Canada has secured a spot on the inaugural Olympic podium for Mixed Team Snowboard Cross as Eliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine have won the bronze medal.
ANOTHER OLYMPIC MEDAL FOR CANADA!
Éliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine take home bronze in the Mixed Team Snowboard Cross. pic.twitter.com/zXVGkGFYdF— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) February 12, 2022
It is the second medal for both Grondin and O’Dine at the Beijing Winter Olympics. Grondin, of St-Romuald, Que., won the silver in men’s snowboard cross while O’Dine, of Prince George, B.C., earned bronze in the women’s snowboard cross.
It is Canada’s 13th medal in Beijing and eighth bronze.
This is the first time the mixed event has been contested at an Olympic Games. It features a two-person relay race consisting of one male and one female competitor per team. Each race begins with four boarders from different teams leaving the gates simultaneously. As the first boarder traverses the course, the teammates prepare themselves at the top of the hill.
The male teammates go first and once their official times are logged the female competitors will be released from the starting gate at corresponding staggered times. The first team to have both competitors cross the finish line, barring contact infractions and/or disqualifications, is the winner.
The mixed team snowboard cross final had a little chaos
Éliot Grondin and Meryeta O’Dine raced to a bronze medal but it required a review after a collision took down O’Dine and Caterina Carpano pic.twitter.com/7pr80jgOS4— CBC Olympics (@CBCOlympics) February 12, 2022
Americans Nick Baumgartner and Lindsey Jacobellis won the gold and Italy’s Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli claimed silver. Italy’s second team of Lorenzo Sommariva and Caterina Carpano finished fourth.
There was some drama in the final as O’Dine and Carpano collided mid-way through the second leg, giving Jacobellis and Moioli a wide gap to race for the gold. Both O’Dine and Carpano were able to finish the race with the Canadian coming in ahead to claim the bronze.
Liam Moffatt of Truro, N.S. and of Prince George, B.C. — Team Canada 2 — finished third in their quarterfinal race and did not advance.
