No less than seven Quebecers have been selected by Snowboard Canada as part of the team of 19 snowboarders who will represent the country at the Beijing Winter Olympics in the four disciplines on the program.
Thus, Laurie Blouin, Maxence Parrot and Sébastien Toutant will be there in slopestyle and big jump; Arnaud Gaudet will be parallel giant slalom; Eliot Grondin and Audrey McManiman will participate in snowboard cross; while Elizabeth Hosking will be at the halfpipe. Quebec halfpipe coach Brian Smith is also part of the delegation.
As with most Winter Games disciplines, COVID-19 has presented its own set of challenges to the qualifying series on the World Cup circuit and at other major venues. Some disciplines had to extend their qualifying period due to a large number of event cancellations, while other disciplines kept the original period.
Parrot had already qualified for the slopestyle/high jump team based on his results during the 2020-2021 winter season. The rest of the men’s team, including Mark McMorris, who will be in his third Olympics, vied for the last three spots at stake.
McMorris will attempt to become Canada’s first three-time Olympic medalist in snowboarding, having finished third on the slopestyle podium in Sochi and Pyeongchang. Toutant will want to defend his Olympic title with a big leap.
In addition to his individual race, Grondin will have the chance to run for a second medal in the mixed team event.
Canada has won 11 Olympic medals in snowboarding (four gold, four silver and three bronze), including Blouin’s and Parrot’s silver medals in slopestyle in South Korea.
The snowboarding events will be contested from February 5 to 15 at Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou and Shougang Skydiving Site in Beijing.