Kamloops This Week
Elli Terwiel can uncross her fingers and start celebrating — she’s going to realize a childhood dream.
Alpine Canada formally nominated the 24-year-old from Sun Peaks to the Canadian team heading to Sochi, Russia, for the Olympic Winter Games in February.
“She’s going to be skiing slalom at the Olympics for Canada,” Alpine Canada’s director of communications Keith Bradford said after the announcement was made on Monday, Jan. 27.
Terwiel’s inclusion was no sure thing.
After sustaining a concussion in December, Terwiel was left to hope an 11th-place finish at a World Cup event in Levi, Finland, in November and a pair of 17th-place finishes in World Cups in Maribor, Slovenia, and Flachau, Austria, in January 2013 would be enough. The basic qualification criteria for nomination to the team is two top-12 World Cup results, with at least one this season.
She never earned a second top-12 World Cup result and, with the qualification window closing for Canadian alpine skiers on Sunday, Jan. 26, all Terwiel could do was watch and hope.
“It was extremely frustrating,” Terwiel told KTW earlier this month.
“It was kind of like watching a TV program when you should be an actor in it. It was a bit surreal.
“I’ve come so far in my career and then, in these very last moments, in the very last races, where I put so much work and dedication towards achieving this goal, I just kind of had to sit on the sidelines and watch.”
Terwiel will be in the thick of things next month.
The Games run from Feb. 7 to Feb. 23.