Sixteen years is all it took for Lindsey Jacobellis to make up for the mistake of a lifetime after winning snowboard cross gold at the 2022 Winter Olympics.
Jacobellis, 36, not only clinched a first gold for the United States in Beijing but ended her own search for the top snowboarding prize after she should have won it in her 2006 debut.
The American entrant paid the price for her arrogance in the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics when she led the field by a sizeable gap until a late piece of showboating saw her fall and settle for silver.
Fast-forward to today and a more wizened Jacobellis made no such mistake as she hared toward the finish line in China, winning the snowboard cross final in her fifth Winter Olympics appearance.
She pipped French silver-medallist Chloe Trespeuch and Canada's Meryeta O'Dine, who crossed the line third to claim bronze.
No American woman had ever managed to take gold in the snowboard cross event, while compatriot Seth Westcott (2006 and 2010) is the only U.S. man to win in its 16 years as an Olympic event.
The margins were a lot closer this year compared to the substantial lead that separated Jacobellis from Switzerland's Tanja Frieden in 2006—or at least prior to her profligacy.
Jacobellis had nothing but white in front of her and two jumps to go at Torino 2006 she attempted a method grab, landed awkwardly and temporarily skidded off track.
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It was enough to ensure Frieden took Olympic gold instead of her, although Jacobellis assured that moment will no longer define her career after reaching the top of the mountain on Wednesday.
"It [the 2006 fall] kept me hungry and kept me fighting for the gold," she said following Wednesday's win, suggesting she would have retired from the sport had she won in Italy all those years ago.
"That was a lot to deal with for a young athlete."
Jacobellis has competed at every Winter Olympics since snowboard cross became an event in 2006, failing to reach the medal round in 2010 and 2014 before she missed out on bronze in 2018 by .003 seconds.
Now far more experienced and wiser thanks to past mistakes, she described the sense of incredulity that took over on Wednesday before realising she'd upset the odds to finish first.
"I wasn't 100 per cent sure but I wasn't seeing anyone in my peripheral so I was confident when I crossed," she continued. "It really seemed like an unbelievable moment, it didn't seem real at the time.
"The level is a lot higher than 16 years ago so I feel like a winner just by getting into the final because that has been the challenge every time."
The Winter X Games star can now slide into the sunset having reached her sport's pinnacle, in many ways absolving any guilt that may have lingered as a result of her 2006 slip.
It wasn't only the American team that revelled in Jacobellis' triumph, either, as Canadian bronze medal-winner O'Dine gushed: "That [2006] is a very famous story in snowboard cross and to see her come home with the gold… it’s honestly really cool to see."
