Maelle ricker biography template

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Knee injuries often interfered with Maëlle's sports schedule, frequently causing her to miss tournaments. Her father was a geologist and her mother was a biology teacher at Capilano College.

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With plenty of places to ride in her hometown, she didn't face any inconveniences in training.

It was at the age of 12, the typical age for snowboarding, that Maëlle began her journey in the world of snowboarding. Now, she also has an Olympic gold medal in her collection. As a result, she has no memories from the time of the crash to the point at which she awoke in the helicopter en route to the hospital and had to be told of her fourth place finish.

Ricker has been a fixture on the international snowboard scene since making her World Cup debut in December 1996.

As for her preferences, Maëlle enjoys Indian cuisine.

Prior to making her Olympic début at the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Maëlle Ricker (pronounced MY-ell) was the 1997 FIS Canadian and ISF World Junior half-pipe champion and 1996 bronze medalist. In the Olympic snowboard cross final, Ricker held on to the lead that her great start gave her and won the Olympic title to become the first Canadian woman to win an Olympic gold medal on home soil – just minutes from her actual home in North Vancouver.

Ricker’s success continued after her 2010 Olympic title finishing second in the World Cup snowboard cross standings.

From a young age, her father tried to introduce her to sports. She recalled those results as: “seeing the love of your life on the subway but never getting to meet them.” Doubts were raised if Ricker would ever be the same again after her concussion, but her will to succeed pushed her to continue competing even after her sixth, seventh and eighth knee operations.

Ricker arrived at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games as the overall leader in the 2009–10 FIS Snowboard World Cup, having skipped the Winter X Games to focus on Vancouver 2010.

She had another successful comeback, going on to win her first world title at the 2013 World Championships.

GETTING TO KNOW…

Getting Into Sport: Started snowboarding at age 13 thanks to her older brother Jorli who would be teased by friends when his sister joined them on trips to Whistler… Odds and Ends: Nicknamed Mighty Mouse… Idolized Olympic speed skater and cyclist Clara Hughes… Enjoys playing Scrabble… Enjoys mountain biking, surfing and hiking… Affiliated with KidSport as an ambassador to help children get involved in sport… Favourite Olympic memories are watching Mark Tewksbury win 100m backstroke gold at Barcelona 1992 and Clara Hughes win 5000m gold at Turin 2006… Has a pair of long underwear that she considers her good luck charm… On the road, collects coffee mugs for her boyfriend…

Maelle Ricker

Canadian snowboarder

Date of Birth: 02.12.1978
Country: Canada

Content:

Biography of Maëlle Ricker
Early Career
Rise to Success
Career Highlights

Biography of Maëlle Ricker

Maëlle Ricker, a Canadian snowboarder, was born in 1978 in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, to Carl and Nancy Ricker.

Ricker had a few snowboard podium finishes in the 2011-12 World Cup and then captured another gold on home soil at the 2013 World Championships in Québec, Canada – the only major title that had alluded her as a senior.

Nineteen days before the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games snowboard start, Ricker fractured her left forearm during a training session in Aspen, Colorado and had to undergo surgery, arriving in Sochi with 16 screws and two plates in her arm and still in a cast.

Throughout her career, she has stood on the top step of the podium nine times in World Cup events. Her second dream was to have snowboarding recognized as an Olympic event. Four years later a knee injury prevented her from competing at Salt Lake City 2002.

In 2009-10 Ricker won the Crystal Globe as the overall FIS World Cup champion in snowboard.

It is known that she is equally fluent in French and English. She went on to finish 21^st, after falling in the quarterfinals.

Ricker put her name in the history books at Vancouver 2010 as the first Canadian woman to ever win Olympic gold on home soil. She competed at the 1997 FIS World Championships in Italy, finishing fourth in the snowboard cross and 11th in the half-pipe, and was 13th in the half-pipe at the ISF World Championships.

Nicknamed “Mighty-mouse”, Ricker graduated from Sentinel Secondary School in West Vancouver, British Columbia. The Nagano Olympics could have been the first Olympics for the athlete, but due to injuries, Maëlle was forced to miss the Games. She easily won her snowboard cross quarter-final and then the semi-final when American Lindsey Jacobellis was disqualified for missing a gate.

At the 2011 World Championships she broke her left hand and damaged nerves in her left shoulder, taking her out of competition until December 2011. Maëlle's coaches include Marcel Mathieu, René Brünnner, and Tim Milne.