
Jennifer Heil
Olympic Champion Freestyle Skier
As one of Canada's premier athletes and recipient of multiple Olympic medals in freestyle mogul skiing, Jenn Heil is a woman whose approach to life consists of a dedication to hard work and a vibrant spirit. After winning gold in the 2006 Winter Olympic Games, she was voted CanWest Media Canadian Female Athlete of the Year in 2007 and won silver in the latest Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver. Jennifer was also recently received The Bobbie Rosenfeld Female Athlete of the Year Award, 2011, presented by the Canadian Press.
As one of Canada's premier athletes and recipient of multiple Olympic medals in freestyle mogul skiing, Jenn Heil is a woman whose approach to life consists of a dedication to hard work and a vibrant spirit.
Originally an avid swimmer, Jenn took her passion for competition and transferred it to freestyle skiing when her lack of height became a limiting factor to success. Dedicated to her dream of competing for Canada at the Olympics, Jenn committed herself to skiing, and trained hard to obtain official national team status.
Her skiing legacy began in 2002 when Jenn took part in her first Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. As the youngest member of the Canadian Olympic Team, she finished 4th and took the next year "off" to begin studies at McGill University. Following this, she burst back into to the World Cup circuit delivering unprecedented competition success with five overall World Cup titles, 58 World Cup podiums, four gold and two silver World Championship performances, Olympic gold in 2006 and an Olympic silver in 2010.
Jenn earned the first Canadian medal for the 2006 Olympics with her gold win, which led to an honour as the CanWest Media Canadian Female Athlete of the Year in 2007. Jenn took the 2008 season to work solely on her academic career and returned the following season to the slopes in preparation for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Jenn once again delivered Canada’s first medal of the games: this time, silver. She captured both World Championship titles in her final season becoming the only skier to complete the skiing Grand Slam winning every title in her sport.
Now retired from competition, Jenn now focuses her drive to succeed and pursuit of excellence in her charitable work. She is active in supporting Plan International's Because I am a Girl Campaign, donating $25,000 during the 2010 Winter Olympics and continues working toward her $1,000,000 personal fundraising goal. As a passionate mentor to youth sports and young women, Jenn runs an in-school speaking series, emphasizing the importance of dreaming big, and also coaches an elite "girls only" mogul skiing camp every year.
Recently Jenn co-founded the amateur athlete training and preparation resource B2ten, which uses an individualized, comprehensive approach to maximize athlete potential at the highest level of competition and has returned to McGill University to finish her business degree.
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1. Dare to Dream
Dare to Dream emphasizes the importance of "dreaming big" and never giving in to limitations. One is always faced with limitations when setting their sites high. But often our limitations are perceived. By getting creative, developing new solutions and believing, one can move closer to accomplishing their ultimate goals. Jenn views her own experience as proof positive as to what can happen when one pursues their dreams.
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2. Managing Pressure and Expectations
Having just one opportunity every four years of less than 25 seconds to perform while having 250 million viewers watching can be summed up as "absolute - positively no room for error". When your entire country expects you to deliver we are talking about the ultimate pressure. In three Olympics Jenn has won gold, silver and finished 4th , at Salt Lake City as the youngest Canadian to compete, by 1/100th of a point.
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3. Becoming the Driver - how to make coming up short work for you
Fourth at the Olympics may not seem something to fret about to the general public however it is the cruelest of positions in the sport world especially when one missing a medal by 1/100th of a point as Jenn did at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. Jenn took coming up short and transformed it into a mission to not only train harder for the next Winter Olympic Games but to train smarter. Whatever your profession, taking control of your goals, creating a plan for success, and working with a team to execute your plan is required for success. Jenn will share how she did it and how you can do it for your own success.
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