A veteran of two Olympics already, Canadian snowboard cross racer Eliot Grondin has an actual really feel for his sport.
With 4 opponents hurtling down an icy course at speeds that may exceed 80 km/h, something can occur and infrequently does. Preparation is all-important.
“There are a number of issues you possibly can’t management. So that you’ve simply acquired to develop into good at controlling what you possibly can,” Grondin stated merely.
Like a System One racer, line is all-important in snowboard cross. And Grondin normally is aware of the place he’s going.
“I may most likely go (down the course) nearly with my eyes closed,” he stated matter-of-factly. “Fairly shut.”
And it doesn’t take the 24-year-old from Saint-Marie, Que., lengthy to know the way the run is unfolding.
“ immediately. I can really feel the distinction between two-tenths slower or not,” he stated.
Whereas glorious out of the beginning gate, Grondin says he doesn’t spend a lot time engaged on the beginning.
“I may, however I really feel like there’s different areas the place I may be gaining extra floor. So I’m a bit extra centered on these areas,” defined Grondin, including that the beginning simply comes naturally for him.
Maelle Ricker, who received gold in snowboard cross on the Vancouver Olympics and is now co-head coach of the Canadian snowboard cross crew, says Grondin has all of the attributes to reach the game.
“He’s a machine, like a beast bodily,” she stated. “He has actually good contact on the snow, after which he’s a competitor. When he’s within the (beginning) gate, there’s just one factor on his thoughts, and he’s acquired good instincts to have the ability to react and make selections on the course.”
Grondin’s purpose on the Milan Cortina Video games is straightforward — full his medal assortment.
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4 years in the past in Beijing, Grondin received silver in snowboard cross in a photograph end behind Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle. At 20 years 297 days, Grondin was the youngest-ever Olympic medallist in males’s snowboard cross.
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He then teamed up with Meryeta O’Dine to take bronze within the first Olympic combined crew snowboard cross occasion.
Grondin was simply 16 when he made his Olympic debut in 2018, ending thirty sixth. He was the youngest man and second-youngest Canadian athlete at Pyeongchang.
He has risen to the highest since then. The reigning world champion in snowboard cross, Grondin has received back-to-back Crystal Globes and reached the World Cup podium 16 instances all through 2024-25.
World Cup competitors has been sparse forward of the Olympics, nonetheless.
Grondin positioned seventh at a World Cup cease in Cervinia, Italy, on Dec. 13 and completed tenth a day later with Audrey McManiman within the combined crew occasion.
He was not a fan of the monitor in Italy, saying there wasn’t a lot to work with and noting a number of the highest riders didn’t do nicely there. Haemmerle, for one, completed seventeenth whereas France’s Mortgage Bozzolo and Austria’s Jakob Ducek, who completed second and third behind Grondin within the 2025 World Cup standings, positioned 18th and twentieth, respectively.
“So for certain I might have needed to do higher,” stated Grondin. “However ultimately, I used to be nonetheless fairly joyful as a result of I had an excellent week. I used to be constant time-wise all week, I had some good velocity. We discovered some stuff with the tools as nicely, so there’s positives with that. Seventh place isn’t the place I needed to be, but when I can take one thing from it, then at the very least we’ve carried out one thing proper.”
After Italy, Grondin educated in Australia and Japan earlier than heading to a World Cup occasion in Dongbeiya, China, the place he recorded second- and fifth-place finishes Jan. 17 and 18.
Whereas he enjoys the journey, he acknowledges struggling to remain inside the airline’s weight restrict with regards to baggage.
He doesn’t journey gentle, saying he has some 20 boards with him in Europe — a load eased by the truth that the tools can transfer through truck or automobile. In flying to China, he selected eight snowboards to convey with him after finding out the climate that lay forward.
“They’re all constructed the identical — similar stiffness, similar size, similar the whole lot,” he stated. “The distinction is the bottom materials and the grind on the bottom. So these will probably be made to (deal with) all of the completely different temperatures and snow circumstances we’ll get. In order that’s how we select for every race, what board’s greatest.
“So that you all the time have two, three, 4 snowboards which might be actually good in all circumstances. Clearly, you all the time have a favorite board since you are inclined to race all the time one board greater than all of the others.”
The crew has a financial institution of information on which board works greatest the place, and on what. Mix that with crew technicians, whom Grondin calls “magicians,” and the opponents “can actually dial within the setup from there.”
The course in Livigno will probably be a brand new problem, on condition that nobody has raced there earlier than.
“It’s cool,” stated Grondin. “For me, I like new venues. I really feel I can adapt fairly rapidly to new races. Everyone form of has a little bit of an concept of what it’s going to appear to be. However, for certain, it’s fairly thrilling to have the ability to put your toes down on the monitor and principally see who can be taught the monitor the quickest.”
Like most athletes who competed in Beijing, he’s trying ahead to having household and pals available to cheer him on at these video games.
No matter occurs, he’s having fun with the trip.
“It’s cool. I really like doing it,” he stated of his sport. “Having the chance to have the ability to dwell what I really like, journey the world and prepare. There’s worse, for certain. I’m fairly lucky to take pleasure in what I do.”
Canada Snowboard Cross Staff
Evan Bichon, Mackenzie, B.C.; Tess Critchlow, Kelowna, B.C.; Eliot Grondin, Sainte-Marie, Que.; Audrey McManiman, Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare, Que.; Liam Moffatt, Truro, N.S.; Meryeta O’Dine, Prince George, B.C.
Alternate: James Savard-Ferguson, Baie-St-Paul, Que.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Feb. 11, 2026
