Audrey McManiman

Biography

Audrey McManiman made her Olympic debut at Beijing 2022 where she advanced to the quarterfinals of women’s snowboard cross to place 11^th overall.

McManiman grew up competing in freestyle snowboard events, primarily slopestyle. In 2012 she won slopestyle gold for Team Canada at the first Winter Youth Olympic Games in Innsbruck where she also competed in halfpipe. That year she also competed at her first of two FIS Junior World Championships. In 2013, she competed at her first FISU Universiade, finishing one spot shy of the podium in slopestyle. 

As a freestyle snowboarder, McManiman competed in a handful of FIS World Cup events from 2012 to 2015, posting a top result of sixth place in big air in Stoneham, Quebec in February 2015. That had followed her debut at the senior FIS World Championships in January 2015.

During a training camp in January 2016, McManiman had a violent crash and suffered a concussion. Sidelined for three months, she made the decision to prioritize her health and end her career as a freestyle snowboarder. Trying to figure out her future, in March 2016 she entered her first competitive snowboard cross event at the Canadian Championships and finished fourth while racing on her freestyle equipment.

For the 2016-17 season, McManiman competed on the Nor-Am Cup circuit and put together a string of five straight podium finishes in February, including three straight gold. With a few more podiums before the end of the season, she won the overall Nor-Am Cup title in snowboard cross.

McManiman rejoined the World Cup circuit as a snowboard cross racer in 2017-18 before returning to the Nor-Am Cup circuit in 2018-19, finishing second overall with another two victories. She split the 2019-20 season between the two tours.

In February 2021, she advanced to her first World Cup small final, finishing seventh overall in Reiteralm, Austria. She reached two more small finals on back-to-back days in Krasnoyarsk, Russia in January 2022. Just over a month later, she stood on her first World Cup podium, finishing third in  Reiteralm, Austria. She raced in her second straight big final the following week in Veysonnaz, Switzerland. She ended the 2021-22 season ranked in the top five of the World Cup standings for the first time.

McManiman competed in snowboard cross at the FIS World Championships for the first time in 2023. She reached the small final in both events, finishing seventh individually and fifth in team snowboard cross with Eliot Grondin. She then put together three straight top eight World Cup finishes, including another appearance in a big final in Sierra Nevada, Spain.

After the season, McManiman decided to have the ACL surgery that she had long put off. That caused her to miss the entire 2023-24 season. She returned to World Cup racing in December 2024. At the home event in Mont-Ste-Anne, Quebec in April 2025, she got herself back into the top eight again.

McManiman has twice been honoured by Canada Snowboard with the Neil Daffern Award for Excellence, as a freestyle competitor in 2014 and as a snowboard cross racer in 2018.

A Little More About Audrey

Getting into the Sport: Started snowboarding at age 9… Outside Interests: Enjoys mountain biking, skateboarding,  surfing, camping… Studying kinesiology part time at Laval University… Would like to pursue a career in athletic therapy… Odds and Ends: Favourite motto “Never give up”…