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Solitude • The phone call came early last summer and the voice on the other line was not there to deliver any sort of good news. Once Lindsey Jacobellis answered, she was informed that snowboardcross, her sport, the one that allowed her rise to become a household name, was to again be dropped from the upcoming Winter X Games in 2017.

The Olympic silver medalist still shakes her head recalling that day.

"I've known for a very long time and I've felt I've kept slightly classy and nice composure about it," said the 31-year-old this weekend, "because I could've rang out really fast."

Snowboardcross, also known in the extreme winter sports world as boardercross or Snowboard X, was part of the original Winter X Games held 20 years ago in Big Bear Lake, Calif..

The six snowboarders slicing around tight turns, jockeying for position quickly became a sustained fan favorite of X Games, which proved to be the first avenue to the sport eventually reaching Olympic inclusion in 2006.

But its relationship with X Games has waned. X Games has flexed various popular events in and out of the picture in recent years, leaving not only snowboardcross, but also skicross out in the cold.

It was cut from the 2013 event before making a brief return until 2016. Now, once again, it's left out of the loop. For the American athletes, X Games was, for two decades, the guaranteed spot every winter to showcase the sport to a U.S. audience. Nate Holland once called the X Games the "Super Bowl" of boardercross. But this weekend's U.S. Grand Prix World Cup was the first World Cup stop in America since 2013.

"We don't have many events here anymore since we lost X Games," said Jacobellis, a 10-time X Games gold medalist, "so it means a lot to be down here to have a lot of people cheering for you when you get down to the bottom. It's nice. We don't get to experience that a lot."

Solitude will play host to the 2019 FIS World Championships for snowboardcross and skicross, which has athletes eager to return, but also left with the lingering frustration that it'll likely be another two years before a race of that magnitude comes on home soil.

"I would love to have more races," Jacobellis said. "As I said, it was very disappointing that boardercross is not in X Games, because it's our best exposure for the sport, for each individual to create a brand to build their careers around it and it's a big, big hit for us."

Alex Deibold, a bronze medalist from the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, started competing at X Games in 2005, long before his career reached such international heights nearly a decade later.

"It's a bummer that we don't get to race at X Games," he said after winning a World Cup bronze, "but to be able to excel here at a home event, I had so many friends and family that made the trip to come up, which I appreciate more than anything."

In nearly a year's time, the most-talented American riders will load into the start gate at the top of the boardercross course in Pyeongchang, South Korea, to see who will be the fastest on that day. Olympic gold, silver and bronze will be on the line. Whether the event that helped the sport reach its pinnacle will bring it back into the fold in the future, remains to be seen.

"You know I think in a few years, I'm sure it will come back," Jacobellis said. "It's always a favorite. Everyone loves watching it, because they can understand it. It's not a judged event and it's very simple [and] it's action-packed. It's a great crowd-pleaser and I hope it comes back."

Twitter: @chriskamrani —

U.S. Grand Prix World Cup

Solitude Mountain Resort

Snowboardcross team finals

• Women's team final

1. Jacobellis/Mancari, USA

2. Loccoz/Trespeuch, FRA

3. Brutto/Moiolo, ITA

• Men's team final

1. Matteotti/Perathoner, ITA

2. Lueftner/Pachner, AUS

3. Deibold/Holland, USA