge Samkova out. It was a lesson she learned earlier this season when she lost a race in Austria the same way.
“I knew she was going to be trying to pass me right at the last minute,” said Jacobellis. “It was intense, for sure. It gets harder and harder every year.”
It certainly doesn’t show. Jacobellis has won seven Snowboarder X medals since 2008 and coming into the race she already had more X Games golds than any other woman.
It’s not surprising given her career accomplishments. She’s a four-time World Snowboard Champion, most recently in 2015, and has 27 wins in 66 starts on the FIS World Cup Circuit. That’s more than any other man or woman.
While she’s adjusting to stay ahead of younger riders, Jacobellis isn’t looking too far ahead. She learned that lesson after she tore her ACL at the 2012 X Games, an injury that required two surgeries and cost her two seasons.
Now she looks only a few months ahead. How many X Games does she have left? Or Olympics, for that matter? She doesn’t know.
She’s relying on her experience to push the younger riders she keeps beating here.
“It’s more so just taking it year by year and see how my body’s feeling,” she said. “(It’s) come down to the little things in racing that I’ve really been tuning in on the other parts of my game that are really strong. And that’s heat racing, that’s making decisions on the fly because no matter how hard I train, my starts are still not contending with the girls on tour. I know that’s not one of my strong suits so I’ve got to come at it from a different angle. It’s evolving my sport as well as my individual riding.”