WATCH: Olympic gold medallist Jill Officer appears on the Morning News on Global Winnipeg to launch her blog.
Canadian Olympic gold medallist and Winnipeg mom Jill Officer gives us a twice-monthly look behind the scenes at her dual life.
While at the grocery store on the weekend, a woman’s face lit up when she looked at me across the produce section. I thought she was smiling because my almost three-year-old daughter was with me and kept asking, “What’s that?” as we walked through the colourful fruit and vegetables.
After leaving the section to search for other items on my list, making a potty pit stop and going back to the produce section for more fruit, that same woman came up to me. She was visibly nervous.
She told me she is a big curling fan. Then she explained that she never thought she would be a “celebrity stalker” but that she followed me out of the produce section the first time she laid eyes on me, presumably too shy and nervous to say hello.
Eventually she congratulated me on our Olympic gold medal and said how excited she was to tell her friend she met me.
About 25 steps and 30 seconds later, a man caught my eye and said, “We are so proud of you.” Then he said how weird it was to see an Olympic athlete at the grocery store on a Sunday afternoon with her young child.
Well, I’m here to tell you, that is me you see at the grocery store, the mall or at the zoo with my kid. Yes, I curl with Jennifer Jones. And yes, I am proud to say I am an Olympic gold medallist. But I am also a mother to great kid, a wife for more than six years, a sister, a daughter, an aunt and hopefully a good friend.
READ MORE: Canada’s Jennifer Jones leads Canadian women to gold curling medal in Sochi
That means I juggle what at times seems like two lives – the public life and persona of Jill Officer, Olympic gold medallist, as well as the so-called “normal” everyday challenges of Jill Officer, the mom, wife, daughter, etc.
While these lives sometimes cross paths as in the story above, it is even weird to me at times to think that I am a gold medallist. This is especially true when I am rushing to make supper, encouraging my daughter to eat said supper and then feeling frustrated when she doesn’t listen during what I am sure for her is boring bedtime prep.
So welcome to my “house.” My blog where I will give you insight into my double life, but also what I have learned through sport, through becoming a gold medallist, and of course through becoming a wife, a mom and friend.
READ MORE: Golden curlers greeted by heroes’ welcome at Winnipeg airport
For those of you who only see me on television, on the ice, in my performance state, I understand how “weird” it is. After all, this new life as an Olympic gold medallist is still “weird” to me too.
Jill Officer won an Olympic gold medal at the 2014 Sochi Olympics as the second on the Canadian curling team led by skip Jennifer Jones. She’s also a writer, broadcaster, wife and mother to a three-year-old girl.
READ MORE: Canada’s athletes in Sochi: Meet curler Jill Officer
WATCH AND WIN: Win an autographed Jill Officer Sochi 2014 Olympics jersey
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