Heil cherishes silver medal, golden memories

A few weeks ago, when the freestyle skier was getting fitted for boots at a ski shop in Mont Tremblant, Que., Jennifer Heil watched tears trickle down the cheeks of an older man as he recounted stories from the games, where he had worked as a volunteer.

"He was still so emotional, and I thought that was just really amazing the way we came together and the way it connected us all," Heil said. "That's essentially a year later and we're all so touched by it."

Heil will never forget the moment she stood at the stop of the mountain, rain pouring onto her shoulders, before starting her run at the Vancouver 2010 Games. When her name was announced, "the whole mountain vibrated," she said.

It was, she says, the best moment of her career.

She would win the silver medal in the freestyle ski moguls competiton.

"At the end of the day, that's probably what I'm most proud of in my career, how I faced that," she said.

But every day since the Olympics Heil's adventures have been no less momentous. Last summer, she had dinner with Queen Elizabeth II - "I Googled my manners and etiquette before," she said. And she received an invitation to the Clinton Global Initiative in New York last September, after having donated $25,000 to the Because I am a Girl campaign. The charity aims to lift girls in third-world countries out of poverty.

It proved to be another life-changing experience.

"It was the coolest room I've ever been in," said the queen of moguls. She sat among political leaders, kings, and queens. She listened with rapt attention to former U.S. president Bill Clinton, Hilary Clinton, the president of Liberia, the chief executive officer of Coca-Cola, as they spoke.

"This room was all about making a difference and doing the right thing," she said. She left, profoundly inspired.

While Heil was there, she also encountered a Google executive in charge of philanthropy.

"My dream job," Heil said.

Although Heil had already been enrolled in a management program at McGill University in Montreal, the Google executive advised Heil to study policy as well. Heil has since adjusted her education path, to add a minor in political science.

Read full article: The Globe and Mail, February 11, 2011