Meryeta O’Dine overcomes personal tragedy on quest to Olympic podium
Meryeta O’Dine’s run of 1:23.01 in women’s snowboard cross has netted her a bronze medal at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
Truth be told, a lot more work went into it than just an 83-second run.
It’s been a couple tough years in the making.
“It feels pretty good to place third at these Olympics,” the 24-year-old Prince George, BC, product told CBC’s Andi Petrillo. “I feel like an entirely new athlete.
“It feels great.”
“He supported me so much… It really takes people like that in your life to make you realize how hard you do work”
Bronze medallist @meryetaodine sat down with @AndiPetrillo to talk about her podium performance, overcoming injuries and her late brother pic.twitter.com/IdwVuczVl0
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 9, 2022
O’Dine, who is the first Canadian to earn an Olympic medal in snowboard cross since Dominique Maltais won silver at Sochi 2014, didn’t get the chance to compete at PyeongChang 2018 when she suffered a concussion during training just two days before her event. That concussion followed a pair, including one training while in South America in September 2016 and in her debut at the senior FIS World Championships in March 2017 in a time trial run.
Oh. She broke her back in 2019, too.
“I was actually fairly lucky with the break that I got,” O’Dine told Petrillo. “It was a small fracture in my T3. Still definitely enough to take me out of competition, but we didn’t actually know that it was there because it didn’t show up on the x-ray. I was going into World finals and I got on snow and I basically experienced one of the worst pains I’ve ever felt.
“I think they pointed out two places, but one definitely for sure. I got sent home after that. Once we found out it was truly broken, we took the proper six weeks off, not doing anything with it, no running, no jumping, just gentle walks. Basically treating it like a regular broken back, even though you were going full force for 10 days before you found out.”
BRONZE 🚨 🇨🇦
WHAT A DAY for Meryeta O'Dine 🥉 The Canadian races to a bronze medal at #Beijing2022 🏂 pic.twitter.com/PuhDPANcp3
— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 9, 2022
Pain on the hill.
Pain off it, too.
O’Dine’s brother Brandon lost his battle with cancer in March 2020 and the Canadian snowboarder struggled with anxiety and depression, saying she needed to relearn how to be an Olympic-level athlete.
She took a one-year hiatus from the sport before returning to the World Cup circuit in January 2021.
Thirteen months later, she’s landed on the podium at the Olympics with a bronze medal around her neck.
“Throughout everything that we’ve been through, he supported me so much and was always just so proud of me for chasing my dreams and working so hard. It really takes people like that in your life to really realize how hard you do work and what you do sacrifice for the love of sport.”