“I was kind of in shock.”
With that observation, Cochrane’s Ashleigh Alexander summed up her gold-medal experience at the 2015 Canada Winter Games in Prince George, B.C.
The 14-year-old Cochrane High School Grade 9 student skied to first place in the female slalom event Feb. 18 at the Games. She finished with a combined two-run time of one minute, 39.15 seconds on the course at Purden Ski Village, 60 kilometres east of the host city in central B.C.
“The skiers there were amazing. Coming into slalom I told myself not to be disappointed with a top-10 finish,” Alexander said of her expectations in the technical ski-racing event she favours most. “After my first run, I was shocked just being in second. I didn’t even think I was going to come in top-10.”
Skiers each took two runs down the Canada Games slalom course. Alexander’s Alberta teammate, Stephanie Profitt of Calgary, posted the top first-run time (48.81 seconds), less than 2/10ths of a second ahead of Alexander.
“With Stephanie in first after the first run, I’ve known I can beat her, and I just knew it was going to be a good second run and I was ready for it.”
Alexander’s second run of 50.17 seconds was almost a half-second faster than Profitt’s second run, giving Alexander the overall victory. Profitt took silver and Quebec’s Justine Clement bronze.
“It was really great being on podium with Stephanie. I know her really quite well. Just being able to be up there with one of my good friends is just really amazing.”
Forty-one skiers completed the two-run race, the course held up well.
“It was a little bit icy, but it held up really nicely,” Alexander said of the slalom piste. “It was really good. It was a really nice course.”
She skied in three other female alpine events, finishing 13th in the giant slalom, 28th in the super-G and seventh in the ski-cross.
