(Mont-Tremblant) Marcel Bourdon experienced what every parent fears when introducing a little one to alpine skiing: that moment when the child accelerates a little too much, more or less in control of his pace, on this slope which did not seem so steep…
Valérie Grenier was 3 or 4 years old and her grandfather had been given the mission to bring her back to the family slopeside condo in Mont-Tremblant. Into a wall, she started to somersault.
“I said to myself: “Poor thing, what have I done there, I took a path that was way too difficult for her! She’s going to start crying!” “, related Mr. Bourdon, 84, on the telephone.
Each time, Valérie got up and started again, tipping over at the next turn… After a few pirouettes from his granddaughter, Mr. Bourdon approached to inquire about her condition, convinced that he had discouraged her forever. “She looks me straight in the eye and she says [he changes his voice]: “It doesn’t matter, Grandpa, it doesn’t matter if I do somersault!” To show what a fighter she is…”
Twenty-five years later, Valérie Grenier will ski for the first time in front of her grandfather during a World Cup, this Saturday and Sunday, at Tremblant, the resort where she discovered the sport at the age of 2 . Seventh in the world in giant slalom, she will be one of the favorites with the American Mikaela Shiffrin, the best skier in history, who made her Canadian colleague blush by showering her with compliments, Friday afternoon, as part of the the opening press conference of the event.
Three days earlier, in an interview, the native of Saint-Isidore had told the same anecdote about tumbling, which she had often heard. “He keeps telling this story, it’s so cute! Apparently I was tough when I was younger. According to my parents, I always liked to say, “No, I can do it!” »
On January 7, she earned her first World Cup podium, a victory in giant slalom in Slovenia that Shiffrin hasn’t forgotten. A month later, she won the bronze medal at the parallel team competition at the World Championships in Méribel. She finished the winter with a second podium and seventh place overall in her discipline, a personal high.
Raised in the 1940s on a farm in Saint-Isidore, eastern Ontario, Marcel Bourdon, Valérie’s maternal grandfather, was interested in downhill skiing, without knowing why.
“At one point, I made myself a pair of skis with two pieces of board and leather straps that I found in the shed. I rounded the ends a little. I was skiing like that in the snow, in front of the door. When they saw this, my parents gave me a pair of stylish skis for Christmas. It started like that. »
Marcel Bourdon really took up skiing after his marriage to Louise St-Onge. The Franco-Ontarian couple had seven children, a boy and six girls, including Nathalie, Valérie’s mother.
Two years after Valérie’s birth, the Bourdons purchased a two-bedroom condo in Mont-Tremblant. “There was room for everyone, my wife was very welcoming,” said Mr. Bourdon.
“My parents would spend every weekend at their house,” Valérie continues. The whole family skied together. Cousins, cousins. We all stayed in the condo. It’s small, but we slept on the floor, it didn’t matter. We had fun! It’s really thanks to them that I was able to start skiing. Subsequently, my parents bought a condo, which they still own. »
Highly competitive, the young athlete rose through the ranks at lightning speed, competing in her first World Cup in Lake Louise at the age of 18 in 2014. Thirteenth in a super-G in St. Moritz a months later, she competed in her first senior Worlds before winning giant bronze at the equivalent junior event. At the 2016 Junior Worlds, Grenier won gold in downhill and silver in super-G.
Her grandparents were scheduled to come see her at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. Tickets were purchased, but upon their return from Florida in the spring of 2017, Bourdon suffered a health scare that left her paralyzed in both legs. The trip was therefore canceled.
Busy taking care of his wife, confined to a wheelchair, Mr. Bourdon stopped skiing. Ms. Bourdon’s condition deteriorated in the following years. She died last summer.
Around thirty members of his family will still be there to encourage him. For the first time since his wife’s paralysis, Mr. Bourdon put his skis back on at the start of winter. “I tried, but I realized I wasn’t that fit! It didn’t go too bad, but I need to exercise more. »
Her wishes for Valérie ahead of the Tremblant World Cup? “I hope she will be lucky like Gilles Villeneuve, the car racer. He won the first Grand Prix in his hometown of Montreal [in 1978]. I wish the same thing to Valérie. She’s a good little girl. »
This “good granddaughter” will be the second to set off this Saturday on the Flying Mile track for the first round of the giant slalom. The Swiss Lara Gut-Behrami, winner of the first two giants of the season, inherited bib 1. Third, Shiffrin will jump out of the gate just after Grenier. The start will be at 11 a.m. No question of being late.
