Canada's Grondin, O'Dine add to Beijing medal haul with bronze in mixed snowboard cross

Canada's snowboard cross tandem of Éliot Grondin and Meryeta O'Dine added to Canada's medal haul with a bronze in the mixed snowboard cross event on Saturday in Zhangjiakou, China.

It is Canada's eighth bronze medal and 13th total as the Beijing Olympics hit the halfway point.

Grondin, of Sainte-Marie, Que., and O'Dine, of Prince George, B.C., finished 23.20 seconds behind Americans Nick Baumgartner and Lindsey Jacobellis who won gold, and Italy's Omar Visintin and Michela Moioli who took the silver.

Italy's second team of Lorenzo Sommariva and Caterina Carpano finished fourth in the four-team final.

WATCH | Canadian mixed snowboard cross duo Grondin, O'Dine grab bronze medal:

O'Dine was slowed after Carpano's board landed on the Canadian, knocking her down midway through the course, but both riders were able to complete the race after the fall with O'Dine finishing ahead of Carpano by 5.52 seconds.

"There was four of us all coming into that jump section pretty tight with each other and I saw Caterina's board going up and I was heading down and she kept going up and I was like, 'okay, I'm about to get landed on in the final,'" O'Dine said.

"[I] dug my head into the snow, popped it up and realized that I was doing a little bit better than she was. I just instantly got up and started hiking up the jump to try and get on the podium."

WATCH | O'Dine finishes out race despite collision with Italian snowboarder:

Seeing the crash from the end of the course was not the easiest experience for Grondin either, but the finish was quite the relief.

"Oh it was so stressful. When the crash happened they just kept [showing it on the big screen] the first two [Jacobellis and Moioli] and I had no idea what was going on," he said.

"I didn't know if she was OK, or anything. So I was just waiting and hoping she was fine and that she kept going. And then I saw her name on the split times and I said, 'come on.' Then she jumped to the finish line and I was like, 'we did it.' It's crazy, unreal."

Grondin, 20, didn't enjoy the same success in the final for his portion of the race as he did in the quarter-final and semifinals. He finished his end of the race in third, 0.23 seconds behind Baumgartner and Visintin after starting out with a considerable lead.

Grondin was coming off a silver medal in the men's snowboard cross on Thursday, while O'Dine, 24, took bronze in the women's event.

"I approached today the same as the other, I just wanted to have fun and I think we had fun," Grondin said when asked if already having a medal made it any less stressful. "So I'm stoked, we just enjoyed the day, worked as hard as we could to be the best that we can and we got third."

For O'Dine, coming off a medal win only made her want more.

"We were going for upgrades for sure," she said.

As it is in individual snowboard cross events, four riders go through the course at the same time. In this case, the men go first and their times determine when their teammate can leave the start gate on the follow-up run. The first woman to cross the finish line wins it for her team.

The top two in each of the four quarter-final heats advanced to the semifinals. The best two from each of the two semifinal heats moved on to the finals.

Path to bronze

O'Dine was able to benefit from the headstart she was given from Grondin's effort, but the Russian Olympic Committee's (ROC) Kristina Paul closed the gap, and Canada took the second spot in the third quarter-final heat and advanced to the semifinals.

Truro, N.S., native Liam Moffatt, of the second Canadian team, finished 0.27 seconds out of first in his quarter-final run, leaving it to teammate Tess Critchlow, of Big White, B.C., to close the deal for a chance to advance to the semifinals. She finished 0.56 seconds out of second, falling out of contention.

Grondin continued his ways finishing his semifinal run with a 0.89 second gap between himself and Italy's Lorenzo Sommariva and an over three second lead over Great Britain and the ROC. O'Dine was able to hold on for qualification to the final, with Italy's Caterina Carpano finishing 0.03 seconds ahead of the Canadian.

WATCH | Meryeta O'Dine reflects on death of brother, painful journey to Olympic bronze: