Heil ends moguls career with bang: skier named Canada's female athlete of 2011
There are athletes whose careers fade away and then there are
those like Jennifer Heil who leave at the top.
Canada's most successful female freestyle skier ended her career
earlier this year with an unexpected sweep of the moguls and dual
moguls gold medals at the world championships.
That performance earned Heil the Bobbie Rosenfeld Award as The
Canadian Press female athlete of 2011.
''I knew it was the last time I'd stand on a podium and hear the
Canadian anthem,'' Heil said of her double victory at Deer Valley,
Utah. ''It was an incredible moment that just kind of wrapped up my
whole career in this one last great final moment.''
The 2006 Olympic gold medallist garnered 115 points to win the
award in balloting among sports editors and broadcasters across the
country.
Long-track speedskater Christine Nesbitt was second with 100
points, ahead of soccer star Christine Sinclair (84), short-track
speedskater Marianne St-Gelais (39) and world champion boxer Mary
Spencer (31).
The award is named after Rosenfeld, an Olympic champion and
all-rounder who was voted Canada's top female athlete for the first
half of the 20th century.
Figure skater Patrick Chan won the Lionel Conacher Award as
Canada's male athlete of the year on Wednesday.
It is surprising Heil has not won the Rosenfeld Award before,
considering a stellar career that saw her take five overall World
Cup titles, 58 World Cup top-three finishes, four gold and two
silver medals at world championships, and her gold at the 2006
Winter Games in Turin, Italy, and silver at the 2010 Games in
Vancouver.
The wins at her final meet were especially significant because,
while she had three world championship golds in dual moguls, in
which two skiers come down the hill together, she had never before
won the single moguls title.
Heil, a native of Spruce Grove, Alta., who has been based in
Montreal since 2006, retired after the worlds in February to do
charity work and concentrate on her studies at Ï㽶ÊÓƵ in
business management, with a minor in political science...
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