A storied history: Vancouver 2010 marks one chapter in UBC's Olympic path
Across UBC varsity athletics decorated history, there are dozens and dozens of athletes that tie our campus to the Olympics. From rowing to skeleton, and everything in between, there are countless remarkable moments and success stories from over 90 years of Olympic Games.
To celebrate the 2010 Olympic anniversary, over the next two weeks on gothunderbirds.ca we are looking back on several of those moments and athletes, from the founders of our Olympic history to iconic Thunderbird Olympic achievements and memories.
The 2010 Athlete Contingent
We can't write a Vancouver 2010 article without noting athletes who represented UBC at those Games. From skeleton to snowboard, here are the Thunderbird athlete stories from 2010:
Jeff Pain
For Jeff Pain, his silver medal in the 2006 Turin Games is just one of several of his accomplishments on the international stage —- and one of the many reasons he is one of the most successful skeleton racers in Canadian history.
Born in Alaska but raised in Calgary, Pain graduated from UBC with a landscape architecture degree in 1994. While on campus, he was a high jumper for the Thunderbirds track and field and an executive with the UBC Ski Club.
Throughout his skeleton career, Pain won five BMW International Bobsleigh & Skeleton Federation World Cup gold medals, and was crowned world champion twice. He made 74 World Cup appearances, winning 22 medals including 10 gold for Canada, and spent seven years ranked in the top four skeleton racers in the world.
He is also uniquely recognized for racing with the "raging beaver" logo on his helmet.
On the Olympic stage, Pain competed in the 2002 Salt Lake, 2006 Turin and 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. In Turin, Pain was a piece of the first, 1-2-4 finish by Canadians in the Olympic event, taking home silver while teammate Duff Gibson won gold and Paul Boehm finished fourth.
Here in Vancouver, Pain finished ninth in his event. He retired from competition later that year.
His career has since continued in skeleton, as he was
appointed coach of the Chinese skeleton team following Beijing's 2022 Winter Olympic winning bid.
Ashleigh McIvor
On February 23, 2010, Cypress Mountain saw Canadian history as one of the country's own crossed the ski cross finish line first ahead of her three fellow competitors. She claimed the first ever Olympic gold in the women's event, and in doing so became one of the most recognizable faces from Vancouver 2010: Ashleigh McIvor.
Her 2010 gold was a medal that hit close to campus too, as McIvor was a member of UBC's Ski and Board team while she was a student. She even advocated for the inclusion of ski cross in the Olympics in an essay for a UBC English class.
The Whistler native, who began her career as an alpine skier before moving to ski cross, was already an icon in her sport prior to the 2010 Games. She won her first World Cup medal in 2004 as a 21-year-old, taking home silver from the event held in Switzerland. She posted the fastest time of that competition in the qualifications: 58.83 seconds. From then on, McIvor competed across North America before ski cross earned Olympic status and the Canadian national team was formed in 2007 — led by Julia Murray and McIvor herself.
In 2008, McIvor won ski cross silver in World Cup events in France and on Vancouver's Cypress Mountain — a precursor to her Olympic success two years later. They were two of three medals in the seven World Cup events she featured at prior to the 2009 World Freestyle Skiing Championships in Japan.
The following year, she claimed gold at the FIS Freestyle World Ski Championships as well.
McIvor's gold at the 2010 Olympic Games is the pinnacle of a long line of impressive results for a historic career in ski cross — a sport she retired from in November 2012.
Today, McIvor is
working in broadcasting, modelling and public speaking.
Alexa Loo
Another of UBC's Vancouver 2010 contingent, Alexa Loo represented Canada at both the 2006 and 2010 Games in the parallel giant slalom — making history in her first appearance, too. At the 2006 Turin Olympics, Loo became the first Canadian woman to compete in the Olympic parallel giant slalom event.
It's just one of several prevalent moments in her career, as she is also the first Canadian woman to make a World Cup final and the first to reach the World Cup podium. Throughout her years representing Canada, she was on the World Cup podium three times (one silver and two bronze), had 11 Continental Cup wins and 22 Continental Cup podium finishes.
At the 2010 Olympic Games, Loo placed 12th in her event.
She retired following those Games, ranked first in Canada and eighth worldwide in her sport, with two Olympic Games, five World Championships and 11 National Titles under her belt.
It's a track record that's impressive for any athlete, but noteworthy too given her success in two other sports as well. While completing her bachelors of commerce in the mid-90s, Loo rowed and swam for the Thunderbirds.
As a figurehead of women's snowboarding, Loo has been an athlete representative to the International Ski Federation and a member of the board of directors for AthletesCAN. She has worked to help shape sport policy on the national and international scale too, with the Canadian Olympic Committee, the International Ski Federation, the International Olympic Committee and the International Paralympic Committee.
Today, Loo is in her second term as a Councillor with the City of Richmond.
