Meryeta O'Dine has moved one step closer to her Olympic dream.
She won the bronze medal Saturday in a World Cup snowboard cross event in Feldberg, Germany, the first-ever World Cup medal for the 19-year-old from Prince George. Her previous best came in December in Bokwang, South Korea, where she placed sixth overall.
O'Dine fell in her quarterfinal heat Sunday and had to settle for a 13th-place finish out of 34 competitors, but her two weekend results moved her into 10th in the World Cup standings.
To meet the Olympic team criteria for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, O'Dine has to have two World Cup podium finishes and be in the top-12 in the points standings.
The daughter of Virginia O'Dine and Fern Thibault learned to race at Tabor Mountain and Purden Mountain ski resorts, east of Prince George, and her World Cup medal Saturday was the first ever for a Prince George athlete on the snowboard cross circuit.
O'Dine is in Klimovec, Czech Republic, this week to compete in the junior world championships. The individual snowboard cross event is scheduled for Wednesday and the team event follows on Thursday.
http://www.cbc.ca/sports/olympics/winter/snowboard/snowboarding-slopestyle-odine-bronze-1.3978616
