GOLD ALERT

Lindsey Jacobellis, Queen of Snowboard Cross, finally brings home the gold medal

I LOVE that Lindsey Jacobellis won USA’s first gold medal of Beijing. It was also her first Olympic gold, an incredibly long overdue honor for her. She won silver in 2006, should have won gold but had too much fun near the end and gave away the win. Since then, she’s won MANY world championships and X-Games golds but can finally add Olympic Gold. Her reaction after winning shows how much it means to her. You can watch Lindsey’s full gold medal run here.

But what is Snowboard Cross you ask? It’s basically wacky racing for the Winter Olympics. Four racers go down a course together, there is jostling and falls and jumps. I don’t think I’ve ever seen all four of them make it to the bottom unscathed and there is always something crazy happening. It’s truly never over until it’s over. At 36, probably for her last Olympics, Lindsey showed she can still hang with the next generation, athletes who she probably inspired to get into the sport when they were only kids themselves.

But also, can we talk about the team USA jackets from the cheering/coaching squad? At first, I was thinking homage to zebras because why not, and then was thinking magic eye books and subliminal messages of gold medals for the US athletes (or penises, wasn’t that always the rumor?), but I think I’m actually going with a subtle form of hypnosis for competitors. Maybe US athletes are immune but when competitors see it during competition, they freeze for a second. You know, kind of like the plot of Zoolander. FASHION.