Nathan Pare’s quest for Olympic gold at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games hit a snag on the sixth day of the Winter Olympics. During the second quarterfinal event for snowboarders, things didn’t unfold the way he had hoped. For much of the race, Pare found himself trailing at the back. He started to pick up speed nearing the final turn, but then his snowboard collided with that of Spain’s Lucas Eguibal Breton.
The back part of Pare’s board seemed to connect with Eguibal Breton’s, which led to the Spanish snowboarder losing his balance and falling. Remarkably, Pare still maintained third place even after that incident. He actually took the lead at the last jump, sparking a brief celebratory mood among the spectators. But that excitement was short-lived, as the judges quickly began their assessments of the quarterfinal heats.
Ultimately, a judge ruled that Pare was disqualified due to the collision, prompting a sharp reaction from him. “That’s insane,” he was caught saying on air, visibly frustrated by the decision.
Commentators offered their own views on the incident, suggesting it didn’t seem intentional. One announcer mentioned, “He stumbled a little bit and you can’t see him come back out there. I didn’t think it was intentional.”
According to the Snowboard Cross rulebook, there are three types of interference: intentional, involuntary, and accidental. For involuntary and accidental cases, athletes typically receive just a yellow card, serving as a warning. However, anything classified as intentional contact results in a red card and disqualification.
In this particular case, the judge considered Pare’s collision to be intentional, which meant he would not move on to the semifinals. Instead, competitors Jonas Cholet and Roan Bozzolo from France advanced to the next round.
