Lindsey Jacobellis had the finish line in sight, again. Long the most dominant athlete in the racing sport of snowboard cross, she had been this way many times at the Olympics.

She had never gotten there first, though, not even back in 2006,when she had the lead to herself yards from the line and lost the gold in  one of the best known olympics blunders in history.

On Wednesday, on her fifth Olympic try, at the age of 36, she would not let gold slip away again. Jacobellis finally captured her storybook ending while delivering the United States its first gold medal at the Beijing Games.

Hers is a tale of a gold medal, lost and then found, 16 years later.Jacobellis led the four-woman final from the start, her blonde hair spilling out of her helmet as the riders spent 90 seconds navigating the winding course of banked corners, washing-board rollers and big jumps.