Bruised but not broken
Editor’s note: this is an edited version of a story that first appeared in a 2018 edition of the Prince George Citizen.
The cobwebs of her fifth concussion have diminished, but the reminders still linger inside the head of snowboard cross racer Meryeta O’Dine.
Still recovering from a face-first wipeout one hour into the second day of training for her first Olympic Games at Phoenix Snow Park in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a fall she cannot remember, O’Dine is determined her first trip to the Olympics will not be her last.
“For sure it was disappointing, but it was still real cool to be there and cheer on my friends,” said the 21-year-old Prince George native. “It was definitely a really good experience - it was my first Olympics and I’m still young and hopefully I won’t get too many more concussions in the next few years. I’m just going to take it season by season and look out for my noggin.”
Her latest concussion sidelined O’Dine for the remaining four World Cup events, which dropped her from sixth to 11th in the world standings. Leading up to the Olympics, she had seven top-10 individual finishes and made the team event podium twice, winning silver in Montafon, Austria and bronze in Ezerum, Turkey.
O’Dine and Zoe Bergermann of Erin, Ont., combined to finish third overall in the women’s team season standings.
O’Dine was sent home right after the competition and was back in Vancouver watching the closing ceremony on TV.
“As much as I’m upset I didn’t get to compete, the Olympics was not only the highlight of my season but the highlight of my life,” she said. “I proved to myself and a lot of people that I could go and be there and race among the best. Obviously it didn’t end up as well as we’d hoped but it was amazing to be there.”
Injuries come with the territory in snowboard cross and O’Dine has had more than her share.
In 2016-17, in addition to her two concussions, she had a ruptured foot ligament and hurt both shoulders, which limited her quickness out of the start gate this past season.
The concussion sustained in training for the world championships in Spain in March 2017 forced her into recovery mode last spring. Sidelined for 67 days, she missed two months of on-snow glacier training in the summer but still managed to finish fourth in the first World Cup event of the season in Cerro Catedral, Argentina.
“Every season throughout, the ends of the seasons have been recovery for me,” she said. “I just roll with the punches.”