VAL THORENS, France (Dec. 13, 2017) – Five-time snowboardcross World Champion Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton, Vt.) rode to her second victory of the 2017-18 season in Val Thorens, putting her in good form to make the Olympic team for PyeongChang 2018. Faye Gulini (Salt Lake City, Utah) finished just off the podium in fourth. 

After battling difficult weather conditions during qualifications, the women had good conditions for Wednesday's finals. Jacobellis was ranked first coming into the final race and maintained a solid lead to claim victory over France's Chloe Trespeuch in second and Italy's Michela Moioli in third. Gulini was in podium contention until she caught an edge near the end of the course.

“I'm really happy that the course was working well today,” said Jacobellis. "Normally everyone loves snow being a winter sport athlete but actually it was very challenging here as it makes the course so slow. The past days it was hard for the women as we couldn't clear the landings but today was good.”

“I was just trying to get in where I could, and I knew some of the style of the ladies, so I tried to anticipate that and try to set up for the hard turns like turn five. I wanted to get at least enough space between me and them, and it all went down.”

On the men's side, Mick Dierdorff (Steamboat Springs, Colo.) and Nick Baumgartner (Iron River, Mich.) were the lone U.S. athletes to advance to quarterfinals, finishing ninth and 14th respectively. Germany's Paul Berg took the win, followed by Australia's Adam Lambert in second and Spain's Lucas Eguibar in third. 

The FIS Snowboard snowboardcross World Cup continues this week with individual and team events in Montafon, Austria Dec. 16-17.

RESULTS
Women's Snowboardcross
Men's Snowboarcross