Lindsey Jacobellis masters snowboarding gold redemption in Beijing

Her name became a verb for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory, she was a punchline for late night TV hosts and haunted when dubbed sport's dumbest showboat.

Lindsey Jacobellis thought her dream was over but nowhere does redemption stories quite like the Olympics and this one is a belter.

She expressed a determination not to be defined by that one day in Bardonecchia 16 years ago but it was never far away, a quick Google search of her name and there it was, a momentary lapse of competitive judgment that couldn't be escaped. Imagine the mistakes you made as a 20-year old being endlessly replayed for collective amusement every four years, without fail.

Snowboard cross, a high-speed chase down a mountain interrupted by stretches of jumps and moguls, has been described as ‘Nascar on snow’ and is one of the most thrilling sports at the Games. It's thrills and spills in equal measure, only for Jacobellis it's more of the latter than the former.

In Turin she took the penultimate jump of the women's snowboard cross with a decisive lead, her rivals admitting they’d all but given up. The line - and gold - in sight she attempt a celebratory grab, only to crash on landing and settle for silver, a medal she wore like a millstone.

She finished fifth in 2010, seventh in 2014 and fourth in 2018, just barely missing the podium in Pyeongchang by three-hundredths of a second.

Since Turin she has won five world titles and ten X Games gold and 52 World Cup races, she has dominated her sport like no-one ever has. She has been through three knee injury that would have ended other careers and seen off all-comers half her age to earn her place at another Games. Now, perhaps, it's all worth it.

"It was really never about redemption, I've