Le May Doan exudes spirit of leadership
Ex-speed skater out in front now as chef de mission
Catriona Le May Doan’s experiences at both ends of the Olympic spectrum — falling flat in Lillehammer, rising above it all in Nagano and Salt Lake City — make her a wise choice to lead Canada’s athletes into Beijing.
The 49- year- old former speedskater, who owns two Olympic gold medals and a bronze, has been named Canada’s chef de mission for the 2022 Winter Games. It will be her 11th tour of duty at the five- ring circus, after attending four as an athlete and five as a broadcaster and serving as Team Canada’s lead athlete mentor for Pyeongchang 2018, a little more than two years ago.
“I understand what it’s like to go to the Games. It’s different than anything else,” she said last week from her home in Calgary. “It’s different than a world championship, it’s different than a World Cup. There is a different spirit to it. But it is amazing and I want the athletes to know that I am here for them in whatever way it might be.
“I hope as a leader I will be able to help establish an environment along with the rest of the mission team where the athletes will be able to have their best performance ever. We want to celebrate a record performance. We had that in Pyeongchang and we hope to be even better in Beijing in 2022. And yet all you can hope for the athlete is they go in there well prepared and they leave there knowing they had the best performance possible on that day.”
Canada won a record 29 medals at Pyeongchang 2018, continuing a run of success that began in 2006 with 24 medals in Torino, then 26 in Vancouver in 2010 and 25 at Sochi 2014. For Le May Doan, the experience in Korea was inspirational.
“It was my first time on the mission team and I was able to help ( chef de mission) Isabelle Charest when she needed, when she was busy. I took on certain roles. I watched her. And I knew leaving Pyeongchang this was a role that I really wanted.”
There is a mentorship aspect to the chef de mission’s job and the COVID-19 pandemic will no doubt impact the way Le May Doan is able to provide it. The pandemic has already played havoc with the Tokyo Games, which were postponed by a year to July and August of 2021. When that flame is extinguished, just six months will remain before the Beijing Games open in February 2022.
Restrictions on travel and gatherings could linger well into 2021 or even longer, but Le May Doan is nonetheless determined to get to know all of Canada’s winter Olympians before they arrive in China. She’s eager to share the breadth of knowledge she culled from her rich Olympic experiences and perhaps pass on some words of caution.
“I’ve gone in with expectations and completely failed. I’ve gone in with the most amount of pressure I will ever imagine and achieved ( medals),” said Le May Doan, who fell during the 500 metres at Lillehammer 1994 but came back to win gold medals in the 500 at Nagano 1998 and Salt Lake City 2002. “There is a pressure that’s put on you, whether it’s by the media, the country or by yourself, there’s just a level of honour and pressure that comes with the Games. But there is also this level of pride and amazement and beauty to it.”
If athletes have the proper training, attitude and guidance, they can successfully navigate their way through those heightened expectations. Providing some perspective on that front is also part of the chef ’s job.
“I think back to 2010 and I was working with ( moguls skier Jennifer Heil) going into the Games, mentoring her a little bit,” said Le May Doan.
“She was expected to defend her gold and came away with a silver. I remember she phoned me half an hour after her performance and she said ‘I was the best that I could be, ( American Hannah Kearney) was just better.’
“I remember thinking that was one of the most powerful lines I have ever heard.
“In sport you don’t know what will happen until you cross the finish line, until the game is over, until you’re down the hill. But you want to make sure the athletes are as prepared as possible and they have all the support so that regardless of the result they are as good as they could be on that day.”
If Le May Doan and her Team Canada mission staff accomplish that much in Beijing, it will have been a successful Games, regardless of the medal count.
I WANT THE ATHLETES TO KNOW THAT I AM HERE FOR THEM.