BEIJING – Eliot Grondin had not been challenged all day.
The Canadian cruised through every race on his way to the men’s snowboard cross final in Zhangjiakou at the Beijing Olympics, where he fought hard for a silver medal that was a photo finish away from being gold.
Grondin of Ste-Marie, Que., crossed the finish line 0.02 sec- onds behind Austria’s Alessandro Hämmerle for Canada’s second medal Thursday.
Just a few minutes earlier – and a few hundred kilometres away in the Yanqing zone – Jack Crawford held on tight for a bronze medal in alpine combined.
Meanwhile, Canada’s mixed aerials team soared to a bronze in the event’s Olympic debut.
The 20-year-old Grondin led every race heading into the big final. Then it was his turn to play catch-up. He stuck close to Hämmerle from start to finish, never letting the Austrian break away.
It stayed that way until Grondin plunged to the finish line for the nail-biting finish. After a few tense moments, the Canadian’s silver medal was confirmed.
“I kind of knew I was going to be silver, but I tried everything I had,” he said.
“Just to share the podium with Alessandro is amazing.”
It was Canada’s fourth medal in snowboarding at Beijing and second in as many days after Meryeta O’Dine captured bronze in the women’s snowboard cross on Wednesday.
It was also Canada’s 10th medal overall with Crawford’s bronze.
Crawford finished third with a total time of two minutes 32.11 seconds for Canada’s first-ever medal in alpine combined.
The Toronto native entered the slalom portion of the event in second place after going 1:43.14 in the downhill. He then did a 48.97 in the slalom.
Crawford dropped to third after four skiers, with another 20 to go. But nobody else could match his time.
Johannes Strolz of Austria won gold (2:31.43) while Aleksander Aamodt Kilde of Norway took home the silver (2:32.02).
Two other Canadians cracked the top 10. Broderick Thompson of Whistler, B.C., was eighth while Brodie Seger of North Vancouver, B.C., came in ninth.
The 24-year-old Crawford came close to a medal on two previous occasions in Beijing. He was sixth in the men’s super-G on Tuesday and fourth in the men’s downhill event on Mon- day, finishing seven-hundredths of a second behind the bronze medallist.
Crawford says recent changes to his skiing style and overall ap- proach have given him more of a winner’s mindset.
“I’ve taken on this new men- tality of ‘how do I put myself in a position to win every sin- gle race,”’ he said. “And even if you’re not winning, even if you’re not coming in the top 10, if you have that mentality and you have that ability to push and put your- self in the position where you could win, it’s probably going to be a good day regardless of where you end up.
“For me, that has really helped allowmetopushandbeina place where anything can hap- pen on any given day.”
Canada’s mixed aerials team picked up Canada’s third medal of the day — and second bronze — at the Zhangjiakou Genting Snow Park.
The United States claimed gold
with 338.34 points while China settled for silver with 324.22.
The Canadian trio of Marion Thenault of Sherbrooke, Que.; Miha Fontaine of Lac-Beauport, Que.; and Quebec City’s Lewis Irving finished the final with a total of 290.98 points to edge out fourth-place Switzerland, which totalled 276.01 points.
Flavie Aumond, also from Lac-Beauport, and Emile Nadeau of Prevost, Que., also competed for Canada in the freestyle skiing event.
It is Canada’s first aerials medal since the 2002 Salt Lake Games, when Veronica Brenner won silver and Deidra Dionne claimed bronze in the women’s event.
In curling, Canada’s Brad Gushue defeated Norway’s Steffen Walstad 6-5 in men’s round- robin play.
Gushue (2-0) made an open draw for a single in the 10th end for the victory.
Skip Jennifer Jones will lead the Canadian women’s team into its round-robin opener in the evening against South Korea’s EunJung Kim.
At the Capital Indoor Stadium, Canada’s Keegan Messing, who arrived a week late to the Games after a positive COVID-19 test, finished 11th in men’s singles figure skating amid perhaps the finest Olympic field ever assembled.
