montrealgazette.com
Summarize this content to 100 words:
Éliot Grondin
Age:
24
Event:
Snowboard cross
Hometown:
Sainte-Marie
Éliot Grondin was only 16 when he competed in his first Olympics, the youngest male athlete on Team Canada to travel to Pyeongchang in 2018. It was his early start as a boy among men, fighting for terrain on a battlefield of snow, that paved his route to world champion status.
This time around, Grondin is an Olympic veteran at 24, competing for medals for the third time in the chaotic world of snowboard cross. In Beijing in 2022, he won silver in the event, in which four riders race down an inclined course that includes jumps, jostling, banked turns and frequent collisions. He missed out on gold by just .02 seconds.
In the same Olympics, he teamed with Meryeta O’Dine of Victoria to win bronze in the first Olympic mixed team snowboard cross event. O’Dine earned respect, and her medal, by getting up and finishing the race despite the fact her Italian competitor landed on her back while coming over a jump during the final, wiping them both out.
In Milano Cortina this month, Grondin’s gunning for gold to round out his Olympic medal collection.
Grondin got an early start, strapping on a snowboard at age 4 and entering his first competition at 8 (which he won). His ascent in the world of descent was steep and quick — in 2021, he became Canada’s first world junior champion in men’s snowboard cross.
“Éliot kind of has the ultimate recipe; physically, he’s a machine,” his coach, Maëlle Ricker, told the CBC in December. “He’s got the genetics that are really good for being dominant in snowboard cross … it makes him just a little bit of a beast. He’s somebody that loves to compete; he thrives under pressure.”
He took the Crystal Globe,
awarded to the top-ranked athlete in men’s FIS World Cup snowboard cross standings, in 2024, and again in 2025. In March 2025, he won his first senior world championship title at the FIS Snowboard World Championships in Switzerland.
Though it appears to be a sport of brute strength, speed and luck, Grondin told Radio-Canada winning actually involves significant strategizing, planning and technique. He travels the World Cup circuit with a dozen snowboards, choosing the one that will best match the track configuration and snow conditions. In the week before each event, he will spend days learning the course and plotting his line “to the centimetre” to determine the fastest track to win the race.
He has one of the quickest starts in the world, an advantage he picked up after years of being the youngest competitor. As the smallest among larger men, Grondin knew he had to get out front fast if he was to have a chance at winning. He has honed his starting technique through hundreds of competitions. That and a fierce dedication to daily training led him to win seven of the 13 World Cup races he competed in during the 2023-2024 season.
It helps as well that his girlfriend, Australian Josie Baff, is also a snowboard cross racer who travels with him on the World Cup circuit and will be competing in Milano Cortina.
Grondin will be joined on Canada’s 13-member snowboard cross, halfpipe and parallel giant slalom teams by Quebecers Audrey McManiman, competing in snowboard cross, Elizabeth Hosking of Longueuil in halfpipe and Arnaud Gaudet and Aurélie Moisan, both competing in parallel giant slalom.
Quebecers also make up half of Team Canada’s snowboard slopestyle and big air team. Laurie Blouin, 29, of Quebec City, who won a silver in slopestyle in 2018, is making her third Olympic appearance. Eli Bouchard, 18, and Francis Jobin, 27, are making their Olympic debuts.
In 2022, Team Canada’s snowboarders won six medals — the biggest Olympic medal haul for Canadian snowboarders.
Grondin will be boarding for Olympic gold
to complete his trophy case on Feb. 12 and on Feb. 15 in the mixed team event.
rbruemmer@postmedia.com
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