‘No regrets’ for Eliot Grondin en route to silver in snowboard cross

Following a wild finish in the men’s snowboard cross final at Milano Cortina 2026, Eliot Grondin was in a familiar place: the silver medal position.

The 24-year-old had burst out to early leads and hung onto first place in his 1/8 final, quarterfinal and semifinal races. In the big final, he decided to hang back early on and make his move later in the race.

It very nearly worked—but Grondin was edged out at the finish by just 0.03 seconds by Austria’s Alessandro Haemmerle. The result was almost a carbon copy of Beijing 2022, when Grondin also won silver in this event.

“Obviously we wanted gold. It was really close again, but it was a good week,” said Grondin. “I had fun, I have no regrets. I did my best. At the end, that’s all I could do.”

Despite being satisfied with the work put in to reach this point, Grondin couldn’t help a bit of what-if pondering after the race.

“I knew [Aidan Chollet of France, who finished fourth in the big final], he’s always really fast in the start. I said, OK, I’ll let him go,” said Grondin. “But I was arriving always too early with too much speed, so that was the problem. Maybe I should have been a bit more patient at the top and let the gap grow.”

Even so, he noted that he felt “pretty good” since “not many people here have two silver medals”.

That brings Grondin’s lifetime haul to three Olympic medals, having won bronze alongside Meryeta O’Dine in the mixed team event at Beijing 2022. He’s the first Canadian snowboard racer to win three Olympic medals.

And while a superstar like Grondin might sometimes make things look easy, the conditions at Livigno on Day 6 were anything but. What began as a sunny day quickly turned into a blustery storm, increasing the degree of difficulty for all racers.

“It was challenging,” said Grondin. “You couldn’t see a thing on track. It was just kind of like guessing what you were doing.”

It was perhaps a reminder of the incredible skill possessed by all athletes competing in this event, a field that included two other Canadians, Liam Moffatt and Evan Bichon. And though neither advanced beyond the 1/8 finals, just competing in the event was a remarkable turnaround for Bichon.

The 27-year-old’s mother passed away from cancer in November, an event Bichon described as “losing my world”.

“I wasn’t sure I was actually going to be able to finish my season, let alone make it to the Olympics this year,” he said. “To be able to come back to sport, it’s been a journey. So just being here, I’m really grateful.”