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Solitude • The unrelenting snow swirled on at the base of Solitude Mountain Resort on Saturday afternoon. As the flurries kept smacking her in the face, there on the third rung of the U.S. Grand Prix World Cup podium stood Lindsey Jacobellis, her bronze medal in tow. The 31-year-old snowboardcross star looked up to her right and saw Eva Samkova celebrating her gold medal.
Samkova won with her lucky charm, a drawn-on black mustache, penned above her top lip by her coaches. So as the Czech Republic winner hoisted her medal, Jacobellis figured she'd get in on the fun, too. It was, after all, a wild day of racing of the kind that the boardercross World Cup tour — held predominately in Europe — rarely sees.
Jacobellis reached back, pulled a piece of her curly blonde hair and placed it over her lip as photographers at the finish line snapped away. The Olympic silver medalist had reason to enjoy herself, too. A very late pass in Saturday's Grand Prix World Cup final thrust the American from the middle of the pack to a bronze — her 46th career World Cup podium. Sandwiched between Samkova and Jacobellis was Italy's Michela Moioli, who finished second.
"You just pull everything out of your bag," Jacobellis said. "You give it all you've got."
Along with facing off against familiar rivals, the conditions made for a memorable race for the athletes. Jacobellis said the storm that socked Utah provided the heaviest snow the World Cup circuit has seen in the last few years. But she said the Americans aren't bothered by the powder.
"We like it and we're trained and ready for it," said Jacobellis, who also earned a national title by finishing as the highest-placing American.
Americans Alex Deibold and Nate Holland raved about competing on such treacherous conditions. And it wasn't until the very last second of the men's final that the two friends and competitors decided who made it onto the podium and who didn't.
A photo-finish — reported four inches by the announcers — propelled Deibold, the 2014 Olympic bronze medalist, to third, leaving Holland, who'd won each of the first three heats Saturday, standing out in the blizzard.
"It's not often I beat Nate," Deibold said, "so when I do, I'm going to enjoy it."
The two collided at the finish line, but both shook off the crash and waited for the video replay to provide definitive evidence of who earned bronze. Deibold joked that he qualified for the Olympic final in Sochi by 12 inches in 2014. "Literally," he said, "by a finger."
Holland said he thought Deibold got him by a "finger nail."
"Whenever you're in the finals and you're not on the podium, I'm disappointed," said the boardercross legend. "It's competition. You have to know how to win, you have to know how to lose. It's important."
Austria's Alessandro Haemmerle won gold in the men's final, while Italy's Omar Visintin finished second with silver. Sunday is the final day of the U.S. Grand Prix World Cup stop in Big Cottonwood Canyon with the snowboardcross team finals scheduled to start at noon.
ckamrani@sltrib.com Twitter: @chriskamrani