Caroline Calvé makes snowboard history

Caroline Calvé was still walking on air two weeks after her golden World Cup victory in a women’s snowboard parallel giant slalom in Carezza, Italy. In a telephone interview last month, she said elatedly, “I’ve always wanted to be the first to win that gold medal.” The victory fulfilled her long-held dream. It was the first win ever by a Canadian woman in alpine snowboarding, inscribing her name in the annals of Canadian snowboard history.

For Caroline, the gold medal was a long time coming. The 33-year-old from both Mont Tremblant and Mont Ste-Marie ski and snowboard clubs has been competing for a decade with mixed results. She came close to gold almost three years ago, winning a silver medal in Valmalenco, Italy, and she has had a couple of fourth place finishes. A definitive turning point came last February when she took a break from the World Cup circuit during a dark period, having lost national team funding. Then, in a show of faith at a benefit, Mont Ste-Marie, north of Hull, where she was born, named a trail after her. It was a gesture that spurred her return to competition, inspired and determined to show her gratitude by doing well. That renewed and highly focused effort was rewarded with gold on December 21, 2011, in Carezza.

The five-foot-ten-inch beauty, whose paternal great-grandmother is Algonquin, is also elated for quite another reason. She’ll be able to use her new-found fame to help Aboriginal causes. She’s already an ambassador for the N7 Foundation, which provides equipment and grants to support sports and physical activity programs for Aboriginal youth in Canada and the United States.

Caroline doesn’t have much time left in her World Cup career, considering that she wants to have children. When asked what her future plans were, she answered, “I don’t really have plans. I’ll just take it one day at a time.”

André Courey, journalist