(Beaupré) First to start, first to finish. No, it wasn’t arranged with the views guy. Eliot Grondin and Audrey McManiman dominated qualifying for the Mont-Sainte-Anne World Cup snowboardcross event under brilliant sun at noon on Friday.

The draw wanted the two Quebec snowboarders to be the first to jump from the starting gate on the course called “Battle Royale”. They each set a reference time which held until the end.

“It’s always cool to have a good qualifying,” placidly agreed Grondin, who edged out Austrian Jakob Dusek (0.06 sec) and Australian Adam Lambert (0.32).

“It gives a good bib for the finals (Saturday). So you can choose the right door all the time. In training [Thursday] I rode really well. I corrected a few points in the evening. I knew what to do to have a good run in qualifying. I just executed the plan and everything worked fine. »

On the edge of the finish, the Olympic silver medalist could count on the encouragement of his parents, who came down from Sainte-Marie-de-Beauce for this first snowboardcross World Cup contested in Quebec for ten years.

At the time, Grondin missed school to attend the Stoneham events, a regular stop on the circuit. At the last presentation, in 2013, Olympic champion Maëlle Ricker won the race. Today, she is his coach with the Canadian team…

“He was 11 years old and he was on the Quebec team, recalled his mother, Mélanie Turcotte. There are riders who were there and who are still there, like the Italian Omar Visintin (19th Friday) and the Austrian Nick Baumgartner (34th and not qualified). »

Grondin mainly followed Olympic medalist Dominique Maltais, who became a mentor.

At only 21 years old, Eliot Grondin is already one of the stars of his discipline. A surprise qualifier from the PyeongChang Olympics, where he was the youngest member of the entire Canadian delegation, he finished second in the World Cup standings in 2021.

Last winter, he wowed the gallery at the Beijing Olympics, winning individual silver and bronze in the mixed team event with Meryeta O’Dine, absent this weekend after suffering from health problems during all season.

His results have been less stellar in 2022-33, starting with his ninth-place finish at the World Championships in Georgia.

A change of equipment required acclimatization. “My summer was different,” he said. A lot of things also change with the season I had last year. Change of equipment, partial change of staff in the team, new athletes too. Many things change and it takes time to adapt. When you’ve been with the same people and the same equipment for six, seven years already, you can’t think it will be the same overnight. »

Grondin took a longer break in the spring to do things he wanted to do. “I’m still super happy with the season I’ve had so far,” he said. These may not be the results everyone expected of me, but I’m proud of my season. »

Currently eighth in the standings, he picked up momentum at the two previous stages in Spain (5th and 9th) and Switzerland, where he finished just off the podium.

His first position at Mont-Sainte-Anne, where he spends part of his summers mountain biking, allows him to continue in the same vein.

“Several factors made the season a bit more difficult. It’s just to keep working and rebuilding what we may have lost or what was a little missing. I am super happy with the work that has been done, especially in the last two or three weeks. It only remains to have fun for the next two days. »

The winter was even more complex for McManiman, who suffered a concussion after a violent fall during training at the Les Deux Alpes resort in early December. She felt “little numbness in her hands”, which led to her being airlifted for the second time in her career.

“The other time was for a rib injury in Whistler,” said the snowboarder from Saint-Ambroise-de-Kildare, in Lanaudière. “My parents aren’t too happy when I tell them I do helicopter rides like that…”

She had to stop for two months, in the middle of the season. “It was a good concussion, if you will. But we took more precautions than not enough. I did all the rehabilitation that was necessary. In my head, I had set the “snowboard” switch to off and the “recovery” switch to on. It’s been a little frustrating to stay away for so long. The team wanted to be really preventive for me and my safety. »

McManiman returned to competition in early February on the Nor-Am circuit before diving into Bakouriani’s Worlds, where she finished a personal best seventh. She continued with three excellent consecutive results at Sierra Nevada (5th and 4th) and at Veysonnaz (8th).

“Like Eliot Grondin, I was starting first today and they had the corners fixed up nicely,” she noted. I had the perfect track to go down and do a good time from the start. »

Qualifying third in Switzerland 10 days ago, McManiman had to deal with her nerves. “It gave me an idea of ​​how it felt to enter the final with bib 3. I put it into practice last time. So I know a little more about how to handle stress. It’s really exciting. I am very happy. »

Eleventh at the Beijing Olympics before achieving the first podium of his career last winter, McManiman will have to make a big decision at the end of the season on Sunday.

With an almost completely ruptured left anterior cruciate ligament, she must determine whether to have surgery this spring, with the consequence of missing the entire next campaign, or wait until after the Milan Cortina Games in 2026.

“I hesitate because I am able to manage my knee. There is not too much swelling or pain. It depends on how many consecutive days I’m on my board or if I have bad impacts. If I come too short on the jumps, I will feel it a little in the evening, but I have my routine. I ride a bike to decompress my joint. Otherwise, I put ice if needed. »

With osteoarthritis in her knee, she understands that orthopedists want to operate on her as soon as possible. But if she gets on the podium at Mont-Sainte-Anne this weekend, they will have a hard time convincing her…