At last, Team USA has its first gold medal of the 2022 Olympics – with a fitting recipient.

Lindsey Jacobellis claimed an elusive gold medal Wednesday in the women’s snowboard cross, 16 years after a costly error late in the race cost her the top spot in Torino.

The 36-year-old from Danbury, Conn., led from start to finish in Wednesday’s final run to add the missing piece to her decorated snowboarding career. It also marked the first gold for Team USA in the Beijing Olympics, after picking up five silver medals and one bronze heading into the snowboard cross.

Before Wednesday, Jacobellis had come closest to Olympic gold in 2006. She had a big lead in the final that year, but on the penultimate jump, she infamously tried to add a celebratory grab, only to fall. It cost her, as her stumble allowed another snowboarder to catch up and pass her, with Jacobellis settling for silver.

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

France’s Chloe Trespeuch won the silver medal, and Meryeta O’Dine of Canada captured bronze.

With the win, Jacobellis rewrites a few special entries in the Winter Olympics history books. She became the oldest U.S woman to win a gold; also, the 16 years marked the longest gap between medals for any U.S. woman.

Up until Wednesday, Jacobellis was best known for blowing her shot at gold in the 2006 Turin Games because of the showboat move. But this time, she rode hard all the way to the line, beating Trespeuch. She covered her heart with her hands as she slowed. At the post-race ceremony, she received one of the treasured Bing Dwen Dwen stuffed animals, lifted it over her head and just stood there and beamed.

“They can keep talking about it all they want,” Jacobellis said. “Because it really shaped me into the individual that I am. It kept me hungry and really kept me fighting in this sport.”

— with AP