Oldies but goodies: Americans Baumgartner, Jacobellis bring home gold
ZHANGJIAKOU, CHINA
The running joke was American snowboardcross racer Nick Baumgartner always referring to them as a pair of 40somethings.
“I’m 36,” Lindsey Jacobellis playfully corrected time after time in interview after interview.
For these two, and all their vast experience, age proved to be one thing — golden. Jacobellis won her second title of the Beijing Olympics, teaming with Baumgartner to capture the new event of mixed team snowboardcross on Saturday.
At 40 years, 57 days, Baumgartner, the concrete worker/contractor from Michigan, becomes the oldest snowboarder to win an Olympic medal. At 36 years, 177 days, Jacobellis, the author of a children’s book, is the second-oldest.
“You’re never too late to take what you want from life,” Baumgartner said. “You let yourself down if you quit too early, doesn’t matter how old you are. Our success at our age is a perfect example of that.”
Jacobellis took gold earlier this week in the women’s event; it came 16 years after a late showboat move as she was cruising in for an apparent win cost her the title at the Turin Games.
“It’s the internal fire in believing in yourself, whether you’re trying to go get a gold medal or just improving your day-to-day life,” Jacobellis said. “You continue to try to grow and better yourself.”
After a slow start at the Beijing Olympics, the
U.S. now has five gold medals and 11 overall. Jacobellis accounts for two, while snowboarder Chloe Kim has another. The Americans have also won two new Olympic events contested at the Genting Snow Park — mixed team aerials and now mixed team snowboardcross.
Although the unique snowboarding discipline made its Olympic debut in China, the event has been featured for nearly a decade at numerous World Cup stops.
It’s a competition that features a male and female rider from the same country being paired up and placed into a multiteam bracket. When the male racer crosses the line, the time advantage he holds over the next competitor is applied to his female teammate. The female rider then begins the run and the top two teams advance round by round until the final.
Baumgartner gave Jacobellis a slender lead after his run in the final. Jacobellis, of course, closed it out, holding off the Italian team of Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli by 0.2 seconds. The Canadian duo of Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine finished third after O’Dine was able to scramble and edge another Italian team after an early-inthe-race wipeout.
The American tandem embraced after the finish, reveling in the moment. They grabbed gloved hands and stepped on the podium together when their names were called.
“I always tell people that I learned a lot about myself and about my riding, once I did a team event,” Baumgartner said. “Because the vibe up at the top … when it’s a team race, we’re all smiling and we’re having fun and we’re enjoying each other’s company. We’re feeding off of each other. It brings the level of riding to a different level. You saw that today.”