The 22-year-old snowboarder defied the odds to reach the podium in slopestyle, a decade after surviving a traumatic brain injury.
Jake Canter’s Olympic bronze medal in slopestyle is more than a career milestone — it’s a triumph of resilience.
The 22-year-old American snowboarder finished third on Feb. 18 at the Winter Olympics, behind Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa (silver) and China’s Su Yiming (gold). But the moment carried deeper meaning: it came nearly a decade after Canter was given just a 20 percent chance to live following a trampoline accident in 2016.
At age 13, Canter collided mid-air with another athlete while training on trampolines. The impact caused a fractured skull and brain bleed, followed by a spinal fluid leak that led to bacterial meningitis. He was placed in a medically induced coma and later woke up disoriented.
“I had no clue until I woke up and I thought I was dead,” Canter told The Summit Daily in 2019.
The accident left him permanently deaf in his right ear, but he returned to snowboarding just months after leaving the hospital. Despite lingering health challenges, he continued to compete — and now, he’s an Olympic medalist.
Before his bronze-winning run, Canter shared a lighthearted moment with fans on Instagram, posting a photo of a completed Star Wars LEGO set with the caption: “Finals prep.”
His journey from coma to podium has inspired many in the snowboarding community. The medal is not just a reward for athletic excellence — it’s a symbol of perseverance, grit, and belief.