No falling out for Jacobellis this time

ASPEN, Colo. -- This time for Lindsey Jacobellis, there was no late mishap and settling for silver.

She led Saturday’s snowboard X competition wire to wire, and at the news conference afterward was asked whether she felt she had earned redemption.

Jacobellis sighed because the focus, predictably, had diverted so quickly away from her triumph to her crash last year just before the finish line, when she had to settle for silver.

That, of course, evoked memories of her fall with a vast lead, a year before, while showboating on the final jump at the 2006 Turin Olympics. Alas, gold turned to silver.

Even Jacobellis’ rivals are weary of these recollections.

“Redemption? What is that, like revenge?” asked Switzerland’s Tanja Frieden, who was handed the gold by Jacobellis at Turin and finished second on Saturday.

Said Jacobellis: “It means redeeming yourself.”

Frieden, in defense of Jacobellis, expressed her disgust in a language best left for others to interpret elsewhere.

Lindsey’s take

“Most people don’t follow the World Cup circuit, so they really don’t know what’s going on in my life. And they come here and just remember things from last year and they keep playing that clip over and over and over.

“I think all my sponsors should be raking in the money because they’ve gotten so many takes of me falling.”

Leave it to ESPN to show the fall on large screens throughout the venue -- even in view of Jacobellis as she approached the gate.

What has she learned from so much attention? “I’ve learned that sliding across the finish line isn’t the fastest way to end a race,” she said.

Worth noting

Jacobellis is the reigning World Cup champion, and before claiming a fourth X Games gold medal she won a Jeep King of the Mountain event in Telluride, Colo., and a World Cup race in Austria.

Holland’s trifecta

Truckee, Calif.’s Nate Holland, on coming from behind in a six-man heat on a steep and rollicking course to win his third consecutive snowboarder X gold medal:

“I just whipped the horse hard going through the rollers and had a focus point of where I needed to be.

“When you’re behind you work harder, then that super-natural energy comes out.

“I was able to get past [Seth] Wescott. I heard him screaming. . . . Then I saw the shadows behind me and said, ‘They’re coming, they’re coming.’ And then I pinned it.”

Board games

Shaun White got off to a rocky start in X Games competition, finishing third behind Kevin Pearce and Norway’s Andreas Wiig in the men’s slopestyle competition.

He was the last of 10 starters but discovered a crack on the top of his board as he was preparing for his run.

Visibly concerned, White had no choice but to negotiate the obstacle-lined course on the cracked board, and moved into third with a score of 83.33.

Using a replacement for his second run he veered offline after landing a 1080 across a 65-foot gap and scored only 60.66, settling for bronze.

For Burton Snowboards, the timing could not have been worse, having recently signed White to a 10-year contract extension.

Said Wiig, the event’s repeat champion: “You always want a good board when you ride.”

Sal was right

Tonight’s snowboard superpipe final was billed by some as a showdown between Steve Fisher and White.

White was second to Fisher here last year, and Fisher was second to White in the season-opening U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix event last month at Breckenridge, Colo.

A rivalry developed.

But not everyone bought into it, among them Sal Masekela, longtime X Games commentator, who said in an interview before the Games began:

“No offense to Steve Fisher, but in my personal opinion he cannot hold Shaun’s bootstraps as an overall snowboarder.”

And so perished the rivalry Saturday night. Fisher failed to qualify for the final, and White, perhaps weary from his slopestyle ordeal, qualified second behind Ryo Aono.

Spinning like tops

How far has pipe riding progressed? At the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, Kelly Clark wowed the judges and her rivals by pulling off a 720-degree rotation.

On Friday night Gretchen Bleiler won with an array of 900s. Clark, sitting in second place before her third and final run, attempted a 1080 but sketched and wound up third.

It would have been the first 1080 in women’s competition and, she assures, it’ll be in her arsenal at the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

Expect to see 1260s from a few of the men tonight.

Text-book performance

Jamie Anderson, 17, attempting to defend her slopestyle championship, fell during her first run so the pressure was high for her second and final run.

What she did not need was a text message, a minute or so before her start, from a friend telling her to try a 540 at the end of her run. “I said don’t ever tell me what to do. I was really mad.”

So what did Anderson do? Plugged in her earphones, cranked up “Turbulence,” tuned out the world and nailed a more difficult cab 720 over the gap to cap a run that earned a winning score of 90.66.

In closing

Aspen real estate is pricey, so it stands to reason homeowners would stick it to the major corporations -- Target, Monster, Mountain Dew, etc. -- renting accommodations for athletes and executives.

Some are paying $30,000 a night for a weeklong stay. That’s a $210,000 tab -- price of ownership of a quality home in other parts of Colorado.

Results

* Men’s snowboard slopestyle: 1. Andreas Wiig, 92.00 points. 2. Kevin Pearce, 88.33. 3. Shaun White, 83.33.

* Men’s snowboarder X: 1. Nate Holland, 93.485 seconds. 2. Markus Schairer, 93.818. 3. David Speiser, 95.804.

* Women’s snowboard slopestyle: 1. Jamie Anderson, 90.66 points. 2. Claudia Fliri, 86.33. 3. Spencer O’Brien, 80.00.

* Women’s snowboarder X: 1. Lindsey Jacobellis, 102.001 seconds. 2. Tanja Frieden, 102.674. 3. Sandra Frei, Switzerland, 104.035.

* Men’s snowcross: 1. Tucker Hibbert. 2. Brett Turcotte. 3. D.J. Eckstrom.

* Men’s snowboard big air final: 1. Torstein Horgmo.

2. Kevin Pearce.

pete.thomas@latimes.com