VALÉRIE GRENIER
Sport: Alpine Skiing
Events: Women’s Giant Slalom, Downhill, Super-G, Team Combined
Age: 29
Hometown: St. Isidore
Residence: Mont-Tremblant
Local Club: Mont-Tremblant
Third Olympics
Instagram: @valeriegrenier
VIEW VALÉRIE’S COMPETITION SCHEDULE HERE.
By Martin Cleary
Mention the storied Cortina d’Ampezzo alpine racing venue to Valérie Grenier and the memories begin to flow as smoothly as her speed and technical skis glide over the pristine snow.
Located in the heart of the Dolomite Alps in northeastern Italy, the super-G and downhill Cortina d’Ampezzo race courses have brought the Mont-Tremblant Ski Club-raised racer from St-Isidore, ON, moments of pure joy as well as horrifying pain.
But for now, Grenier, 29, is reflecting on all she has done in her 11-year career on the World Cup alpine ski circuit to help create positive energy on the Cortina d’Ampezzo courses as she prepares for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, which will be her third career Winter Games.
Grenier’s first two Olympic Games were totally opposite to each other.
Rebounding from a tibia plateau injury as she approached the 2022 Beijing Olympics, she was restricted to only the women’s giant slalom, which she didn’t finish. At the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, Grenier feasted on four races in her Winter Games debut and was an impressive sixth in the alpine combined.
When the Canadian alpine coaches determine their race rosters for the Milano Cortina Games, Grenier is ready to take the chairlift to the top of every course except for the slalom, which isn’t part of her alpine repertoire.
“In Beijing, I only had the GS. But for 2026, I want everything – giant slalom, downhill, super-G, team combined. I don’t do slalom,” an excited Grenier said in a phone interview last week, while training and racing in Tarvisio, Italy.
If the now-healthy and upbeat Grenier can be given those opportunities, she could challenge for a women’s giant slalom medal as indicated by her World Cup results this season, post a top-10 super-G result and aim for a solid downhill placement.
“I’m feeling really good body-wise. I haven’t felt this good in a long time,” she continued. “Last year was hard. My knee was sore last year. I’ve had no pain this season and I feel good.”
As Grenier prepares for her Olympic races at Cortina d’Ampezzo, she can draw power, inspiration and motivation from the first and only World Cup downhill medal she won at that site on Jan. 26, 2024. She finished the one-run race only 0.71 seconds behind winner Stephanie Venier of Austria and in an historic three-way tie for third place.
But as memorable as that downhill day was, the World Cup super-G race two days later was gut wrenching.
As she was flying down the super-G course in full control, she suddenly flew off the course with the finish line in sight. She fractured the left humerus bone in her upper arm and needed reconstructive surgeries for a torn ACL, partially torn MCL and a torn meniscus.
Despite missing the final two months of the 2023-24 World Cup season, she worked hard in her rehabilitation and returned to racing in mid-November for the start of the 2024-25 season.
Resilience is a key word that describes Grenier. She has dealt with numerous injuries and rebounded each time to snap on her skis. Her love of the sport and competitive desire to ski fast serve as her giant engine to get through surgeries, recovery and rehabilitation and back on the alpine pistes.
In 2016 and 2018, which were two of her first four years on the World Cup circuit, Grenier experienced exercise-induced leg pain associated with chronic compartment syndrome. She worked her way through those issues twice.
During a women’s downhill training run at the 2019 world alpine ski championships in Are, Sweden, Grenier crashed and broke her tibia, fibula and talus (large bone in her ankle) in multiple places. When the tibia didn’t heal properly, she required a follow-up second surgery.
While rehabilitation and time allowed her to recover, Grenier backed away from the speed and danger of the downhill for the next five years. She didn’t race another downhill until the 2023-24 season, which included her downhill bronze medal at Cortina d’Ampezzo almost two years ago.
As the 2022 Beijing Olympics approached, Grenier injured her tibia plateau, but she recovered in time to participate in the Winter Games.
“It was more than a bruise and less than a break. I was off for three to four weeks during the Olympic qualifying period,” she explained.
“When I have a goal, I do all I can to attain it,” Grenier said. “I cannot imagine not doing skiing. Whatever happens, I find ways (to return). I’m always determined.”
Grenier has been powered by that drive ever since she started the sport with her older brother Francis.
“We both fell in love quickly with ski racing. We were talented and it came easy to us. But he was my inspiration. I wanted to do all the things he was doing and go fast,” she explained.
