Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
BARDONECCHIA, Italy, Feb 17, 2006 (UPI via COMTEX) -- Tanja Frieden of Switzerland became an Olympic gold medalist Friday when an ill-advised attempt by American Lindsey Jacobellis to show off backfired.
Jacobellis was heading for an almost certain one-sided victory in the women's snowboarding cross event. She had such a large lead, she decided she could afford to embellish her triumph by doing a little trick over the final jump.
As she went airborne, Jacobellis reached down to grab the front of her snowboard. But in doing so she lost her balance and tumbled to the ground.
By the time Jacobellis could recover, Frieden had passed her en route to the gold medal.
The television cameras quickly showed American snowboarding coach Peter Foley's look of bewilderment as the only United States representative in the race threw away first place.
The other two snowboarders in the finals -- Canadians Dominique Maltais and Maelle Ricker -- fell during the race. Maltais was able to get up and finish third for the bronze medal.
Americans had won the first three snowboarding events at these Olympics and would have had a fourth but for Jacobellis' embarrassing miscue.
URL: www.upi.com Copyright 2006 by United Press International
