Favourite Charlotte Bankes was eliminated at the quarter-final stage as American veteran Lindsey Jacobellis claimed an extraordinary first Olympic gold medal in women’s snowboard-cross at the age of 36.
Bankes’ shock exit was a crushing blow for Great Britain, who had high hopes that the reigning world champion would provide their first medal of an increasingly testing Beijing Games, and potentially a first gold on snow.
Instead it was Jacobellis, competing in her fifth Olympics and best known for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory in 2006 when she attempted an unnecessary trick on her final jump and fell, who finally sealed her long-awaited gold.
Bankes had eased through the qualification round and her eighth final and looked in little danger of elimination when she held a 10-metre lead at the halfway stage of her four-athlete quarter-final race.
Bankes looked every inch the pre-event favourite, the result of soaring to her first World Championship title in 2021 and the absence of her main rival Eva Samkova due to injury.
But after pushing wide on a steep fifth bank, she lost momentum, allowing Canada’s Tess Critchlow to sneak inside while Belle Brockhoff – the Australian whom Bankes had comfortably beaten in her earlier heat – moved in to seize the second qualifying slot as the Briton lost momentum.
It marked an abrupt ending for the 26-year-old Bankes, competing in her third Olympics and having switched from representing France in 2018 due to issues arising from her struggle to shrug off a pelvic injury.
“I gave it my all but it’s frustrating to have the worst race of my season here at the Olympics,” said Bankes, who will have a chance to redeem herself later in the Games in the snowboard-cross team event alongside Huw Nightingale.
“I put a lot of pressure on myself and I felt I dealt with it pretty well. Unfortunately I didn’t do the race I wanted to do today, and it’s frustrating to do it at the Olympics.
“I’m disappointed and frustrated with how it went. I think I’m not the only one. That is how it is. It’s a tough day for me, we didn’t come here for this as a team, but this is bordercross.”
Meanwhile Jacobellis, the most decorated athlete in her sport who had never returned to an Olympic podium since settling for that painful silver in Turin cruised through her heats and the final to win the USA’s first gold medal of the Games.
It capped a remarkable story of redemption for the five-time world champion, whose story of Olympic heartbreak had been exacerbated in Pyeongchang four years ago, when she led the final for much of the way but finished off the podium by just 0.003 seconds.
