Valérie Grenier, Brittany Phelan, Arnaud Gaudet, Alexis Guimond, Anna and Jared Schmidt!

Besides their shared home base, these six Tremblant ambassador athletes have in common one destination: Beijing, where they’ll participate in the XXIV Olympic Winter Games.

VALÉRIE GRENIER

The hopes of a great champion

Valérie was not even two years old when her parents started her on skis on Tremblant’s magic carpet slope. It was love at first…slide. She spent all her childhood winter weekends skiing with her family on the Laurentian mountain.

Since then, this formidable skier has piled up her podium achievements and carved out a place for herself among Canada’s skiing elite. At 21, she participated in her first Olympic Games, in Pyeongchang. There she took sixth place in the combined, achieving the best Canadian woman’s performance. This result allowed her to hope for the best at the next Games.

The following year, at the World Championships in Åre, Sweden, Valérie had a spectacular fall, during a training session, where she hit the ground and suffered a quadruple fracture of her leg. In addition to two operations and a long and difficult rehabilitation, the 25-year-old athlete then had to deal with a separate issue, that of coming to grips with speed.

In all, she missed 20 months of competition. But the fall did not define who Valérie is. It would take more than that to divert this steadfast athlete from the goals that she set for herself. In October, 2020, Valérie finally resumed competition.

Flirting with the podium

On January 8 of this year, Valérie managed to equal her best World Cup performance with a fourth place in Giant Slalom, a mere seven hundredth of a second from the bronze medal. And while she does aspire to the podium, this performance is balm to the soul of the athlete who had injured herself in December during a training session in Livigno, Italy.

“I’m proud of myself and really relieved,” Valérie confides during an interview with Tremblant Express. “I’ve missed several races and training sessions due to my December injury. I took two weeks off and started back skiing progressively. I didn’t have any pain at Kranjska Gora. It went really well. I am extremely confident for the Olympics. This race confirmed for me that I could have 100 per cent confidence in myself, be confident about my skiing, and that I don’t have to try anything at all that’s new.”

Between now and the end of the Games, Valérie has nevertheless decided to forget about pure speed for now. “I still have a few mental blocks,” she says. “Things are going well in giant slalom; I’m going to continue to concentrate on that event to see just how well I can do,” she adds. She won two gold medals in the giant slalom at the National Championships in Pozza di Fass, Italy, on this past January 20 and 21.

To wind up, Valérie would like to thank Tremblant and all the people from this area who support her. According to the remarks received by Radio-Canada in the series Rêve Olympique (tr. Olympic Dream), competitive spirit, and her tendency to perform better in competition than in training, are the two key factors that characterize Valérie. It’s the rare athlete who doesn’t fold under the weight of pressure. As a result, all hopes are possible.

BRITTANY PHELAN

Ski cross for life

Silver medallist at the Pyeongchang Olympic Games in 2018, freestyle skier Brittany Phelan is on her way to Beijing to participate in the third Games of her life. The talented skier, who made a discipline change after having won a place for herself at the Sotchi Olympics in alpine skiing, now devotes herself entirely to ski cross: a disciple that she has mastered…and adores.

“I am very excited to be heading for my third Olympic Games, the second in ski cross,” confides the Olympic vice-champion to Tremblant Express.

Brittany has come a long way. In February 2020, she fell and badly injured her knee at the World Cup in Megève, France.

“The rehabilitation has been long and hard,” explains the 30-year-old skier. “I worked hard to reach the level I was at before I got injured, and I’m really happy to have managed to come back.”

So far, Brittany’s season has gone well. A third place in the World Cup of ski cross in San Candido, Italy, this past December, has confirmed her constancy, which has been evident since the start of the season.

“I’m eager to ski in China,” Brittany continues. “I feel good on my skis and I am very happy with my season to date. I just want to take advantage of it and concentrate on my performances, to continue to progress and to work as hard as possible while making the most of every minute,” she emphasizes.

She adds, as well, that these Games will be very different from the past two because this time, her family can’t be present. “It will be strange not to have my family there. They came to my past two Games, and it makes me a bit sad. But I know I can count on their support, even from a distance,” she concludes.

ARNAUD GAUDET

En route to his first Games

At the age of 21, the alpine boarder Arnaud Gaudet is getting ready to take part in his very first Olympic Games. The Montcalm athlete, whose father Patrik is also his coach, has considered Tremblant his playground since he was very young.

“I’m really happy, but the news surprised me,” Arnaud confides. “I perform better in giant slalom than I do in slalom, and giant is the only discipline being presented at the Olympic Games, which I regret a bit,” he concedes.

“I’m still young and my progress curve is still rising. Peak performance in our sport happens between ages 26 and 30. As a result, the federation selected me because I represent ‘high potential’ for the 2026 Olympic Games,” the boarder explains.

Tremblant Express: “Why alpine snowboarding?”

Arnaud Gaudet: Speed and carving are what I’ve always adored about alpine snowboarding. I adore being at ground level in the cut turns. Practically having my body flat on the ground.

T.E.: “Your favourite race on the World Cup circuit?”

A.G.: Bad Gastein, Austria. It’s a slalom race done at night, and it’s magic. It’s also the steepest race I know. It adds a challenge.”

T.E.: “Your goals for this season?”

A.G.: I have three more races on the World Cup circuit. I’m fast in slalom, so I’m aiming for a podium this season. At the Olympic Games, being in the top 16 would be super.”

ALEXIS GUIMOND

Para-alpine skiing

Following an absence of close to two years from World Cup Para-Alpine skiing, Alexis Guimond, bronze medallist in super-G at the 2018 Paralympic Games, had an excellent start to the season by taking, on this past December 7, second and third place in the two super-Gs, standing category, at Steinach am Brenner, Austria.

He first joined the ranks of the Canadian para-alpine ski team in 2016 and won the giant slalom at Kranjska Gora, Slovenia, in his second World Cup season in 2017. It was Canada’s first victory in 10 years in the men’s standing category on the circuit.

After this feat, he took a bronze medal at the World Championships in 2017. With his bronze medal at the 2018 Olympic Games, Alexis ended a medal hiatus of 20 years for Canada. *

HANNAH SCHMIDT

Ski cross

Hannah has skied at Tremblant since she was two and evolved within the Tremblant ski team until she was 17. Now 27, Hannah is a member of the Canadian ski cross team.

In spite of a first season that ended with an injury, Hannah had a sensational 2018-2019 season by winning six podium places on the Nor-Am circuit, which allowed her to finish third in the general classification.

After having missed the 2019- 2020 World Cup season, Hannah returned to the circuit in 2020-2021 during which she obtained a ninth place at Bakuriani, Georgia. Her career is going well this season with her qualifying for the Games in February 2022. **

 JARED SCHMIDT

Ski cross

The youngest member of the Schmidt family on the Canadian ski cross team, Jared grew up and learned to ski at Tremblant. He joined the national team, beside his sister Hannah, in 2018-2019.

The former alpine skier admits he was never the best in competition skiing, but everything changed when he read Brittany Phelan’s message. He tried ski cross with his sister and has never regretted it.

During the 2020- 2021 season, he was on the World Cup podium for the first time at Bakuriani, Georgia, when he took the bronze medal. With three results in the top 30, this 24-year-old skier is a name to watch in the coming years.

Good luck to each of them!

*     Source: alpinecanada.org

**   Source: blogue.tremblant.ca

*** Source: alpinecanada.org

More from this author by clicking on his photo below.