Filed under: USA , Snowboard TELLURIDE, Colo. (AP) — To the snowboardcross and X-Games world in which she resides, she is Lindsey Jacobellis, the most dominant figure in her sport, a multiple champion at almost every level. To the rest of the world — the world that pays attention to these things every four years at the Olympics — she is that girl who lost the gold medal when she was trying to show off. Jacobellis has, she insists, put that ill-timed embarrassment from the 2006 snowboardcross final behind her, admitted the “method grab” and the ensuing tumble she took because of it — when she was in the lead, far ahead of everyone — was a mistake. But the 24-year-old Vermonter, whose Olympic silver looks a bit odd mixed in there with all those other gold medals, knows there’s only one way to get that off people’s minds: By closing the deal when the world is watching in Vancouver next month. “It definitely was a mistake,” Jacobellis said, an admission that didn’t come so easily in the immediate aftermath of the gaffe. “It was a ‘Whoops, Oh, dear. I don’t know what happened.’ But you learn from mistakes and all you can do is grow. If you just stop there and be sour about it, it doesn’t show that you’re a true athlete who craves the next race.” Only a true athlete could get to where Jacobellis has gone in a sport that is as much about avoiding the next injury as winning the next race.   Permalink  |  Email this  |  Linking Blogs  |  Comments