Woolstencroft with a handful of gold.
Photo: jonathan Hayward/Canadian PressWoolstencroft skis to Paralympics podium
By Mike McNeney
When skier Lauren Woolstencroft, BEng ’05, was interviewed for a feature profile in the Autumn issue of the UVic Torch Alumni Magazine, she said—in her usual, understated way—that she would be “unhappy” if she didn’t make it to the podium at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Paralympics.
In the end, she had five incredibly good reasons to be happy with her performance after winning all of her races and bringing home five gold medals in the alpine standing ski races. Her five victories match a single-games Paralympic record set by swimmer Stephanie Dixon, BA ’09, in 2000 in Sydney.
Woolstencroft, born with no legs below the knee and no arm below her left elbow, far exceeded her own expectations. She had been having a sub-par season on the World Cup circuit but worked hard in the final month before the games and felt confident heading into her events at Whistler. “Everything worked in my favour. I feel extremely lucky,” she said afterwards in an interview with the Globe & Mail.
She became “Canada’s Golden Girl” and carried the Canadian flag at the close of the Games. She dropped the puck at a ceremonial face-off, alongside other BC-based Paralympic and Olympic athletes, at the March 30 Vancouver Canucks game.
Her passion for skiing was fostered early by her athletic family. She grew up in Calgary and was skiing the slopes of Whitefish, Montana and Lake Louise by age four. At 14, she skied in her first competition. She joined the national team in 1998. At her first big competition, in 1999, “I was dead last,” she told the Torch. “But I accelerated really quickly.”
She chose engineering “because I liked that it is very applied,” she says. “I wanted the going-away-to-university experience, and when I was trying to decide where to go, I was thinking of going east. I found that most engineering schools are very rigid, whereas UVic offered a more flexible program. They wouldn’t kick me out if I took time off for training and competing.”
She spread her degree over six years, taking one winter off so she could compete in the Salt Lake games. After she graduated, she landed a job with BC Hydro, mostly working on power distribution infrastructure for Olympic venues.
Jean-Sébastien Labrie, the head coach of Canada’s Para-Alpine Ski Team, notes that her technique is very close to the able-bodied. “She has very good balance, so she can produce the same kind of edging,” he says.
Her coach lauds her ability to put aside troublesome nerves. “She is a very well-rounded person,” Labrie says. “She’s mature, she makes the right choices, she is able to control her emotions. Since I’ve known her, she’s been very good at performing on demand. When it counts she’s always solid, with the right focus and right intensity.”
Woolstencroft, 28, now returns to the job she loves at BC Hydro, and to contemplate whether to retire from competition or to take another run at Paralympic glory at the 2014 Sochi Games.
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