Jill Officer named Olympics mentor

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This article was published 13/05/2021 (1601 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jill Officer retired from high-level competition three years ago.

Who would have guessed that in February the 45-year-old Winnipegger will be returning to the Olympic Games, the scene of her greatest achievement as a curler?

On Thursday, the Canadian Olympic Committee announced Officer will be one of five Olympic veterans to be chosen to support Canadian athletes as mentors at the upcoming Winter Games in Beijing.

Officer, the longtime second on Jennifer Jones’ gold-medal-winning curling team at the 2014 Games in Sochi, will be joined by Maxime Dufour-Lapointe of Montreal (freestyle skiing, 2014), Geneviève Saumur of Montreal (swimming, Beijing 2008), Sherraine Schalm of Brooks, Alta. (fencing, London 2012, Beijing 2008, Athens 2004, Sydney 2000) and Seyi Smith of Ottawa (athletics/bobsleigh, London 2012, PyeongChang 2018).

The athlete mentor role was created to help support athletes through the unique challenges of competing at the Olympics.

“We were really fortunate that we had an excellent Games experience but I know that that’s not the case for everybody,” said Officer. “I think that I felt like I had more experiences before and after almost that could be of benefit.

“I always appreciated getting perspective from other athletes in other sports about things throughout my entire career. I think with the Olympics… it really is a bigger beast. If you’re not prepared for that then it can go poorly and I think that our job as mentors is to really just sort of facilitate some things that athletes need.”

The volunteer position will require Officer to relocate to China for a month with the Games scheduled for Feb. 4-20. A journalist by training, Officer recently began work toward a kinesiology degree at the University of Winnipeg.

Once that is complete, she intends to enrol in the master’s program for mental performance, which is in keeping with her recent coaching work with Tracy Fleury’s team at the provincials and Scotties wild-card game. Her niece, Kristin MacCuish, is the lead on Team Fleury.

“I think I’ve started to see myself that way since stepping away from the elite level of play,” said Officer, who may take a semester off from school while she’s in Beijing.

“Like many athletes and many people who retire from something, it’s a transition period. I did some soul-searching on what I wanted my next career to be, as much as I have a communications and journalism background I wasn’t sure that that was still something that I wanted to pursue.”

Officer’s resumé has some serious credentials: she’s six-time Canadian champ and a two-time worlds titleist in addition to her Sochi gold.

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“I coached my niece’s team for a short time last year and just started feeling some confidence in what I felt like I could offer in terms of my experience in curling and then also my Olympic experience and athlete experience and just life experience,” said Office. “I know what challenges I faced throughout my career and I guess that’s something that I would like to be able to share with people so that they can learn from my experience.”

Officer will live in one of Beijing’s three athletes villages and expects to spend a lot of time in the athletes lounge, dispensing advice and guidance.

“I’m just really looking forward to being part of that greater team again even though it’s not as an athlete,” she said. “It’s in a different capacity and it’s almost hard to explain and grasp, but there’s this deep connection to the Olympics and the Canadian team and just such pride that Canadian athletes have for being part of that.”

mike.sawatzky@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @sawa14

Mike Sawatzky
Reporter

Mike has been working on the Free Press sports desk since 2003.

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