Audrey McManiman became the first slopestyle gold medalist in Youth Olympic Games (YOG) history in 2012.
Posted at 1:00 p.m.
Updated at 2:08 p.m.
After changing disciplines in 2016, she is finally preparing to live her Olympic dream, at the age of 27, in snowboard cross. If there’s one athlete who will get the most out of her experience, it’s her.
“It’s the biggest dream of my life, it’s exceptional! It’s really a win for me,” she said from her hotel room in Austria.
Since the start of her career, McManiman has been forced to adapt. Although she is quite calm and positive by nature, the snowboarder has had to overcome a series of hardships, but that’s what makes her proud.
At 16, she distinguished herself at the Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck, Austria. In 2014, two years later, she thought she could go to the Olympics in Sochi, but she just missed out on qualifying. The Canadian team sent a delegation of four snowboarders and McManiman was fifth according to the national ranking. In the 2016 season, she quit slopestyle due to a severe concussion. So she turned to snowboard cross.
Once again, Canada sent only four athletes to PyeongChang for the 2018 Games and the Quebecer was fifth in the standings. This is where she wanted to stop. She continued, however, and this year she is having the best season of her career on the World Cup circuit, en route, finally, to the Beijing Olympics.
Deep values
McManiman grew up on a dairy farm in Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare, in Lanaudière. She started snowboarding around the age of 10, using her cousin’s old equipment. She quickly caught the virus. So much so that she has built her own course, behind the garage of the family home. Using a shovel, she built her own universe. Ramps, jumps and a track. She spent all her evenings there. Her parents even had to install big lights so she could practice from the end of school until bedtime. When she changed disciplines and started snowboard cross at the age of 21, there was no indication that she was going to reach the greatest heights. However, she will soon be racing with the Olympic rings on her bib. All of this is no coincidence. She owes it to her parents.
“I was lucky to grow up on a farm. My parents taught me good values like hard work and the importance of living from your passion. If there are people who are passionate and hardworking, it’s my parents. »
PHOTO PATRICE LAROCHE, LE SOLEIL ARCHIVES
Audrey McManiman
The job of dairy farmers is 24/7. It takes sacrifice. I took that and adapted it to life as an athlete, because it’s the same thing.
Audrey McManiman
When she was named to the Olympic team, it took her two days to thank everyone. She replied to all messages. It was important for her to take the time necessary to answer all those who had supported and encouraged her for more than ten years. That, too, comes from the values his family instilled in him. That’s how it is with the McManimans.
A passion developed through wounds
Looking back on her journey, one of the things she is most proud of is never having given up, even when there was nothing left to do.
Seven months before winning her YOG gold medal, the snowboarder was on an operating table. She had torn both anterior cruciate ligaments and menisci. The doctors had to operate on both of his knees. The usual rehabilitation period for this type of intervention is nine months, for a single knee. She defied predictions. After her victory in Austria, she felt unbeatable.
It was during this rehabilitation that she began to develop an interest in her other passion, kinesiology. If she is currently finishing her bachelor’s degree at Laval University and wants to continue with a master’s degree in athletic therapy, it is because she has seen professionals take care of her.
I learned what it was and it made my rehabilitation easier. I liked that, going there, because I watched them do it, I learned, and that’s what gave me the taste. At 16, I told myself that I was going to learn to fix myself so that I could last longer.
Audrey McManiman
Injuries were no stranger to McManiman in the years that followed. After suffering numerous concussions since her start in snowboarding, the one she had in January 2016 in Whistler was serious and decisive. “I knew instantly that slopestyle was over. A few months later, she decided to try snowboard cross, a sport that had often been suggested to her because of her physique and the way she exercised. Her first ever competition was nothing less than the Canadian Championships, where she finished in fourth place, wearing her halfpipe gear. It was unexpected. That day, Maëlle Ricker, grand champion of the 2010 Games, strongly suggested that she go into snowboard cross…
Last September, the snowboarder again had to have surgery on her left knee. In August, an MRI revealed that his anterior cruciate ligament was damaged, along with his meniscus and femoral artery. She and her team hesitated for a long time to do the operation. Still, McManiman is having the best moments of his career with three top 10 in six races since the start of the season. Now head to Beijing to rewrite its own history.