Heil and Bilodeau: Before the glory

Joe Scaringi
June 7, 2010

For amateur athletes, there is no greater achievement than standing proudly atop the Olympic podium, watching in awe as their country’s flag is raised, their national anthem is played and a golden treasure resting solemnly around their neck.

No matter which end of the globe one calls home, for an athlete, this wondrous moment is like no other.

The cruel nature of sport, however, is that many athletes have and will go through entire careers without ever realizing this enchanting pinnacle. It is a triumph which requires tremendous sacrifice. Even then, luck can factor in quite crudely. After all, if it were easily achievable, it wouldn’t be such an awe-inspiring prize to begin with.

At 27 years of age, Canadian freestyle skier Jennifer Heil is considered to be the ‘Wayne Gretzky of women’s ski moguls’. Having topped the podium at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, the Spruce Grove, Alberta native recalled how her Olympic gold medal went from dream to reality.

“I can still remember the exact thought when I saw the score on the Jumbotron [in Turin] and it said ‘first place’,” said Heil. “I looked away and then double-checked the score and I just started screaming. My exact thought was ‘I can’t believe this just happened after a lifetime of dreaming of it’.”

Having been on the Canadian National Ski Team for six years prior to topping the podium, Heil points to her experience at the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, USA as being a crucial aid in her quest to find gold.

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“Obviously, just to be an Olympian and to be at my first Olympics was phenomenal, but I was really nervous,” said Heil of Salt Lake City. “I probably wasn’t prepared as well as I would have liked to have been.”

While admitting that she may not have put her best foot forward in Salt Lake, Heil credits her fourth-place finish with allowing her to win gold four years later.

“After Salt Lake, my coach Dominick Gauthier and I started to build a program to make sure that I wouldn’t go to my next Olympic Games not feeling prepared mentally, physically and technically,” said the 5-foot-4-inch Albertan. “So finishing fourth definitely pushed me to work harder and I think it really contributed to my success in Torino.”

Having become an expert of her craft, Heil and her coach would eventually enlist Montreal native Alexandre Bilodeau, taking him under their wings and helping him discover an Olympic conquest of his own.

“I asked Dominick if I could do an event with him and Jenn,” recalled Bilodeau, whom earlier this year became the first Canadian ever to win Olympic gold on home soil. “He gave me the opportunity to do it with them and it was just great – it was the best experience for me.”

Under the tutelage of Heil and Gauthier, Bilodeau sloshed through the trenches of international competition, training quietly under the radar.

“You learn from the best, and Jenn was and is the best in freestyle skiing,” said the 22-year-old. “She is a legend.

“In the gym, she pushed me every day and she motivates me. It’s great to always be competing with her. We have become like brother and sister.”

Thanks to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver, many know Bilodeau for being that first Canuck to top the podium in Canada. Few, however, are familiar with his 11th-place finish four years prior in Turin, which, much like Heil, he credits with helping him find gold.

“When I crossed that finish line in Turin, I understood what the Olympic Games were all about,” recalled the French-Canadian skier. “At the World Cup, if you finish 11th, you’re like ‘next week I’ll get it back’. But if you finish 11th at the Olympics, there’s no next week. I needed to wait another four years to get my revenge.”

For Bilodeau, revenge was an understatement. After Heil’s run on Day 1 of the 2010 Games brought her silver, the door was open for ‘little brother’ Alex to make history the following day.

“Obviously, it’s fun to hear, but my medal is not worth more than others; it’s only timing,” said Bilodeau. “I only had the opportunity to win that first gold because Jenn didn’t on the first day. If I wouldn’t have done it, it would have gone to Maelle Ricker the next day.”

Bilodeau gives the credit for his history-making run to the International Olympic Committee, who allotted ski moguls to the Games’ opening two days.

“If my event would have been during the second week, I wouldn’t have had that chance, that’s for sure,” he said. “So I need to thank the IOC in Geneva for setting the schedule.”

For Heil and Bilodeau, while they may be distinguished athletes throughout The Great White North, it was their Olympic experiences in Salt Lake and Turin respectively – while still relatively unknowns in the world of amateur sport – that allowed them to achieve Olympic glory.

“Winning a gold medal is a dream I’ve had since I saw Jean-Luc [Brassard] win his gold in ’94 in Lilehammer,” said Bilodeau. “It’s an Olympic gold and it’s not something that everyone gets to have. I’ve dreamt it, that’s for sure, but you don’t think it’s realistic until you get to the Olympics.”

“My goal has always been to improve every season,” said Heil. “I honestly never even thought or imagined I would have had this type of success.

“At the end of the day, to have had all the success that I’ve had, yeah it’s obviously wonderful, but for me, I feel like I achieved my goals and that’s what I take away from it.”

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The Author:

Joe Scaringi