WEST VANCOUVER, B.C. – As a seven-year-old, Alexandre Bilodeau watched freestyle skier Jean-Luc Brassard carve down the slopes in Lillehammer, Norway, and knew where his future lay.
Nearly 16 years to the day, Brassard — and the rest of the country — watched Bilodeau make his own Olympic history.
The 22-year-old from Rosemere, Que., gave Canada its first Olympic gold medal as a host nation Sunday night, taming the Cypress Mountain course with one of the best moguls runs of his career.
Bilodeau was always seen as a special performer. On Sunday night, he showed it on his sport’s largest stage.
“I remember when he was 12, and I was coaching him, telling him he could go as far as he could if he wanted to,” said 30-year-old Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau, who finished fifth in what will likely be his last Olympics.
Coach Dominick Gauthier remembers a fresh-faced Bilodeau who had tremendous physical gifts but was too reckless for his own good.
At the 2006 Games in Turin, Bilodeau faltered on his second jump in the final and finished 11th.
But he put it together last season. With defending Olympic champion Dale Begg-Smith, a Vancouver native now competing for Australia, on the shelf with a knee injury, Bilodeau won five races to top the moguls world.
It wasn’t quite as smooth this season. Begg-Smith, Sweden’s Jesper Bjoernlund and France’s Guilbault Colas all turned in stronger results in the events leading up to the Games.
But Bilodeau had a plan.
Rather than needlessly going all out on his runs, he was tweaking things here and there. He watched video to see where he could gain valuable points.
He also got special attention from Gauthier, who spent most of last year working exclusively with Bilodeau and women’s moguls star Jennifer Heil.
Heil provided the inspiration. Gauthier helped develop his physical and mental skills.
Those around Bilodeau marvelled at his calm going into the Games during training last week at Apex Mountain.
“Just his freshness the past two weeks . . . he was just so relaxed,” said Gauthier, who competed for Canada at the 1998 Olympics in Nagano, Japan. “He was so calm coming here. We were so well-prepared.”
Bilodeau was also all business. He barely saw girlfriend Jany-Eve Saucier after his arrival in Vancouver.
“He really wanted to stay focused before the competition,” she said. “I was only allowed to give him a kiss during the opening ceremonies and to blow a kiss to him before his race, and that’s it.”
When it was all on the line Sunday night, Bilodeau pulled the trigger.
Begg-Smith set the tone, putting together a smooth run capped by a 720-degree twist on the final jump to score 26.58 points. Noted for his muted celebrations, Begg-Smith raised one arm in triumph before taking a seat at the bottom of the hill.
No more tweaking for Bilodeau. He rolled the dice.
He took a few deep breaths before bursting out of the gate, hitting a back double twist. It had the highest degree of difficulty of any opening jump, and when he landed it, the crowd went crazy.
Bilodeau blazed down the moguls section of the course, maintaining breakneck speed heading into the bottom jump — a back flip with crossed skis. He landed that cleanly, and raised both arms in the air as he crossed the line to the sound of thousands of screaming fans.
Moments later, there was another eruption — 26.75 points and first place.
Colas was the final skier, and when his score of 25.74 flashed across the screen, Bilodeau — and all of Canada — began celebrating.
“The crowd here was incredible, I love competing at home,” said Bilodeau. “It brings out the best in me.”
Bilodeau celebrated Sunday’s victory with parents Sylvie and Serge, sister Beatrice, and brother Frederic, who has cerebral palsy. After the race, Alexandre shared a long embrace with Frederic, whom he has repeatedly called his biggest inspiration.
After the win, Saucier clutched Bilodeau’s victory bouquet.
Watching it all was Brassard, in his role as analyst for French sports network RDS.
“I started (moguls) because of it,” Alexandre Bilodeau said of Brassard’s Olympic win, Canada’s first in freestyle skiing. “I just hope it’s going to go the same way for many other Canadians.”
Brassard fought back tears as he told The Canadian Press how he felt about watching his protege win gold at home.
“When you have kids like that, that one day said ‘I’ve done it because of him’ . . . it’s really amazing,” said Brassard. “It’s an amazing reward.”
