The Jasper Junior Olympics saw a local girl take gold on Saturday (Feb. 27) at Marmot Basin in the biggest race in North America.

Jacquelyn Proc took gold in the ten year old girls category. She finished with the fastest overall time of any competitor with a time of 42:82.

“I felt really good because my first time, the person beat me by like two milliseconds, so I was really trying to do a little better,” said Proc.

She said that a unique training program was very helpful in her success.

“Our coaches really helped us, specifically,” she said. “They didn’t just say ‘oh do what you want’; we didn’t all practice the same thing. They actually said do a certain thing for each person.”

Proc said that if a person needs to work on edges, that is what they were trained on specifically. She said each person has a different skill they need to work on and that is what the coaches helped them with.

One of Proc’s coaches, David Turcot, said of the 365 racers at the event, Procs’ time was the fastest.

“We brought in a coaching coordinator this year (Gilbert Wall). He used to coach for the national team,” said Turcot. “He brought in a series of new measures.”

Turcot said they mixed up the children by not having them all in the same classes.

“So rather than keeping them in one class we switch them around to where their needs are,” he said. “It seemed to work because these are our best results ever.”

Turcot said all the coaches worked very hard and with the assistance of Wall, they were able to tackle specific skills.

The coaches were in the start gates with each competitor, and if they needed to be calmed down that is what they would do. But in Procs case, if they need to be psyched-up, they get a “go, go, go,” said Turcot.

The Jasper Ski Team did really well overall, and the coaches are very impressed says Turcot.

“I mean ‘bang’ we hit the podium so many times, and tons of top tens,” said Turcot.

“For a lot of the little kids it was their first race,” he said.

Turcot said this event was a great way to introduce the children to racing because there were children from all over Alberta and it is a great way to make some new friends.