Freestyle skier and Olympian, Jennifer Heil, has had twenty-five victories at the World Championships, and earned Canada’s first Olympic gold in women’s moguls, but her most recent accomplishment is graduating from the Commerce program at McGill University. You will come across a McGill alum who holds a Ph.D. in astrophysics more often than you come across an alum with her credentials. She made sure to mention the caveat that she took slightly longer than four years to complete her B.Com, but she definitely deserves some slack – she managed to win four World Cup titles in a row while enrolled at McGill.
Growing up in the Prairies, Jennifer began skiing competitively at only twelve years old. Her family drove her eight hours every weekend so that she could ski for the provincial team. That’s truly the dedication of a budding Olympic athlete. After graduating high school, Jennifer competed in her first Olympics at the age of eighteen. Despite experiencing Olympic glory, Jennifer felt like she was missing out on something all teenagers look forward to: life as a university student. She had always been excited about going to university, yet while her friends were applying to schools she was prepping for the Olympics, putting school temporarily on the back burner. After missing a medal by one one-hundredth of a point, and experiencing multiple injuries, Jennifer decided to refocus.
“If I wanted to be among the best in the world, I had to train like it,” she explained. Jennifer then went to Montreal to focus on training and re-building her body, but also to get the experience of being in school.
“It was important to have that balance in my life.” A jam-packed exam schedule is enough to stress out any student, but Jennifer was able to juggle school and training by solely focusing on one or the other. Jennifer explained that an ability to focus is definitely her strong point. One could call Jennifer the “queen of time management” indeed. By creating a plan ahead of time and being “100% in the moment”, whether it was at school or in training, she never had to question if she was focusing on the right thing. Part of being at school for Jennifer was hanging out on campus and having fun, so on top of all her commitments, she made time for that too.
Jennifer has mentioned previously that she likes to “push her potential” when training. When asked if she used the same mindset while at school, she explained that she initially took the approach of training at the Olympics, but soon realized that it was a recipe for disaster. The skills required to be a generalist in her undergraduate were completely different than the skills required for her to be a specialist in her sport. She learned that the expectation was not to memorize and master the textbook, trying to hammer out the nitty-gritty details, but to instead look at the bigger picture of concepts.
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Anxiety can certainly get the best of anyone, and it got Jennifer no less often in the classroom than it did on the ski hill. To combat nerves, Jennifer has many tricks and aids in her arsenal, but one that has gotten her a long way is her “I Know List”. Jennifer has always stressed the importance of one’s psychological well-being for training, and while working with the Canadian Vancouver 2010 team’s sports psychologist, Wayne Halliwell, she developed a list of ten things she can say to herself at the top of the run.
“Whether it’s while writing an exam or competing in the Olympics, there’s always a time when you’re going to doubt yourself,” Jennifer explained. She says that the list is a way to turn that negative energy into something positive. She described how her body and mind instantly relax as soon as she focuses on her strengths.
Jennifer owned the podium for a number of years, but now there are some very young, talented athletes that wish to follow in her footsteps. Canada’s 2015 freestyle team includes nineteen-year-old Justine Dufour-Lapointe and Andi Naude, who is only seventeen. When asked what she would say if she could give only give one piece of advice to these girls, she replied, “It’s a moment in time and it’s a privilege. Soak it up in every way possible. When you’re young it seems like it’s going to be forever, but it’s one moment and you must use it to learn everything you can about yourself.”
Having done countless interviews, Jennifer has been asked about everything from her preferred ski destination to her favourite skiwear, but “favourite McGill class” is definitely a less popular question. She said she instantly gravitated towards psychology and loved Professor Taylors’ lectures in Social Psychology. She also learned a lot in Professor Struben’s class “Managing Innovation”, helping her set herself up for her post-athletic career. While reflecting on her undergraduate years, Jennifer said she had the time of her life living on Lorne street in first year, during which she met some of her best friends. When it was crunch time she got lost at McLennan or headed to Humble Lion, her favourite coffee shop.
Although she has retired from skiing, she is busier than ever with her fifteen-month-old son. When she has a night to herself, which is rare, she has dinner with friends in Old Port. She loves the places on Notre-Dame, and has frequented Restaurant Grinder and Nora Gray more than a few times.
Being an Olympic gold-medalist, Jennifer has likely done more and seen more than most people have during their twenties, yet much like any other student, she had to face challenging classes and tight schedules. She chalks up her success to learning how to focus on one thing at a time, and reminding herself of her strengths. Jennifer can inspire each and every student whether they are part of a dance troop, a member of a campus club, or on the varsity hockey team, Olympic champion or not.
Photos taken by Sahar Balvardi.