Snowboarder who beat Jacobellis in 2006: ‘I’m so happy for her’

When Lindsey Jacobellis crossed the finish line to win gold in women’s snowboard cross – the first U.S. gold medal of the 2022 Winter Olympics – the Connecticut native pumped her fists in the air.

Over 5,000 miles away in Gwatt, Switzerland, Tanja Frieden was celebrating, too.

“I’m so happy for her,” Frieden said on Wednesday. “She definitely deserved it. She’s such an amazing athlete.”

Frieden’s name might not be familiar to American readers, even though she played a major role in one of the most iconic – and infamous – moments in U.S. Olympic history.

At the 2006 Torino Winter Games, Jacobellis became famous for one of the biggest blunders in sports history when she when she lost her lead after going for a celebratory board grab on the second-to-last jump.

Switzerland’s Freiden was the athlete who capitalized on that showboat move. As Jacobellis righted her board, her momentum obliterated, Frieden soared past her to claim gold.

“I was dreaming about that, for sure,” Frieden said of winning the inaugural gold medal in women’s snowboard cross.

At the time, Frieden was dating American Seth Wescott, who won Olympic gold in the men’s event one day earlier. “We went for it, wishing to win two gold medals at the Olympics, the first boardercross Olympics.”

But as Frieden, then 30, celebrated her gold medal, she struggled with the way Jacobellis’ silver-medal performance was received.

“She won silver, right? And she was young,” Frieden said. “It was quite crazy from the outside world…. I think the media in the (United) States was super harsh with her.

“I really could feel the pain that she had.”

For Frieden, this was no abstract feeling of pain. It was a lesson that she had learned too, taught to by Lindsey Jacobellis herself.