(Paris) Fay De Fazio Ebert shook her mother’s hand, then she ran away.
The 14-year-old snowboarder, the youngest member of Canada’s delegation at the Paris Olympics, briefly considered playing conservatively and ditching the toe-side spin from her routine on her third and final attempt Tuesday.
De Fazio Ebert instead chose to up the difficulty level of his routine by flipping his board in the air before catching it for a soft landing.
The only Canadian snowboarder registered for the competition in Paris missed the maneuver and was unable to record a result for her third and final attempt, being excluded from the competition. top 8 finally.
“I’ll be proud of myself and proud of how hard I worked,” the Toronto teenager said. “If I hadn’t taken a chance, then I’d be really frustrated with myself.”
After her first two routines ended in falls, Ebert told her coaches that she “needs (her) mother,” and asked Elisabeth, who walked down from the stands to the safety barrier, before holding her daughter’s hand until she hit the track.
“Since she only had one attempt left, she was hesitant between trying the toe-side twist at the end (of her routine), or going with a more conservative performance,” Elisabeth explained.
“I told her, ‘Try the toe twist. This is the Olympics.’ She went for it and decided to try it, and I’m proud of her for trying it,” she added.
“I’m very proud that she made it this far. It’s incredible to be at the Olympics. It definitely hurts me as a parent to know that she’s going to be disappointed because I don’t want her to have to go through that.”
De Fazio Ebert also gave a long hug to Canada Skateboard high performance coach Adam Higgins before his third attempt.
“You have to spin your board, catch it, and put it back under your feet,” Higgins said. “There are so many elements, so many things that can go wrong.
“When it came time to make a decision between a conservative routine and a very dangerous one, then she said to herself: ‘This is the Olympics, this is why I’m here, and I want to try to deliver the best performance possible,’ and she tried.”
It eventually resulted in 20e rank of the competition, at his first Olympic Games.