You want to win?
You want to be the best in the world?
You want to go to the Olympics?
Then you’d better be prepared to hurt.
Springbank snowboard-cross racer Michelle Brodeur, who now calls Whistler, B.C., home, has risked life and limb for the last nine years to get there.
And it’s taken a toll on the 24-year-old aspiring Olympian. This season alone she suffered a concussion at a World Cup event in Austria and mangled the anterior-cruciate ligament (ACL) in her right knee at a Nor-Am event in Canyons, Utah, in March.
She’s now starting the long, formidable rehabilitation process on her knee in the hopes of qualifying for the Canadian team headed to the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, Russia.
“It’s all up in the air right now, which is hard,” she admits in a candid telephone interview with The Eagle from her Whistler home. “My mental game sucks. I’m definitely struggling with that a little bit right now. It’s hard to always be positive.”
But she’s quick to laugh at it and dial right back into the competitive fire that burns inside athletes like her.
“Hopefully to the Olympics next year. That has been the main goal for a long time,” Brodeur states. “I really have to step up with this whole injury thing now. That’s really holding me back a little bit.”
She held nothing back at the Utah Nor-Am event in March, won silver and torched her knee all at the same time. No easy feat when heaped on top of the other injuries, and results, she’s had over the years in Europe and North America.
“This year and last year I was on the World Cup tour,” she relates. “Before that I had two major injuries where I didn’t compete for two years. But before that I was on the World Cup tour.”
She’s still five months away from being medically cleared to ride again. From there she has to get into game shape and race against the world’s top racers, and score top results.
All on the most demanding courses in Europe and North America.
“That’s definitely true,” she answers when asked if the snowboard-cross courses, loaded with steep drops, sharp turns and jumps, are increasing in difficulty. “But they’re also making more rules so they’re safer. FIS (International Ski Federation) doesn’t allow gap jumps any more. There’s a criteria that each course has to meet before the World Cup riders ride it. They are getting bigger, but they’re also getting safer because they’re getting more strict on how you have to make them. Which is great.”
That still doesn’t mean it’s all smiles and giggles when the gate drops and four racers plunge down the icy course at once.
“They’re actually made for you to go full speed, so if you’re not going full speed then it becomes dangerous. To go full speed at them is not that scary.”
Tell that to her surgically-repaired knee.
As for a shot at Canada’s Olympic snowboard team?
“That really depends on when I get cleared to snowboard.”
Until then, she’ll be at the gym rehabbing her right knee and trying to coax her mind and body into game shape.
You can follow Brodeur’s progress at Instagram @michellebrodeur1.
