'Forgiving and learning' the key to Lindsey Jacobellis' Beijing 2022 success

Lindsey Jacobellis slept soundly the night before she won the women’s individual snowboard cross (SBX) gold at Beijing 2022.

“I have people on my team tease me because they're like, ‘You always sleep well’, and I love sleeping,” she told Olympics.com.

“I feel like my spirit animal must be a bear because I sleep a lot and I love to make sure that I get as much recovery as possible, especially as I become older in the sport.”

Some may find that strange given the five-time world champion’s Olympic past. At Torino 2006, aged 19, she was out in front in the final and honing in on the Olympic title.

But on the second-to-last jump she attempted a celebratory grab, missed the landing, and was forced to settle for silver after being overtaken. The moment appeared to have left a mark on Jacobellis because, despite her success on the world circuit, the Connecticut native failed to medal at the next three Winter Olympics.

Jacobellis’ ability to sleep, and her subsequent calm demeanour on race day was the result of a lot of work, both mental and physical.

The crash in Turin had predictably haunted her for a long time.

But after processing what had happened with a mental coach, she was able to accept the result, and realise that it was only one part of her impressive story.

“I did get a lot of backlash and I got hate mail,” she revealed. “And it was hard to deal with as a young athlete.

“It was just one thing, it doesn't define you. It took me a while to believe that and to really just accept that and be OK with that. And it was part of, you know, forgiving myself and learning.

“I've been trying to work on understanding my emotions and my reactions because that was all the mental prep that I was doing over the last eight years.

“I