Lindsey Jacobellis Fell With Lead in Olympic Snowboard Cross (Again)

For the third straight Olympics, Lindsey Jacobellis’ gold medal aspirations in Snowboard Cross have come undone by a fall. Leading comfortably in today’s semi-finals, she fell and never reached the finish line:

"Jacobellis misjudged the second-to-last turn on the course, flew over a jump too fast, lost her balance and skidded onto her back. She raised her hands for leverage as she skittered into the middle of the course, hoping the momentum might pull her back to her feet. But the snow was too soft and Jacobellis was stuck."

Most famously, Jacobellis had the gold medal almost entirely wrapped up at the 2006 games in Turin, but showboated near the finish line, took a spill, and recovered into second place:

In Vancouver four years ago, Jacobellis crashed with Canadian rider Maelle Ricker early in the semi-finals. In her career, she has eight Winter X Games titles and 26 World Cup wins. Is she just cursed in the Olympics?

“I don’t think it has to do with the Olympics,” she said today, via John Branch in the New York Times. “It’s just on a fluke of when things work out for me and when they don’t.”

[Photo by Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images]