VANCOUVER, B.C. - Joannie Rochette didn't see herself as a hero when she welled up the courage to step on the ice at the Vancouver Olympics. She was simply pursuing the dream that she and her mom had long shared.
But the gutsy Canadian figure skater, who was named co-winner of the Terry Fox Award on Saturday, says there's some comfort in knowing that her story might inspire others.
"I know I'm going to go through ups and downs for the next year, the next five years, the next 10 years… you never forget your mom," said Rochette, who shared the honour with Slovenian cross-country skier Petra Majdic. "I just want to make her legacy live on and make it live through me.
"If this could inspire someone who was in the same situation or anyone who has a mother that can understand how it would feel to lose their mother, I just wanted to show that there is a way…"
The award, created for the 2010 Games by the Fox family and Vancouver organizers, is named for the heroic amputee runner who set out on a cross-Canada trek to raise funds for cancer research in 1980. The winners were two athletes, said VANOC CEO John Furlong, who embody the values that Fox did, showing determination and humility in the face of obstacles.
Rochette's mom Therese died of a heart attack hours after touching down in Vancouver and less than three days later Rochette skated an emotional short program that vaulted her into third place. The 24-year-old from Ile-Dupas, Que., would go on to capture bronze, Canada's first women's Olympic singles medal since Elizabeth Manley won silver in Calgary in 1988.
"For most of us, there would be no way to recover for this, to be able to sustain yourself, compose yourself, get back to where you need to be in order to compete," Furlong said at a teary news conference. "Joannie, with the most extraordinary grace and dignity, did exactly that and on the night of her performance I have to say I have never sat in an audience that was more proud and more exhilarated at watching a young person overcome adversity and say to the country that in life you can confront the most difficult things and overcome them."
Majdic, 30, a favourite to win gold, captured bronze despite a gruesome crash in training earlier in the day left her with four fractured ribs and a collapsed lung. Remarkably, she skied through excruciating pain through three heats of cross-country sprints, to reach the podium in her Olympic finale.
"I was asking myself, 'Why did this happen to me, why?"' Majdic said. "Today is one of the moments that I realized why. It is the way no gold medal would inspire so many people that I realize I have inspired now. So it was really worth it to show the world never give up on your dreams, at least try to make your best, it will be enough. Just follow your dreams, it's worth it."
Asked if she knew of Terry Fox, Majdic she had seen a movie about him when she was young.
"He is really famous also in Europe and famous by inspiration, so I knew," the skier said.
Terry Fox's parents Betty and Rolly presented the awards - large undulating platters made of nickel and wood in a similar style to the Vancouver 2010 medals. The awards also include a quote from Fox in both English and French: "I want to set an example that will never be forgotten."
Rochette struggled to keep her composure through the emotional news conference, receiving a motherly hug from Betty Fox.
"I know my mother would be really proud today," the skater said.
Rochette said she and her mom had dreamed of the Olympics since the two watched Oksana Baiul win gold in 1994. She began believing it was achievable when she captured silver at the world championships last March.
"Last year was the first year I started to believe in myself, and then all the pressure of having the Olympics at home, the last year has been really tough and my mother has been so good at supporting me in my dreams," Rochette said. "She was very nervous whenever I skated and I think she really felt the Olympic pressure too and she really took some on her shoulders off of mine.
"She made it here, she made it to Vancouver, she was actually in this city when I skated … when I decided to skate for the short program, I didn't expect anything, I just wanted to show people I could be on the ice, be strong. And after the short program I was in third place I started believing it and told myself, 'OK, you can do this, if you're going to compete I didn't want to do it halfway.'
"I wanted to pursue my dream, and that's what my mother would have wanted me to do… I think my mother was with me there, giving me strength to do this."
The winners were selected by a committee that included Fox's brother Darrell, sportscaster Brian Williams, Olympian and VANOC board member Charmaine Crooks and former rower Tricia Smith.
"Watching Petra and Joannie and their determination to carry on and triumph is something Canadians and the world will not forget. They represent the best of us and what we can accomplish - just like Terry," Betty Fox said
Fox's cross-Canada trek was cut short when the cancer spread to his lungs and he died in 1981 at the age of 22.
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