Spencer O’Brien of Courtenay, among four Mount Washington-produced athletes in the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, has had to battle through early-onset rheumatoid arthritis to reach the biggest stage in world sport.
It was not health, however, but the weather conditions, that got the best of her in the controversial women’s snowboard slopestyle competition Sunday at the Olympics on a windswept ski hill in South Korea.
The winds played havoc with the event, sending many of the competitors flaying to their backsides, including O’Brien in her first attempt. The 2013 world champion and native of Alert Bay, who was 12th at Sochi 2014, was unable to even generate enough thrust to make it up a ramp in her second run and placed a disappointing 22nd.
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O’Brien told Sportsnet is was a “lottery” as to whether the wind would pick up and wickedly howl, or suddenly die down, during any given run. It was a lottery the unfortunate Islander lost, but gold-medallist Jamie Anderson of the U.S. won in taking gold. Laurie Blouin of Quebec captured the silver medal for Canada and Ennj Rukajarvi the bronze for Finland.
The FIS, the international governing body said in a statement that it “considered it was within the boundaries to stage the competition safely . . . but the nature of outdoor sports also requires adapting to the elements.”
The 30-year-old O’Brien will get another shot at the Winter Games podium in the big-air event, which is making its Olympic debut this year in Pyeongchang.
The Island is better known for generating Summer Olympians.
Making their Olympic debuts later in the 2018 Winter Games will be Cassie Sharpe, 25, of Comox in skiing half-pipe, Teal Harle, 21, of Campbell River in skiing slopestyle, and Carle Brenneman, 28, of Comox in snowboard cross.