Winter Olympics: Canada’s Gabrielle Daleman overcomes obstacles to secure gold medal

In the figure skating team event, Gabrielle Daleman’s performance put Canada in position to win its first gold medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang.

Imagine stepping onto the ice surface knowing that you can secure your country’s first gold medal at the Olympics, no pressure right?

That’s the situation Gabrielle Daleman found herself in when she went out for her free skate program in the figure skating team event.

The Newmarket, Ont.,  native had 137.144 points which was more than enough for Canada to take the top spot in the event beating out the Olympic Athletes from Russia and the U.S. with 73 points for their first gold medal at the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeonchang..

Scott Moir and Tessa Virtue did not even need to put together their best performance in order to get the job done (they did anyways). What was impressive about the performance is that she had to follow up Patrick Chan’s skate which is no easy accomplishment.

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The 20-year old has been through a tough journey to get to the Olympics. Last year she had a cyst removed from her abdomen, and as Rosie DiManno wrote a month ago in the Toronto Star, Daleman was diagnosed with leprosy and battles pneumonia.

Despite that she had a great performance at the World Championships where she established a Canadian record with a score of 151.90.

That tough journey proved to be worth it for Daleman when she stood on the podium with the rest of her Canadian teammates.

As she completed her run she could not help but show some emotion through the final jump.

For those who know her story, the accomplishment of winning a gold medal is something she probably never expected.

Not only did she have to deal with physical illness in her career but growing up she had many mental obstacles like bullying. She was diagnosed with dyslexia and was teased by classmates starting in the first grade and had an eating disorder which stared in Grade 5.

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Daleman will compete in the ladies short program on February 21st and the free skating event on February 23.