The inevitable happened, and our first gold medal was won by Canadian mogul skier Alexandre Bilodeau. We at Own the Podium are thrilled for his success.
What has impressed me so far is how well most of our athletes are performing. Jenn Heil, Chloe Dufour-Lapointe and Kristi Richards performed really well in women’s moguls. Vincent Marquis and Pierre Alexandre Rousseau finished 4th and 5th in moguls, putting three Canadians in the top five. Kristina Groves skated her heart out to bronze in the women’s 3000 meters, and Clara Hughes was 5th. Sam Edney finished 7th in luge. Jean Philippe LeGuillec finished 6th in the men’s 10-km Biathlon.
These are all exceptional performances for these individuals. They have been well prepared by their coaches who deserve to be recognised and congratulated.
Two of the challenges for Own the Podium have been to build some depth of quality performance with athletes already in the system, and to have them ‘perform on demand’. So far, the sports are showing us they have been able to do this. We are also seeing some younger athletes emerge with great results and this bodes well for the future.