“I keep going because of my love of the sport. I love it so much. I’m obsessed with it. I want to get better and win. I want to push my limits. It was always my goal to be on the national team.”
That formula has worked well for Grenier, a three-time world junior championship medallist (gold and silver at Sochi/Rosa Khutor, Russia, in 2016 and bronze at Hafjell, Norway, in 2015).
A winner of five World Cup medals over the past four seasons, Grenier’s most recent World Cup medal was her fourth in giant slalom, but her first on her home track at Mont-Tremblant.
After the 2024 World Cup was cancelled at Tremblant because of unacceptable snow conditions, Grenier made the most of the circuit’s 2025 race in Quebec by winning the bronze medal.
The 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons saw Grenier step onto the World Cup medal podiums on two occasions each.
Twenty days before she won her downhill bronze medal at Cortina d’Ampezzo in January, 2024, Grenier captured the women’s giant slalom gold medal by 3.38 seconds at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia.
In 2023, Grenier won her first World Cup gold medal as she dominated the women’s giant slalom and finished 3.25 seconds ahead of the runner-up in early January. In March, she was the World Cup women’s giant slalom bronze medallist at Grandvalira Soldeu-El Tarter, Andorra.
Grenier’s giant slalom success has a lot to do with her pulling away from the downhill for a five-year span.
“It was really hard to stop the downhill. At first, I focused on the giant slalom for a long time. But in hindsight that was really good. I got better technically,” explained Grenier, who saw a significant improvement in her skiing in that technical discipline.
In the four seasons since the Beijing Olympics, Grenier has been a race contender in women’s giant slalom as reflected by her World Cup rankings – seventh in 2022-23, sixth in 2023-24, 12th in 2024-25 and currently eighth in 2025-26.
In super-G this season, Grenier has placed 14th, 19th and 29th, while her downhill results are a little more distant at 39th, 23rd, 45th and 39th.
After opening the 2025-26 World Cup season with an 11th- and 13th- place giant slalom results, Grenier has posted four straight top-10 placements. Her bronze medal at Mont-Tremblant was followed by a fourth at Semmering, Austria, and ninth-place results at Kranjska Gora and Kronplatz, Italy, which was on Tuesday. She was only 0.77 seconds behind winner Julia Scheib of Austria in Semmering, after the two-run race.
“My season is going well, but it’s not up to my standard hopes,” she offered. “My podium finish at Mont-Tremblant was amazing, a dream come true. But other than that, it has been up and down.
“But I’m happy with the way I’m getting better. I have more confidence every race. It’s a work in progress, since last year. I’m now happy with my skiing,” added Grenier, who has plenty of experience entering her third Olympics with 146 World Cup career race starts and 17 races at the world championship level, with a team bronze medal in 2023.
Despite all her injuries, she has never entertained the thought of retiring as an alpine racer.
“It’s never crossed my mind,” he stated emphatically. “Ski racing is my life. That’s what I want to do. I can’t imagine not doing it – not till my body tells me.
“I’m never scared of speed or going fast. I’ll take risks. I always take risks. But now I have more experience and I’ll take smarter risks.”
As for the 2026 Milano Cortina Olympics, she knows it’s about the medals, but she can’t think that way.
“For sure, the Olympics are about medals. But I hate to think of results. I want to ski my best times with the least mistakes,” said Grenier, who has had eight super-G and seven downhill races in her career at Cortina d’Ampezzo.
“Cortina is a hill I know so well. I know exactly when to go and how to ski it. It’s a place I love. That can be an advantage, but a lot of us have skied it. It’s a hill I enjoy skiing, but I’m not sure why.”
VALÉRIE GRENIER COMPETITION SCHEDULE
Add Valérie’s schedule to your calendar on this page.
Ottawa at the Olympics Newsletter
The Ottawa Sports Pages will produce an Ottawa at the Olympics Newsletter throughout the Feb. 6-22 Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Games, featuring daily recaps, previews and competition schedules. Sign up to receive it in your inbox for free below.
Martin Cleary has written about amateur sports for over 52 years. A past Canadian sportswriter of the year and Ottawa Sports Awards Lifetime Achievement in Sport Media honouree, Martin retired from full-time work at the Ottawa Citizen in 2012, but continued to write a bi-weekly “High Achievers” column for the Citizen/Sun.
When the pandemic struck, Martin created the High Achievers “Stay-Safe Edition” to provide some positive news during tough times, via his Twitter account at first and now here at OttawaSportsPages.ca.
Martin can be reached by e-mail at martincleary51@gmail.com and on Twitter @martincleary.
