Lindsey Jacobellis wins fifth snowboard cross world title

By Nick ZaccardiMar 12, 2017, 11:55 AM EDT

Make it five world titles for Lindsey Jacobellis, who extended her dominance in snowboard cross outside of the Olympics on Sunday.

Jacobellis, 31, led nearly from start to finish of both her semifinal and final in Sierra Nevada, Spain, edging Olympic bronze medalist Chloe Trespeuch of France for gold. Italy’s Michela Moioli, the 2016 World Cup season champion, took bronze.

Jacobellis and Trespeuch exchanged words in the finish area after spending most of the final within a board of each other.

“I’m defending myself,” Jacobellis told Trespeuch. “You’re running into me. Sorry Chloe, but you’re trying to push me off, and I’m holding myself. You’re going to come into me like that.”

Jacobellis’ biggest rival, Czech Olympic champion Eva Samkova, went off course in her semifinal after posting the fastest time in qualifying last week.

Jacobellis has competed at worlds five times and won gold each time. No other snowboarder or freestyle skier has won a world title in a single event more than three times.

“Every year, it gets harder and harder because the level with women keeps increasing,” Jacobellis said. “I want to be remembered as someone who is supporting that next, younger generation as well as continuing to raise the bar.”

Jacobellis is one of the greatest Olympic sports athletes of all time, yet she has not won an Olympic gold medal. In 21 career appearances in major championships snowboard cross competitions (Olympics, X Games, Worlds), she has 15 gold medals.

Jacobellis infamously lost gold on a celebratory board grab on the penultimate jump at the 2006 Torino Olympics, settling for silver. She then washed out in the semifinals in both 2010 and 2014.

The PyeongChang Olympics will bring another round of expectations, and one more opportunity to claim that elusive gold. It may be her last chance, but Jacobellis refused to put a timeline on the rest of her career.

“Still just taking one week at a time, one month at a time, just living the dream,” she said. “I don’t like to look too far in the future because you’re missing what’s going on right now. I’ve made that mistake before in the past, where you’re too worried about what’s coming, and you’re not seeing what’s right in front of you.”

In the men’s event Sunday, France’s Pierre Vaultier took gold to follow up his Olympic title. The top American was Nick Baumgartner in fourth.

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NBC Olympics researcher Rachel Thompson contributed to this report from Sierra Nevada.

Lindsey Jacobellis
20th — 2001 X Games
21st — 2002 X Games
Gold — 2003 X Games
Gold — 2004 X Games
Gold — 2005 Worlds
Gold — 2005 X Games
*** Skipped 2006 X Games
Silver — 2006 Olympics
Silver — 2007 X Games
Gold — 2007 Worlds
Gold — 2008 X Games
Gold — 2009 X Games
*** Skipped 2009 Worlds
Gold — 2010 X Games
Fifth — 2010 Olympics
Gold — 2011 Worlds
Gold — 2011 X Games
*** Tore ACL/meniscus in 2012 X Games training run
Gold — 2014 X Games
Seventh — 2014 Olympics
Gold — 2015 Worlds
Gold — 2015 X Games
Gold — 2016 X Games
Gold — 2017 Worlds

Coco Gauff into French Open quarterfinals, where Iga Swiatek may await

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 1:24 PM EDT

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Coco Gauff swept into the French Open quarterfinals, where she could play Iga Swiatek in a rematch of last year’s final.

Gauff, the sixth seed, beat 100th-ranked Slovakian Anna Karolina Schmiedlova 7-5, 6-2 in the fourth round. She next plays Swiatek or 66th-ranked Ukrainian Lesia Tsurenko, who meet later Monday.

Gauff earned a 37th consecutive win over a player ranked outside the top 50, dating to February 2022. She hasn’t faced a player in the world top 60 in four matches at Roland Garros, but the degree of difficulty is likely to ratchet up in Wednesday’s quarterfinals.

Swiatek won all 12 sets she’s played against Gauff, who at 19 is the only teenager in the top 49 in the world.

FRENCH OPEN DRAWS: Women | Men | Broadcast Schedule

Also Monday, No. 7 seed Ons Jabeur of Tunisia dispatched 36th-ranked American Bernarda Pera 6-3, 6-1, breaking all eight of Pera’s service games.

Jabeur, runner-up at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open last year, has now reached the quarterfinals of all four majors.

Jabeur next faces 14th-seeded Beatriz Haddad Maia, who won 6-7 (3), 6-3, 7-5 over Spaniard Sara Sorribes Tormo, who played on a protected ranking of 68. Haddad Maia became the second Brazilian woman to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal in the Open Era (since 1968) after Maria Bueno, who won seven majors from 1959-1966.

Pera, a 28 year-old born in Croatia, was the oldest U.S. singles player to make the fourth round of a major for the first time since Jill Craybas at 2005 Wimbledon. Her defeat left Gauff as the lone American singles player remaining out of the 35 entered in the main draws.

The last American to win a major singles title was Sofia Kenin at the 2020 Australian Open. The 11-major drought matches the longest in history (since 1877) for American men and women combined.

In the men’s draw, 2022 French Open runner-up Casper Ruud reached the quarterfinals by beating 35th-ranked Chilean Nicolas Jarry 7-6 (3), 7-5, 7-5. He’ll next play sixth seed Holger Rune of Denmark, a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 (7) winner over 23rd seed Francisco Cerundolo of Argentina.

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U.S. earns first three-peat in Para hockey world championship history

By OlympicTalkJun 5, 2023, 8:49 AM EDT

International Paralympic Committee

The U.S. trounced rival Canada 6-1 to become the first nation to three-peat in world Para hockey championship history.

Tournament MVP Declan Farmer scored twice, and Josh Misiewicz, David Eustace, Jack Wallace and Kevin McKee added goals. Jen Lee made eight saves in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, on Sunday.

Farmer, who had nine goals in five games for the tournament, also scored twice in Paralympic final wins over Canada in 2018 and 2022 and the last world championship final against Canada in 2021. Farmer, 25, already owns the career national team record of more than 250 points.

The U.S. beat Canada in a third consecutive world final dating to 2019, but this was the most lopsided gold-medal game in championship history. The U.S. also won the last four Paralympic titles dating to 2010.

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