“I got landed on": Chaotic crash can't slow Canadian Olympic snowboarder
Canada’s Meryeta O’Dine knew it was coming.
And there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
Midway through her portion of the mixed team snowboard cross final — the medal-deciding run — O’Dine felt the presence of an Italian competitor right on her back.
Literally.
“OK, I’m about to get landed on in the final,” O’Dine thought, according to Olympic.ca.
Wearing the maple leaf on our hearts and an Italian on our backs 🍁 pic.twitter.com/mvvUdkuKos
— Team Canada (@TeamCanada) February 12, 2022
With all four racers pushing for gold, O’Dine chose a low trajectory coming off a jump. Italy’s Caterina Carpano went high.
The result was a crash, with both competitors eating snow.
“I got landed on,” O’Dine said. “It’s a part of this sport, it’s what you train for and why you wear so much armour, anything can really happen.”
In case you missed it 🚨
Canada raced to bronze in a chaotic snowboard cross mixed team final 🥉@meryetaodine battling back from a wild collision ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/8xJ3rbxH64
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 12, 2022
The Prince George, BC snowboarder quickly hopped back up, hopped up to climb over the next jump, and got right back to business, completing the run some 23 seconds after gold was won by Americans Nick Baumgartner and Lindsey Jacobellis and silver by Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli of Italy.
But O’Dine finished ahead of Carpano by 5.52 seconds to help earn bronze for herself, partner Éliot Grondin, and Canada.
“I dug my head into the snow and popped it up and realized that I was doing a little bit better than she was,” O’Dine said. “I got up and just said ‘get over this jump first and try to make it to the finish line before she does, because there’s one more medal up for grabs and I want it.’”
The win a second medal for each of them, and Canada’s fifth Olympic snowboard medal in Beijing.
Grodin (silver) and O’Dine (bronze) won medals in respective individual competitions earlier in the week for Canada. They join Max Parrot (slopestyle gold) and Mark McMorris (slopestyle bronze) as Canadian snowboarders to win an Olympic medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics so far.
"You don't want to let a fall stop you," – @meryetaodine
Meryeta O'Dine and Éliot Grondin discuss their bronze medal race and how O'Dine is doing after a scary moment ⬇️ 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/tQOFTqUWxv
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 12, 2022
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