Prior to the 1992 Winter Olympics, where her sport was contested officially for the first time, short track speed skater Annie Perreault was not a well-known name in her home nation of Canada. She had been skating since the age of three and taken a gold medal in the 3,000m relay alongside teammates Angela Cutrone, Danielle Gervais, and Cathy Morin at the 1987 Canada Winter Games. She had also participated in the sport at the 1988 Winter Olympics, when it was a demonstration tournament, but her major international successes had come only a year prior to the Olympics, when she took gold medals in the team event and the 3,000m relay at the 1991 World Championships. She stepped further into the spotlight at the 1992 Winter Olympics, where she won a gold medal with her team in the 3,000m relay. She planned to attend the 1994 Winter Olympics, but she experienced a violent crash prior to the games that left her with a concussion and the need for many surgeries.
Determined to attend the 1998 Winter Olympics, Perreault quit her job as an accountant and began training full time. Along the way she won two bronze medals at the 1995 World Championships, a silver medal at the 1996 World Championships, and silver and gold at the 1997 World Championships. None of this, however, prepared her for the acclaim that she would receive at the 1998 Winter Olympics when she won a gold medal in the 500m event, Canada’s first Olympic individual short track speed skating gold. She also took home a bronze medal in the 3,000m relay and silver and bronze at the year’s World Championships. She continued to train for the 2002 Winter Olympics and won a silver medal in at the 1999 World Championships and two bronze medals at the 2000 World Championships. She was severely injured in December 2000, however, after another skater fell on her during a competition in Japan and sliced into her thigh. She was rushed to the emergency room for the wound, which required 150 stitches, and missed nearly the entirety of 2001. She was an alternate at the 2002 Olympics Games on the 3,000m relay team, but did not actually compete in the event. After taking bronze in the team event at the 2002 World Championships, she continued skating for a year and retired from active competition in 2003, returning to her previous career as an accountant.
Canada