Winter Olympics: Lindsey Jacobellis' snowboard cross gold exorcises demons from Turin

If ever there was a lesson in never giving up, Lindsey Jacobellis is its epitome.

Showing perseverance at its finest, the American never relented in chasing her Winter Olympic dream, and her fifth Games finally delivered the gold medal she once threw away.

Cast your mind back to Turin in 2006. A young Jacobellis, on her first Olympic outing, was seconds clear of the rest of the field in what was the first snowboard cross final on this stage.

In a split-second decision she has no doubt long rued, she chose to showboat with the finish line in her sight. Her youthful confidence backfired, and she hit the deck as she watched Switzerland's Tanja Frieden steam past her for the golden moment she'd had within her grasp.

Now, 16 years on, and at the age of 36, that gold is finally hers — victory in the Beijing final ensured the ghost was exorcised at long last.

«It finally all came together. All the stars aligned and in this sport, that can be rare,» Jacobellis told BBC Sport.

Perhaps she thought her chance had gone; Wednesday's victory in the Zhangjiakou mountains marked her first win in three years. She missed out on the final at the 2010 and 2014 Games and finished fourth in 2018, the year after her last of five individual World Championship titles.

Her victory means she becomes the oldest snowboarding gold medallist in Olympic history, and the oldest American woman to win a medal of any colour at the Winter Olympics.

«I guess five times is the charm and how it needed to be. You never know why,» she said. «I was always still hungry for it, always still loved racing.

»Every morning before a race, it's still nerve-wracking, still stressful and it's a blast once you cross the finish line.

«I was just trying to go one heat at a time and