Winter Olympics 2022 - Lindsey Jacobellis wins second gold in mixed team snowboard cross with Nick Baumgartner

ByMichael Hincks

Updated 12/02/2022 at 11:38 GMT

With a combined age of 76, Lindsey Jacobellis and Nick Baumgartner were the oldest team heading into the first-ever mixed team snowboard cross at the Winter Olympics. Their experience paid off, with Jacobellis becoming a double Olympic champion and 40-year-old Baumgartner – the oldest US athlete at Beijing 2022 – winning his first medal of any colour.

Lindsey Jacobellis clinched a second gold of Beijing 2022 after winning the inaugural mixed team snowboard cross with American team-mate Nick Baumgartner.

Just three days after winning gold in the women’s cross, 16 years after her Turin heartbreak, Jacobellis was celebrating another victory at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou.

A thrilling big final saw all four female riders start within a second of one another after a close men’s race, and Jacobellis was able to overtake 2018 champion Michela Moioli of Italy to take a thrilling gold.

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Canada’s Meryeta O'Dine and Italy’s Caterina Carpano collided midway through the race, but it was the former who picked herself up to hand Canada bronze.

Team GB duo Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale won their quarter-final but were unable to reach the big final, finishing sixth overall when coming second in the small final.

The mixed event sees the men race first, with their finishing times determining when the women go in their leg in what is a staggered start.

Italy 1, comprising of Moioli and men’s bronze medallist Omar Visintin, comfortably won the first quarter-final, likewise Baumgartner and Jacobellis in the second quarter.

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ROC then won a close third quarter-final before Bankes raced through the pack in the final quarter-final heat to help GB reach the semis.

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A pumped-up Baumgartner went toe to toe with Visintin in the first semi-final, and the pair setup their respective team-mates Jacobellis and Moioli perfectly to reach the big final.

In the second semi, Bankes could not claw back the gap as Italy’s second team of Lorenzo Sommariva and Caterina Carpano also reached the final along with Canada’s O’Dine and men’s silver medallist Eliot Grondin.

After Germany won the small final, it was all eyes on which nation would take the first-ever mixed team gold in the snowboard cross.

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A tight men’s race, which Baumgartner won by just 0.04 seconds, made for a thrilling women’s leg. Just 0.88 seconds separated all four riders, with Moioli pulling away early on ahead of O'Dine and Jacobellis.

Jacobellis dug deep to catch up with Moioli, ensuring she was well ahead of a collision between O'Dine and Carpano.

That made it a straight shootout for gold, one which Jacobellis clinched to the delight of her team-mate Baumgartner, who at 40 is the oldest US Olympian at Beijing 2022.

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