Deidra Dionne

In 2000, Deidra Dionne was named the World Cup’s female rookie of the year and, less than two years later, she had won a bronze medal in freestyle skiing aerials at the 2002 Winter Olympics. A skier since the age of three or four, she did not take up freestyle skiing for almost a decade, but quickly excelled, with multiple Junior National Championships and two World Cup medals to her credit before her first Olympics. Sports were a significant part of her childhood; she won a provincial badminton title in Alberta and played on a boys’ baseball team until the age of 14. She followed up her Olympic success with a bronze medal in the same event at the 2003 World Championships, but tragedy struck in 2005 when a skiing accident nearly left her paralyzed. After extensive surgeries she recovered enough to participate in the 2006 Winter Olympics, although she did not medal at these Games.

Dionne is a graduate of Canada’s National Sport School and obtained a Bachelor of Arts at Athabasca University. After the 2010 Olympics, she plans to study international law and human rights.