The cobwebs of her fifth concussion have diminished, but the reminders still linger inside the head of snowboard cross racer Meryeta O'Dine.
Still recovering from a face-first wipeout one hour into the second day of training for her first Olympic Games at Phoenix Snow Park in Pyeongchang, South Korea, a fall she cannot remember, O'Dine is determined her first trip to the Olympics will not be her last.
"For sure it was disappointing, but it was still real cool to be there and cheer on my friends," said the 21-year-old Prince George native. "It was definitely a really good experience - it was my first Olympics and I'm still young and hopefully I won't get too many more concussions in the next few years. I'm just going to take it season by season and look out for my noggin."
Her latest concussion sidelined O'Dine for the remaining four World Cup events, which dropped her from sixth to 11th in the world standings. Leading up to the Olympics, she had seven top-10 individual finishes and made the team event podium twice, winning silver in Montafon, Austria and bronze in Ezerum, Turkey.
O'Dine and Zoe Bergermann of Erin, Ont., combined to finish third overall in the women's team season standings.
"I can't that say I'm mad with the season, maybe I didn't get all of the results I wanted but all of my time trials I was really happy with. I was qualifying well and my coaches were happy with my riding, so obviously that makes me happy, and I was having a lot of fun."
Three other Canadian women - Bergermann, Carle Brenneman of Comox and Tess Critchlow of Kelowna - competed in the Olympic snowboard cross event but none advanced to the final. In the men's event, Christopher Robanske of Calgary made the semifinal round and finished 11th as the top Canadian.
O'Dine was sent home right after the competition, Feb. 16, and was back in Vancouver watching the closing ceremony on TV.
"As much as I'm upset I didn't get to compete, the Olympics was not only the highlight of my season but the highlight of my life," she said. "I proved to myself and a lot of people that I could go and be there and race among the best. Obviously it didn't end up as well as we'd hoped but it was amazing to be there."
O'Dine wasn't the only Canadian snowboard athlete who suffered painful consequences riding the challenging Pyeongchang course, known for its big features and steep pitches. Laurie Blouin of Stoneham, Que., whacked her head in training for the women's slopestyle, but recovered in time to win the silver medal. Men's snowboard cross team member Baptiste Brochu of Saguenay, Que., broke his leg in two places during a training run. Markus Schairer of Austria broke a vertebra in his neck in a fall in training.
"A lot of people had a tough time with that course," said O'Dine.
"As much as that makes me sad to see how much crashing the men did, it was a really fun course and I think the women put on a really cool show for women in sport and boarder cross in general, because it was kind of crazy after the men's.
"I don't actually know what happened in my crash, we didn't get it on video. I don't remember most of the day. The exact same thing happened in my last big concussion. We know how to pace this one out and not take things too quickly."
She's not thinking it could mean end of her career, but O'Dine is well aware of the potential cumulative effect of successive concussions.
"I have no alarming symptoms (now), we're still on a slow recovery schedule because the last concussion took two months to come back from," she said.
"Right now I'm just taking my time with lots of cardio and it's been going really well. Obviously we're going to be cautious because we're getting to the danger zone with the amount of concussions but I'm excited and ready to get back to training."
O'Dine had hoped to devote more time to her workouts this summer but with all the injuries and the lack of top-10 results she said the Canadian national team funding will be cut back this year and she expects she will have to work full-time on her landscaping job in Vancouver.
Injuries come with the territory in snowboard cross and O'Dine has had more than her share the past two seasons.
In 2016-17, in addition to her two concussions, she had a ruptured foot ligament and hurt both shoulders, which limited her quickness out of the start gate this past season. The concussion sustained in training for the world championships in Spain in March 2017 forced her into recovery mode last spring. Sidelined for 67 days, she missed two months of on-snow glacier training in the summer but still managed to finish fourth in the first World Cup event of the season in Cerro Catedral, Argentina. This season, she fell in November and suffered a mild concussion.
"Every season throughout, the ends of the seasons have been recovery for me," said O'Dine.
"But once the season starts and I get going again I remember what all the pain is for and I have a lot of fun.
"I was sitting in sixth for so long and my goal this year was to end up top-five overall in the World Cup this year. I was so close. I was really excited and I was excited to finish off the season strong and see how I could do, but that's OK. I just roll with the punches."
