Ski Presse

La vie
est belle
Championne olympique
de skicross, Ashleigh McIvor
vit le parfait bonheur.
© Blake Jorgenson
par/by Peter Oliver
PROFIL
PROFILE
Ashleigh McIvor, as-tu au moins un défaut ? Fraîchement
retraitée après à une carrière absolument exceptionnelle,
la question vaut la peine d’être posée. La réponse, quant à
elle, ne saute pas aux yeux.
Avec sa médaille d’or olympique
en skicross, elle a réalisé le rêve
ultime de tout athlète. Brillante,
les cheveux d’un blond glamour,
et aussi prisée comme mannequin
qu’à titre de modèle à suivre –
une véritable héroïne canadienne
vivant à Whistler, l’un des plus
beaux endroits au monde. En
plus, elle est fiancée à un gars
« tellement cool », – ajoutant à
son image plus que parfaite, une
touche d’élégance. Selon nos
standards de gens « normaux »,
une vie si florissante semble
presqu’injuste.
Cette impression de succès
sans embûches s’est amplifiée
en 2010, lors des Olympiques.
Quoi de mieux que de se hisser
au sommet de son sport – l’or
olympique – chez soi, devant sa
famille, ses amis et les encouragements
de ses fans canadiens ?
Et de devenir la toute première
femme à gagner une médaille d’or
olympique en skicross ? Un vrai
conte de fées.
Avant les Jeux, face à l’ampleur du
moment, tout ça lui paru tellement
gros et « impossible à atteindre »,
qu’elle décida de ne pas y penser.
« Je préfère me concentrer sur le
processus et j’évite de me faire
engloutir par l’objectif final »,
confie McIvor.
Une fois le but ultime conquis,
cependant, les opportunités se
multiplièrent. En demande partout
It’s a wonderful life
Olympic skicross champion Ashleigh
McIvor lives in perfect harmony.
Ashleigh McIvor, what is wrong with you ? As she enters
retirement after one of the most successful skicross careers in
the history of the sport, the question bears asking, because an
answer is so hard to come by.
In becoming an Olympic gold
medalist, she fulfilled the
ultimate athletic dream. She is
smart, glamorously blonde, and
in demand as a model and role
model – a true Canadian hero
living (in Whistler) in one of
the most exquisitely beautiful
places in the universe. She also
happens to be engaged to a guy
who is “SOOOOO cool” – an
elegant, final brushstroke on an
already blemish-free picture. By
average-human-being standards,
such an agglomeration of life’s
riches seems almost ridiculously
unfair.
This synthesis of trouble-free
perfection became congealed
and concentrated, of course, at
the 2010 Olympics. What could
be better than rising to the very
zenith of your sport – Olympic
gold – in your hometown and
in front of family, friends and
a hyper-supportive Canadian
fan base ? And to become the
first woman skicrosser ever to
win Olympic gold ? It is a fairy
tale come alive, bordering on
biblical allegory.
Before the Games, a harmonic
convergence of such Olympic
magnitude struck McIvor as “so
far-fetched” that she deliberately
took a mental detour around it.
“I like to . . . focus on the journey
and avoid getting overwhelmed
by the end goal,” is her way of
describing it.
Once the journey reached its
successful terminus, however, the
doors of opportunity flew open.
She was in demand – to sponsor
products ; to pose for photos ; to
inspire as a keynote speaker ; to
strip and glam famously for an
Acura commercial ; simply to
be a glowing icon of Canadian
achievement. Put another way,
the end of the journey to Olympic
gold was also the beginning of a
new and very different one – a
journey into the heart of celebrity.
A Whistler girl to the marrow of
every bone, McIvor was cut out
to be a skicrosser before skicross
was even a sport. She assembled
a basic skill package early,
developing racing talents in the
Nancy Greene League to become
good enough to represent Canada
as a junior at the international
level. At the same time, her soul
and spirit were wrapped up in
big-mountain freeskiing, where
she honed a resolute, terrainattacking
fearlessness that is
a core component of skicross.
“What I enjoyed most was skiing
powder, through trees and gullies
and off jumps and cliffs,” she says.
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