For those of you who don’t know about Lindsey Jacobellis, she is an Olympic snowboarder.  During the final round of the snowboard cross event in the 2006 Winter Olympics, Jacobellis had a three-second, 140-foot lead over the second-place snowboarder, Tanja Frieden of Switzerland. She was coming to the end of the course, sure to win the gold medal due to the insurmountable gap she opened up during the race.

On the penultimate jump, however, she attempted a method grab, which is an aerial trick where the snowboarder torques the board and then grabs it in mid-air. There was absolutely no need for her to do this; she was just showing off. Well, needless to say, she landed on the edge of her board and fell.

She was able to recover but not before Frieden zoomed by her and took the gold. She recovered to win the silver, but that was of little consolation.

In this year’s Olympics, she was the gold-medal favorite in the same event. Redemption was the name of the game. She took the lead right out of the gate in the semi-final round. But, she caught too much of air on the third big jump, and landed too close to Canadian Maelle Ricker, her biggest competition for the gold. She stumbled heading into the sharp left-hander, losing her balance and crashing through the inside gate, resulting in an immediate disqualification.

Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports wants to add Jacobellis to the dictionary. The definition of Jacobellis is:

1. To cost oneself athletic glory and sentence oneself to a lifetime of smarmy people using surname as a verb, esp. through youthfully hubristic hot-dogging. 2. To spin out and end an Olympic Games in disappointment.

I decided, out of sheer boredom, which admittingly is the reason I do a lot of the things I do for this blog, to take a look at some examples of Jacobellising.

Some would classify Jacobellising as an epic sports fail. I think that’s a little too broad. In order for me to classify something as Jacobellising, I think it needs to meet certain criteria. First, the athlete must showboat.

In a Thanksgiving  Day game in 1993, Dallas led Miami with 15 seconds remaining. Miami attempted a 41-yard field goal, but missed. Leon Lett attempted to cover the ball, but due to snow and sleet, was unable to. Had he let the ball sit, the Cowboys would have received the ball back automatically. But, by touching it, the ball became live, allowing Miami to recover it.They then kicked another field goal to win the game. This, however, doesn’t count as Jacobellising because Lett was not showboating. 

Leon Lett’s showboating in Superbowl XXVII did cost him a touchdown, but did not cost the Cowboys the victory, so that play is disqualified as well.

Kenny Perry’s collaspe at the 2009 Master’s Tournament, giving up a two-shot lead over the final two holes, does not count as Jacobellising because he lost as the result of mistakes, not showboating. Nor does Bill Buckner’s infamous 1986 World Series error because it was a mistake, not showboating.

Second, the showboating must cost the athlete the win. For this reason, Dre Bly’s interception, then fumble doesn’t make this list because his team was down 25 points at the time, and the play did not affect the outcome of the game. DeSean Jackson’s fumble before crossing the goal line against Dallas is also disqualified because of this.

In 2003, Bjorn Wirdheim, a Swedish Formula 3000 Series driver, was on his way to an easy win at Monaco, with an insurmountable lead going into the final corner. But, before taking the checkered flag, he slowed to wave to his pit crew, allowing Nicolas Kiesa, who was running at full speed, to pass him and take the win.

Jean Van de Velde, a French golfer, was on his way to winning The Open Championship in 1999. All he needed was a double-bogey six on the 18th hole to become the first Frenchman to win it since 1907.

He had a three-shot lead, but still chose to use his driver off the tee. He drove the ball to the right of the burn. He then went for the green on his second shot, instead of his third, which would have been safer/smarter. The shot hit the grandstands and rolled into the rough.

On the downswingof his third shot, he tangled his club in the rough, and the shot sailed into the burn. He took a drop and proceeded to hit the ball into the greenside bunker. His sixth shot, which was from the bunker, landed six feet from the hole. He made the putt on his seventh shot for a triple-bogey seven, dropping him into a three-way tie with Justin Leonard and Paul Lawrie. He eventually lost in the playoff.

Bill Shoemaker was a jockey who rode in the 1957 Kentucky Derby. He was out front, riding Gallant Man on his way to victory when stood up in his stirrups to celebrate the victory, having misjudged the finish line. Bill Hartack riding Iron Liege passed Shoemaker to win the race.

Here is an unidentified cyclist Jacobellising. I’m not sure which race this was, but it is rumored to be the Paris Roubaix. Some put the date at 2005, but the quality of the video and my research indicates that is not accurate.

Anyway, the leader is a few feet from the finish line and he decided to put his hands up in celebration. He ends up falling and either knocking off his chain or breaking it. When he jumps back on the bike, he pedals, but the bike goes nowhere. He is forced to watch another rider win while he runs his bike across the finish line.

Several motorcycle racers celebrate too early and end up costing themselves a win: Julian Simon and Shaun Emmet are two examples.

These are just a few of the examples of Jacobellising; I’m sure there are many more. But few have come on a stage as big as the Olympics. Still, if another athlete commits a more egregious showboating mistake than Jacobellis’s, that person’s surname should replace her’s in the dictionary.