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MONTREAL – After a disappointing World Cup result, Canadian slider Jane Channell knew she needed something to motivate herself beyond achieving better results on the skeleton track.

To give herself a tangible goal, she ordered a brand new helmet that she would only wear at the Beijing Olympics. Of course, if she could make the Canadian Olympic team.

“It was my worst result at a World Cup to date and it became a huge motivator,” Channell revealed after finishing 24th in Altenberg, Germany.

Regardless of Channell’s performance at the Winter Games, she considered the helmet her prize. She wore it throughout training and competition at the Yanqing National Sliding Center, where she placed 17th.

“It was almost like I was wearing my personal little trophy,” continued Channell, a native of North Vancouver, British Columbia. This season cost me a lot of money, because we were all self-funded.

“Everything from coaches to car hire, flights, accommodation, everything, food, everything, it was up to each of us to pay. It was therefore my Christmas present, my reward for having worked well. »

Channell chose the design elements herself.

Heavily influenced by mythology, the helmet has a Japanese dragon on its right side and a Phoenix on its left. The front of the helmet is decorated with a maple leaf (for obvious reasons, laughs Channell) with the mention of the years 2018 and 2022 for the two Olympic Games in which she participated.

The helmet also has paw prints for Channell’s cat as well as a broom, an allusion to the day she bumped into the cleaning tool during a Skeleton World Cup in Igls, Austria, in 2015. Also, it features wings with a #7 to commemorate her boyfriend Bernd Dittrich, who died in 2009. Dittrich wore the #7 as a quarterback for the Simon Fraser University football team.

Channell said his helmet did not go unnoticed at the Beijing Olympics.

“As the tone is always very serious at the Games, the only reaction I get is a nod with a nod and a thumbs up,” Channell said. So it’s a silent endorsement. »

His teammate Blake Enzie is the one who expressed his enthusiasm about his helmet. Channell introduced Enzie to Ian Johnson, the Vancouver artist who designed her helmet.

“I didn’t want to go to the Olympics with a blank canvas,” said Enzie, who wore her helmet the entire World Cup season. I told myself that if I had the chance to represent Canada, I would be able to show my family and my roots.

“As the Olympics are the biggest stage in the world, so might as well do it. »

Calgary’s Enzie has a prairie design on her helmet.

Wheat flowers adorn the sides of it, spray painted to look like they’re blowing with the wind as Enzie glides down the runway. The wheat field surrounds the back and sides of the helmet, while the upper part in blue represents the Alberta sky with the maple leaves on the front.

The name Canada is written on each side in wild pink, and on the back of the helmet he has the birthday dates of his grandparents, parents and sister.

“When you pay homage to your family and your heritage, you can’t really get tired of the design,” said Enzie, who finished 20th in skeleton at the Beijing Olympics. So once (Johnson) came up with the design, I was like, ‘Yeah, that’s the deal. Let’s put in a wheat field.’

“As my family owns a grain farm, it represents my heritage well. »