O’Dine not counting her Olympic chickens before they hatch
Meryeta O’Dine knows there’s a spot waiting for her on the Canadian women’s snowboard cross team for the Winter Olympics in South Korea. She just has to stay healthy. After starting the season ranked ninth in the world standings, O’Dine has bumped her way into seventh place as the top Canadian female boardercrosser and with less than two months to go before the gate drops in Pyeongchang, South Korea, it’s looking more and more like the 20-year-old from Prince George will be joining the five-ring Olympic circus.
But just like the nature of her sport, where one slip on the slopes can spell disaster, O’Dine knows her position on the senior national team for what would be her first Olympic competition is always precarious.
“Right now where I’m sitting it’s looking good, and my riding has been strong, which is really awesome, so everything is going in the right direction,” said O’Dine, in Prince George this week to visit her family. “It does feel really sweet, but at the same time when you’re this close there’s a lot going on around it.
“There’s a lot of people really excited about it but there’s still a lot to happen still. I could hurt myself within the next few races or some of the girls could have really good results and I’ll be bumped out of the position. I’m just trying to hold my position now and not hurt myself.”
Canada has a maximum of four Olympic spots for female snowboard cross racers but that number could drop down to as low as two, depending on where Canada sits in the world team standings at the cutoff deadline.
O’Dine has developed a history of concussions and suffered a minor setback when she crashed in a training run in Finland at the end of November and hit her head.
“Thankfully I has an amazing recovery from it, it was seven days and I was back on snow,” she said.
“That was kind of a miracle. That was the very start of the Olympic qualifying block and you didn’t want to miss it.”
O’Dine is also nursing a pinched nerve in her shoulder which has adversely affected her starts. She first hurt her shoulder in February and it started bothering her again over the summer. She’s not able to pull herself out of the start gate with the force she usually has and that’s forcing her into catchup mode right from the start.
“There’s some damage to the front capsule that keeps getting irritated and it’s pretty easy for the nerve to get pinched and there’s a lot of weakness,” said O’Dine. “Right now it’s just managing the pain and keeping my shoulder in place for the rest of the season.
“It’s affected me quite a bit. It’s very clear I’m not having a strong pull and especially on my bad days I’m way behind people who I should be with, which is frustrating when you’re snowboarding at the same level. Your pull is one of the most important parts of the race.”
Injuries aside, O’Dine has had much to celebrate this season. It started in August when she won a South American Cup event in Chile and just missed the podium with a fourth-place World Cup result in September in Cerro Catedral, Argentina. Since then she’s finished no worse than 10th. She placed seventh in Val Thorens, France, eighth in Montafon, Austria and 10th in Cervenia, Italy.
She also combined with Canadian teammate Zoe Bergermann of Erin, Ont., to win the silver medal in the team event in Montafon, Dec. 17. Although that team result doesn’t count towards O’Dine’s individual world ranking it was one of the highlights of her season so far.
“It’s more of a fun thing that we’ve added, it’s not worth any points, and we’re not sure if it’s an Olympic sport yet,” said O’Dine. The team event is so much fun.”
In the team event, the second team member does not start down the course until their teammate crosses the finish line. O’Dine was first down the hill in Montafon but there was a delay before Bergermann was allowed to start. They still managed to finish second.
“Our gate actually malfunctioned and so we dropped a little ways behind,” she said. “But because we got second we didn’t protest it because we weren’t too upset with second. I was in second place (at the finish) and (Bergermann) dropped to fourth but managed to pull it together.”
O’Dine is hoping the team event will be part of the Olympic competition.
Three World Cup events are left on the women’s snowboard cross schedule in January in the lead-up to the Olympics, which will ultimately determine the Canadian team to be announced Jan. 21. The next stop is scheduled for Ezurum, Turkey, but O’Dine says there’s some doubt the site will have enough snow to host the women’s race, Jan. 19. The World Cup tour will also stop in Bamsko, Bulgaria, Jan. 28, and Feldberg, Germany, Feb. 2-3.