Interview by Laurie Mega
The winningest snowboarder in history, Lindsey Jacobellisis a 31-time World Cup gold medalist, 10-time X Games gold medalist, and 6-time world champion. She is a 4-time Olympian, who won the silver in 2006. She’s also the founder and host of the Nissan Supergirl Snow Pro, a women-only snowboarding competition that features both pros and amateurs in Big Air and Snowboard Cross competitions.
We caught up with Lindsey just a few days after her win at Supergirl, and just before she finished packing for Europe to finish her World Cup tour. She chatted about Supergirl, what drew her to snowboarding, and the importance of mentorship, especially for young women in her sport.
How did you get involved in the Supergirl Snow Pro and what does that kind of event mean to you?
About 7 years ago, I was invited to come to the celebrity surf for Supergirl. And when I got there, it was this X Games-caliber event…And, you know, that’s a pretty big to-do to be reaching that capacity and to be getting that kind of exposure as an athlete. And I saw that platform and I told the director of ASA entertainment (the organization that hosts a number of action sports events, including Supergirl) that I want this to be in the snow. I want this to be on snowboards. And he was like, absolutely. Let’s do it.It took me a couple of years to figure out the location, where I wanted to have it, the sponsors I wanted to get involved and the idea that mentorship should be a part of it.
Why did you want to include the mentorship element?
Because I didn’t want it to just be another event with high-profile athletes. Because, yes that is part of it. Kids come up to the hill to enjoy skiing or snowboarding and they see all this crazy stuff happening, but there’s a little bit of a disconnect. So, I was wondering how we could engage the crowd a little bit more and how we could engage the community a little bit more. And that’s when I came up with the idea of doing the mentorship. And having the amateur females compete alongside in the same venue as a pro and be able to interact with pros. Because that had never been done in snowboarding at this capacity.I thought it was really cool that these little girls could be learning how to hit some of these features and be scared, but then have some of the best athletes in the world there cheering them on. What an empowering feeling that would spark within an individual!
You mentor on a regular basis, anyway. Is that correct?
I’ve done a lot of coaching, and then I’ve done some mental coaching for athletes both male and female. And that all kind of started coming to fruition because of this event. Because it seemed like such a great fit. There’s so many aspects [of competing] that are overlooked, and some of them are the mental aspects. You can have all the physical training in the world, but if you’re not really mentally prepared for a situation, it can only take you so far. So, that’s why I started to tap into that next field.
Growing up in snowboarding, did you have a mentor yourself?
I really always had my older brother and my father was always very, very involved in whatever sport I was into. And our mom was the cheerleader for everything. So, she was always getting us there and getting us ready and supporting us. But my dad was my coach a lot of the time and my brother would be doing drills with me and breaking things down. And, naturally, being a younger sibling, you’re constantly chasing after your older sibling, desperately trying to hang out. So, it will definitely push you to new levels when you’re trying to hang out with your sibling.
When snowboarding first became popular, it was a male-dominated sport. Did you find that to be true for you? How did you deal with that?
I definitely was put in a male-dominated sport, but that’s how my lifestyle was from the get-go. My dad had always taught me every sport from football or baseball, even though I ended up playing softball, he taught me how to do all of those skills and it’s something that--when you live out in the middle of nowhere, it’s not like my brother’s going to play dolls with me. He’s going to be running football patterns with me. So, it seemed very easy and natural for me to put myself in that position and then it just became. I would be chasing the boys down the hill. My brother was really setting the stage for really the whole family to get into the sport. So, it wasn’t really a surprise that I would be involved in a sport that was very male-dominated. And for the first six years, I was the only individual female on the US Snowboarding team. Then we started getting more girls.And they really started consistently being a part of the team and not just kind of like coming and going. And then I kind of immediately became a mentor once the younger girls were coming onto the team. So, it was a very natural role for me to take.
What was the moment for you when you knew snowboarding was just going to be it? This was going to be your life and your career?
I’d have to say in 2003, when I graduated high school, because that’s when my sport was actually named an Olympic sport.I went to Stratton Mountain School, which is an academy that helps you balance your academics and athletics, and it highlights skiing, snowboarding, and nordic skiing. And we were just doing it for fun. My parents were like, you’re doing these national competitions. This is a different route. It’s not traditional. It’s fun. It’s something that you’re into. We’ll kind of see how far it takes you and you can always go to college. And then it was announced in 2003 that they were adding my sport and my mom was like “Oh my god. There it is.”We weren’t focused on that, but that opportunity just got put in front of us. And my mom always would joke saying I was either going to join the circus or go to the Olympics. Which, they’re not that different, to tell you the truth.
Are you looking toward the 2022 Olympics?
Right now, I’m just kind of working on one year at a time, making sure everything’s great. But that’s definitely a goal.
Photo credit:
SBX Supergirl SnowPro: Kurt Steinmetz
Headshots: Danny Tayenaka