Gutsy Olympian's quest for gold spells marketing dream
By Pete Thomas
Tribune Newspapers: Los Angeles Times
Published February 12, 2006
Lindsey Jacobellis vs. the world.
That's what it has come down to for the fearless 20-year-old from Stratton, Vt., the term in this case describing her win-at-all-costs style in a snowboard slalom during which riders careen shoulder to shoulder in a jump-filled dash to the finish.
Jacobellis, 20, is the lone entry on the U.S. women's team, so the nation's hopes for a gold medal in this new Olympic event rest solely on her shoulders.
Her success has been such--she's the reigning world champion, the 2005 overall Grand Prix champion and three-time X Games champion--that anything but gold will be a disappointment.
If that's not enough pressure, corporate sponsors have taken a liking to this appealing athlete. Jacobellis, in fact, has already signed endorsement deals with Visa, the primary sponsor of the Turin Games; Dunkin' Donuts, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Paul Mitchell hair products.
"I think, because the way the sport is going, if she doesn't do as well as we think she will, the opportunities will still be out there because snowboarding as a sport is growing and growing," says Jacobellis' agent, Josh Schwartz.
"But on the flip side, if she wins a gold medal in the new event and she's America's darling, then the upside is tremendous."
Translation: If things go well, she could soon be pulling in a high six-figure salary.
Jacobellis spent her early childhood as a skier and had only dabbled in snowboarding until the family vacation home burned in 1998, destroying the skis. Older brother Ben, who had taken up snowboarding, persuaded the parents to replace the skis with snowboards and Lindsey had to comply.
"I think that things happen for a reason," she says. "I may have taken up snowboarding anyway, but it might have taken a lot longer. Or it might not have happened at all."
"Benny" Jacobellis was also at least partially responsible for igniting the competitive fire in his sister's 5-foot-5 frame.
They were raised in the farming community of Roxbury, Conn. Houses were far apart, so after school they had only each other to play with. Ben, being a boy and five years older, played hard. Lindsey soon found herself playing just as hard.
This spiritedness spilled onto the slopes andsoon the Jacobellis siblings entered the Friday night boardercross series at Stratton Mountain.
Lindsey had to compete against boys because there was no bracket for young girls. It was scary at first, she says, because no boy wanted to lose to a girl. But eventually she was beating the boys.
She enrolled at Stratton Mountain School, a college prep facility and skiing and snowboarding academy, and although she couldn't have known it then, that put her on course for the Turin Games.
At 15, she won the boardercross competition--boardercross is the same as snowboard cross--at the U.S. Open in Stratton, on a steep and icy course so potentially dangerous that nearly half of her rivals chose not to race.
At 16, she claimed the overall title in the Junior World Championships in New Zealand. At 17 she won her first Winter X Games gold and graduated from Stratton Mountain School, receiving the Founder's Award for academic and athletic excellence. She was also accepted at the University of Vermont.
At 18, she competed in her first World Cup event, taking second in the halfpipe competition in Chile. At her second X Games, she became the first athlete to compete in three snowboarding disciplines, taking first in boardercross, fourth in halfpipe and 13th in slopestyle.
During another World Cup competition in Japan she won both boardercross events and the halfpipe competition to become the first snowboarder from any country to sweep an event in two disciplines.
Last year she won the snowboard cross World Championships at Whistler, Canada, and was also the U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix overall champion.
Also last year, she won her third consecutive X Games gold medal, which was testament to her inner strength. Ben's board was swept out by a competitor in a sharp turn. His head slammed onto the ice and he lay motionless for more than a minute.
Lindsey was in the gate, awaiting the start of the women's race, and she assumed the delay had been caused by injury to her brother because she had heard the other racers' names called as they crossed the finish.
Ben would later be found to have suffered a moderate concussion. Lindsey went on to win her race and afterward told reporters, "I knew Benny wouldn't want me to back down or be worried at all because he gets mad at me even if I just ask him if he's OK."
Since then, her focus has been on qualifying for the U.S. team in halfpipe and snowboard cross. She fell just short of that goal but qualified for the snowboard cross team in September.
Says Seth Wescott, the reigning men's world champion, "Lindsey has just been pushed ... to a level beyond where any of the other women of the world are right now."
