Olympic snowboard champion Lindsey Jacobellis will enjoy her sixth Winter Games from the TV booth.
Jacobellis, who recently had a daughter, Ayla, has decided to skip a run for yet another Olympics and instead serve as an analyst for snowboardcross on NBC's announcing team in Italy.
The 40-year-old, whose 31 World Cup titles, six world championships and two Olympic gold medals make her the best ever in her discipline, said the decision to take a year off was difficult.
“I sat down with my agent, my husband, we weighted the pros and cons,” Jacobellis said. “I am a competitor and I do like to compete but competition could potentially always be there. And these early years with my daughter, those are limited. I had to make a decision. Those decisions are hard. Being an adult is hard.”
Also announced Wednesday as part of NBC's action-sports coverage were Todd Harris (play-by-play), Todd Richards (snowboard), Tom Wallisch (freeskiing) and Tina Dixon (reporting, interviews).
Jacobellis, who has done some TV work for both surfing and snowboarding, will be providing analysis for a sport that she has dominated for the better part of two decades.
Her Olympic debut came in Italy in 2006 — the infamous “Lindsey Leap,” when she celebrated with a flashy jump and grab of her snowboard as she coasted down the homestretch with a big lead, but fell and finished second.
At the last Olympics, she finally got her gold medal, then earned another win, pairing with Nick Baumgartner in the mixed-team event.
“Don't count the old girl out,” Jacobellis said after that victory, when asked for the moral of the story.
She said she is not calling her move to the booth a retirement and doesn't buy into the idea that an athlete's career arc is defined by four-year periods marked by the Olympics.
“Life doesn't work that way,” she said. “You adapt and bend to life. It's calling an audible every day. I'm enjoying learning this new time in my life. I want to enjoy that time. I've given over 20 years to this sport, solely focusing on my career and racing. I want to give at least this first six months to a year to, totally, Ayla.”
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
FILE - Lindsey Jacobellis, of the United States, jumps during the women's snowboard cross qualifying run at Phoenix Snow Park at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, Feb. 16, 2018. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)
FILE - Lindsey Jacobellis acknowledges the crowd during a medal ceremony for the women's snowboard cross finals competition at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 9, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Frank Augstein, File)
FILE - United States' Lindsey Jacobellis celebrates after winning a gold medal in the women's cross at the 2022 Winter Olympics, Feb. 9, 2022, in Zhangjiakou, China. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith told lawmakers in a closed-door interview on Wednesday that his team of investigators “developed proof beyond a reasonable doubt” that President Donald Trump had criminally conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election, according to portions of his opening statement obtained by The Associated Press.
He also said investigators had accrued “powerful evidence” that Trump broke the law by hoarding classified documents from his first term as president at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and by obstructing government efforts to recover the records.
“I made my decisions in the investigation without regard to President Trump’s political association, activities, beliefs, or candidacy in the 2024 election,” Smith said. “We took actions based on what the facts and the law required — the very lesson I learned early in my career as a prosecutor.”
He said that if asked whether he would “prosecute a former president based on the same facts today, I would do so regardless of whether the president was a Republican or Democrat.”
The private deposition before the House Judiciary Committee gives Smith his first chance to face questions, albeit behind closed doors, about a pair of investigations into Trump that resulted in since-abandoned criminal charges between the Republican president’s first and second terms in office. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide both testimony and documents as part of a Republican investigation into the Trump probes during the Biden administration.
The former special counsel cooperated with the congressional demand despite having volunteered more than a month earlier to answer questions publicly before the committee, an overture his lawyers say was rebuffed by Republicans.
“Testifying before this committee, Jack is showing tremendous courage in light of the remarkable and unprecedented retribution campaign against him by this administration and this White House,” one of Smith’s lawyers, Lanny Breuer, told reporters Wednesday. “Let’s be clear: Jack Smith is a career prosecutor, who conducted this investigation based on the facts and based on the law and nothing more.”
Trump told reporters at the White House that he supported the idea of an open hearing, saying: “I’d rather see him testify publicly. There’s no way he can answer the questions.”
Smith is expected to discuss both of his investigations of Trump but will not answer questions that call for grand jury materials, which are restricted by law, according to a person familiar with the investigation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the interview. He is also expected to correct what he regards as mischaracterizations from Republicans about his work, including about his team’s use of cellphone records belonging to certain GOP lawmakers, the person said.
Smith was appointed in 2022 to oversee the Justice Department investigations into Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 presidential election loss to Democrat Joe Biden and his hoarding of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. Smith’s team filed charges in both investigations.
Smith abandoned the cases after Trump was elected to the White House again last year, citing Justice Department legal opinions that say a sitting president cannot be indicted.
Republicans who control Congress have sought interviews with at least some individual members of Smith’s team.
In recent weeks they have seized on revelations that the team, as part of its investigation, had analyzed the phone records of select GOP lawmakers from on and around Jan. 6, 2021, when pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol to try to halt the certification of Trump’s election loss to Biden. The phone records reviewed by prosecutors included details only about the incoming and outgoing phone numbers and the length of the call but not the contents of the conversation.
Follow the AP’s coverage of former special counsel Jack Smith at https://apnews.com/hub/jack-smith.
Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives under subpoena for a House Judiciary Committee deposition as part of its oversight into DOJ investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith, center, and his attorney Lanny Breuer arrive for a closed-door interview with House Republicans at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives for a closed-door interview with House Republicans at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith, left, and his attorney Lanny Breuer arrive for a closed-door interview with House Republicans at Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Department of Justice Special Counsel Jack Smith arrives under subpoena for a House Judiciary Committee deposition as part of its oversight into DOJ investigations into President Donald Trump, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
FILE - Special counsel Jack Smith speaks about an indictment of President Donald Trump, Aug. 1, 2023, at a Department of Justice office in Washington. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)
