Meet Olympian Meryeta O’Dine

O’Dine earned her first career World Cup podium in February 2017 when she finished third in the snowboard cross race in Feldberg, Germany. It was her career best result since debuting on the circuit in March 2015 and the first time she had advanced to a four-woman Big Final.

She had previously raced in the six-woman Big Final at the PyeongChang 2018 test event of the Phoenix Snow Park, finishing as the top Canadian in sixth place. In 2015-16 O’Dine won the overall snowboard cross title on the Nor-Am Cup circuit, posting three victories in nine events, and finished fourth at the world junior championships.

O’Dine’s breakthrough in 2016-17 was not without adversity. In September she suffered a concussion while training in South America. In December she endured a bruised heel and nearly ruptured a ligament before the first World Cup. While making her world championship debut in March she suffered the fourth and most severe concussion of her career during her time trial run. She has since been focusing on her mental health to give her the best longterm results.

O’Dine enjoyed one of the greatest moments of her career when she won snowboard cross gold at the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George. Having turned 18 just days earlier, she had to deal with the pressure of representing her hometown on her home mountain after two years of buildup. Her family had put in a lot of labour to prepare the course at Tabor Mountain, which was a great learning experience as she still uses the course to train and develop.

A little more about Meryeta…

Getting into the Sport: Started snowboard lessons at age 12 but really disliked it; took a full season of twice-a-week lessons to learn to love it.

In that first year she only snowboarded at night because she was so embarrassed she didn’t want to be at the hill when it was busy. Slowly introduced to racing in heats, her father suggested competing in the U14 category at national championships; snowboard cross was familiar to her from a background in BMX racing.

At 15 won the overall title on the B.C. provincial tour.

Outside Interests: Enjoys drawing in her downtime during the competitive season to calm her and distract from her hectic life. In the off-season enjoys playing beach volleyball, fishing, hunting and sitting around the campfire with friends. In the spring works as a mechanic and during the summer and fall is a crew chief for a landscaping company.

Odds and Ends: Favourite quote: “Appreciate what you have before time makes you appreciate what you had.”

Has a pair of lucky socks. When she first started to travel she collected snow globes from every country she visited; keeps up the habit so that when she’s older she can lay them all out at Christmas.