(Montreal) Sandrine Hamel has only taken part in four races on the calendar for the 2023-2024 Para Snowboarding World Cup campaign. The reason ? A surgical operation undergone last fall for which convalescence required a long period of rest.
However, this did not prevent the athlete from obtaining good results at the last two stops of the season which took place on Canadian soil: a bronze medal and a fourth place in the inclined slaloms of Mount Sima, in the Yukon, preceded two fourth-place finishes in snowboard cross at Big White, British Columbia.
“I was happy and a little nervous, because it had been a long time since I had raced… for a year and a half in fact,” admitted the woman who is registered in the SB-LL2 category.
“The good thing was that I knew the trails at Big White and Mount Sima well, so I was more confident, especially at Mount Sima, because we often do training camps there. The others (competitors) were there for the first time. »
Sandrine Hamel underwent abdominal surgery at the end of October. What followed was a period of ten days bedridden in hospital due to minor complications. She would have preferred to go under the knife a few months earlier, but given that the operation was not of a sporting nature, she did not have control over the date of the operation.
“I was not allowed to move for several weeks and that is why I had no choice in staying at home,” maintains the woman who resumed training in January, both in the gym and on snow.
“To my surprise, it didn’t really take long before I was out of pain. […] Technically, I felt like I hadn’t lost that much, but it was more on the fitness side where there were small adjustments to be made and I was getting more tired than normal. ‘habit. »
The 26-year-old athlete admits that she was mostly bored of moving.
“When I woke up (after the operation) and I couldn’t move out of bed, I didn’t find it very funny. The first time I went outside after ten days, I enjoyed it! » launched the double Paralympian with a burst of laughter. “But not having had any pain helped my morale a lot. And when I was able to start moving again, I was able to do it fully. The transition therefore took place quickly and safely. »
The native of Saint-Sauveur now remains in Montreal in order to be closer to the facilities of the Institut national du sport du Québec for her off-season training. His visits to the INS will, however, have to be put aside for a few months, as the Olympic Park announced this week that the complex would be closed in order to clean and decontaminate the facilities following a fire at the base of the tower. of the Stadium at the end of March.
Another forced break for her, but one that can be managed relatively easily, unlike her sports colleagues who train in the same place and who are affected in their preparation for the Paris Games. The young woman also stressed that she had a good thought for them.
The kinesiology student at the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières is in the process of continuing her academic career at the University of Montreal and plans to return to the World Cup circuit full-time next season.