This news is a real zinger: 50 days prior to the season's snowboard cross World Cup opener in Montafon, Austria five-time World Cup title winner Dominique Maltais has announced that she won't compete this winter.

Continuing back problems force the native of Petite-Rivière-Saint-François who has been the face of the tour over the last years to take a break.

The two-time Olympic medallist (bronze 2006, silver 2014) told ICI Radio Canada: "Last year, it's been really difficult for me to compete. Luckily I had a medical team who helped me, and they tried to do everything to allow me to compete.”

But now, the 2013 world championships silver medallist with 15 World Cup wins to her belt decided to take it easy and undergo a prolotherapy, a treatment of tissue with the injection of an irritant solution into a joint space, weakened ligament, or tendon insertion to relieve pain.

“Of course, I was a little afraid of the treatment and the injections. But if I am able to solve my back problem, it will easier for me to come to a final decision.”

A new update on her condition is expected in two months with the 34-year-old athlete still thinking of participating in her fourth Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang 2018.

“The passion and the taste for competition is still in me, so we will find out later. If I give it a try, I don't want to be a tourist,” Maltais stated in the interview.

Source: fis-ski.com