Lindsey Jacobellis made the United States proud when she took home the first gold medal for Team USA at the 2022 Winter Olympics on Wednesday February 9, and now she’s done it again. The 36-year-old snowboarder won a second gold medal in mixed team snowboard cross, an event that was making its Olympic debut, on Feb. 12. She was paired with longtime friend and fellow veteran of the sport, Nick Baumgartner, 40, at the event, and they proved that despite being two of the oldest competitors in the competition, they couldn’t slow down.
Lindsey has been competing in the Olympics since 2006, and has already had a massively successful career as a snowboarder. Here are five things that you need to know about her and her past Olympic appearances!
1. Lindsey won her first gold for the snowboard cross competition.
The first gold medal win came for the women’s snowboard cross. Besides being the first gold medal for Team USA in this games, this is also Lindsey’s first ever gold medal win, per ESPN. “This feels incredible because this level that all the women are riding at is a lot higher than it was 16 years ago,” she said as she finished. “All these ladies had the potential to win, and today it just worked out for me that my starts were good, my gliding was great and everything worked for me today.”
Besides being the first win for Team USA, the victory also gave Lindsey a few records. She became both the oldest snowboarder to win a medal at the games, and she also became the oldest American woman to win the gold for the Winter Olympics.
2. She won a silver medal at her first Olympics.
Despite appearing at every Winter Olympic games since 2006, Lindsey has only ever won one other medal 16 years ago. She had taken the silver medal during the same competition at her first Olympics in 2006. The second-place finish was an upset, because she was leading and had seemed likely to win, until she fell performing a trick and came in second place.
3. She’s a 10-time X Games winner.
While Lindsey may only have two Olympic gold medals, she’s still a world class snowboarder. She’s been a fixture at the annual Winter X Games competitions. She’s come in first place for 10 SBD Snowboarder X competitions, with her first victory being in 2003, and she most recently won in 2016. Besides her 10 X Games gold medals, Lindsey also has a silver and bronze medal from the extreme sports competition, according to her stats on the X Games website.
4. She was on ‘The Challenge’ on MTV.
Aside from her many athletic achievements, Lindsey has also ventured into the world of Reality TV, when she competed in the MTV competition The Challenge for the show’s special “Champs Vs. Pros” miniseries in 2017. Lindsey and her partner Kam Wimbley came in second place during the competition, per MTV.
5. She wrote a children’s book.
Other than her many competitions, Lindsey released her debut book in November 2021. The children’s book Sochi seemed like it was probably inspired by her time in the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Russian city of the same name. The book is “an original story about how a small Russian puppy found his forever home,” per its Amazon description.. It looks like a cute and heartwarming story!