Nancy Green: Olympic Champion, Senator, and Advocate for Healthy Lifestyles

Nancy Green is very attached to the Eastern Townships. The resident of Sun Peaks, a ski village located in the mountains near Kamloops in British Columbia, was in Bromont to see friends during her summer vacation. She took the opportunity to land on the red carpet at Rossignol’s headquarters (the Start Gate store), to share her experience with the people gathered for the occasion.

La Voix de l’Est had the chance to speak with her on the sidelines of the event. What do you have to say to these young people who want to follow in your footsteps in the world of skiing? “Before becoming a champion, you have to [apprivoiser] the mountain while skiing with the family. Skiing is a pleasure for life, she says. In competition, you need perseverance. You don’t always win. But we must continue. Stand.”

In fact, Nancy Green says she has long been in the shadow of her older sister, Elizabeth. “She was always better than me. I often finished second or third because she won everything. But, I did not give up, she underlines. And then I won several races.”

The Ottawa native started competitive skiing at age 14. The ex-athlete, now 80, made her debut at the Squaw Valley Olympics in 1960. She was just 16 at the time. She participated in her second Games in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1964.

Her sporting career took off when she won the first World Cup in 1967. In that crucial year, she won seven out of 16 events, finishing first overall. The final race of the season remains one of the memorable moments of his life. “I knew I had to win the race to win the World Cup. It was very special, confided the one who was nicknamed “Tiger” because of her aggressive style on the track. And I did it with a lead of only seven hundredths of a second. But behind all that, there was a lot of work.

Nancy Green continued her momentum, brilliant the following year at the Grenoble Games by winning silver in slalom, then gold in giant slalom.

During her flourishing sports career, she has accumulated 13 World Cup victories, in addition to winning 17 Canadian championships. The triple Olympian has drawn a line under this part of her life at 24 years old. Nancy Green was inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. She was named Canada’s Female Athlete of the 20th Century in 1999.

Triple 9

After her sports career, Nancy Green made the leap into politics. She was named a senator from British Columbia in 2009. She retired from Parliament Hill in 2018. Funny enough, the number 9 has a very special place in her life. “I competed on skis for nine years, and I was wearing number 9. I was also in the Senate for nine years. We can say that number 9 suits me rather well”, she says, laughing.

Nancy Green wore bib number 9 during her career on the slopes. We see her here at the Grenoble Olympics in 1968, where she won silver in slalom, then gold in giant slalom. (Taken from Facebook)

Listening, curiosity and perseverance punctuated his political career. Nancy Green was also an ardent defender of healthy lifestyles, mainly among young people. She notably introduced the National Health and Fitness Day Bill.

She also put forward a bill (S-228) on the “protection of children’s health”. Among other things, it aimed to prohibit “advertising of unhealthy foods and drinks” aimed at young people.

Although the new legislative rule has not been passed, Nancy Green hopes that a new law will take over in the House of Commons. A sedentary lifestyle and the time spent in front of screens are scourges that society must tackle, she says with conviction.

“There is so much obesity in children. This is among other things because of marketing with junk food. There are also video games which are a problem. We must act and protect the children. And parents have a duty in all of this. If they are active, young people will be too.”

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