Thus the biggest question remaining:Can she push herself to the levelof Olympic champion?
That's what it has come down to for the fearless 20-year-old from Stratton, Vt., the term in this case describing her win-at-all-costs style in a snowboard slalom during which riders careen shoulder to shoulder in a jump-filled dash to the finish.
Jacobellis, 20, is the lone entry on the U.S. women's team, so the nation's hopes for a gold medal in this new Olympic event rest solely on her shoulders.
Her success has been such--she's the reigning world champion, the 2005 overall Grand Prix champion and three-time X Games champion--that anything but gold will be a disappointment.
If that's not enough pressure, corporate sponsors have taken a liking to this appealing athlete. Jacobellis, in fact, has already signed endorsement deals with Visa, the primary sponsor of the Turin Games; Dunkin' Donuts, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Paul Mitchell hair products.
"I think, because the way the sport is going, if she doesn't do as well as we think she will, the opportunities will still be out there because snowboarding as a sport is growing and growing," says Jacobellis' agent, Josh Schwartz.
"But on the flip side, if she wins a gold medal in the new event and she's America's darling, then the upside is tremendous."
Translation: If things go well, she could soon be pulling in a high six-figure salary.
Jacobellis spent her early childhood as a skier and had only dabbled in snowboarding until the family vacation home burned in 1998, destroying the skis. Older brother Ben, who had taken up snowboarding, persuaded the parents to replace the skis with snowboards and Lindsey had to comply.
"I think that things happen for a reason," she says. "I may have taken up snowboarding anyway, but it might have taken a lot longer. Or it might not have happened at all."
"Benny" Jacobellis was also at least partially responsible for igniting the competitive fire in his sister's 5-foot-5 frame.
They were raised in the farming community of Roxbury, Conn. Houses were far apart, so after school they had only each other to play with. Ben, being a boy and five years older, played hard. Lindsey soon found herself playing just as hard.
This spiritedness spilled onto the slopes andsoon the Jacobellis siblings entered the Friday night boardercross series at Stratton Mountain.
Lindsey had to compete against boys because there was no bracket for young girls. It was scary at first, she says, because no boy wanted to lose to a girl. But eventually she was beating the boys.
She enrolled at Stratton Mountain School, a college prep facility and skiing and snowboarding academy, and although she couldn't have known it then, that put her on course for the Turin Games.
At 15, she won the boardercross competition--boardercross is the same as snowboard cross--at the U.S. Open in Stratton, on a steep and icy course so potentially dangerous that nearly half of her rivals chose not to race.
At 16, she claimed the overall title in the Junior World Championships in New Zealand. At 17 she won her first Winter X Games gold and graduated from Stratton Mountain School, receiving the Founder's Award for academic and athletic excellence. She was also accepted at the University of Vermont.
At 18, she competed in her first World Cup event, taking second in the halfpipe competition in Chile. At her second X Games, she became the first athlete to compete in three snowboarding disciplines, taking first in boardercross, fourth in halfpipe and 13th in slopestyle.
During another World Cup competition in Japan she won both boardercross events and the halfpipe competition to become the first snowboarder from any country to sweep an event in two disciplines.
Last year she won the snowboard cross World Championships at Whistler, Canada, and was also the U.S. Snowboard Grand Prix overall champion.
Also last year, she won her third consecutive X Games gold medal, which was testament to her inner strength. Ben's board was swept out by a competitor in a sharp turn. His head slammed onto the ice and he lay motionless for more than a minute.
Lindsey was in the gate, awaiting the start of the women's race, and she assumed the delay had been caused by injury to her brother because she had heard the other racers' names called as they crossed the finish.
Ben would later be found to have suffered a moderate concussion. Lindsey went on to win her race and afterward told reporters, "I knew Benny wouldn't want me to back down or be worried at all because he gets mad at me even if I just ask him if he's OK."
Since then, her focus has been on qualifying for the U.S. team in halfpipe and snowboard cross. She fell just short of that goal but qualified for the snowboard cross team in September.
Says Seth Wescott, the reigning men's world champion, "Lindsey has just been pushed ... to a level beyond where any of the other women of the world are right now."
Thus the biggest question remaining:Can she push herself to the levelof Olympic champion?
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0602120277feb12,1,5446054.story?coll=chi-business-hed
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