Anouk Leblanc-Boucher (born October 21, 1984, in

Prévost, Quebec Prévost is a town within the La Rivière-du-Nord Regional County Municipality, Quebec, Canada, and the administrative region of Laurentides in the Laurentian Mountains, north of Montreal. It was created in 1973 from the amalgamation of the form ...

) is a

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

short track speed skating Short-track speed skating is a form of competitive ice skating, ice speed skating. In competitions, multiple skaters (typically between four and six) skate on an oval ice track with a length of . The rink itself is long by wide, which is the s ...

athlete at the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second t ...

. A student in ecology at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), she won a

bronze medal A bronze medal in sports and other similar areas involving competition is a medal made of bronze awarded to the third-place finisher of contests or competitions such as the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games, etc. The outright winner receive ...

in the 500m short track speed skating event on February 15, 2006, at the Winter Olympics. She finished ahead of fellow Canadian

Kalyna Roberge Kalyna Roberge (born October 1, 1986) is a Canadian short track speed skater. Born in Saint-Étienne-de-Lauzon, Quebec, Roberge has won a gold medal in the 3000m relay at the 2005 World Championships. She also placed third overall at the 2005 Wo ...

with a time of 0:44.759. On February 22, along with

Alanna Kraus Alanna Kraus (born June 30, 1977 in Abbotsford, British Columbia) is a Canadian short track speed skater. She won the bronze medal at the 2002 Winter Olympics in short-track speed skating for the women's 3000 m relay. She c ...

Tania Vicent Tania Vicent (born January 13, 1976, in Laval, Quebec) is a Canadian short track speed skater, who competed at the 2006 Winter Olympics. On February 22, along with Alanna Kraus, Anouk Leblanc-Boucher and Kalyna Roberge, Vicent won a silver med ...

Amanda Overland Amanda Overland (born August 30, 1981) is a Canadian short track speed skater who competed in the 2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as ...

and

, Leblanc-Boucher helped win a silver medal for Canada in the women's 3000m relay. Leblanc-Boucher announced her pregnancy in 2006 and gave birth to her first child, William, born in late June 2007. She went on to have two more children, Ben and Stella, and had planned to compete at the

2010 Winter Olympics )'' , nations = 82 , athletes = 2,626 , events = 86 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = February 12, 2010 , closing = February 28, 2010 , opened_by = Governor General Michaëlle Jean , cauldron = Catriona Le May DoanNancy GreeneWayne Gretz ...

in her home country but could not qualify. Leblanc-Boucher made headlines in February 2014 when she posted an advertisement on

Kijiji Kijiji.ca ( ; , ''village'') is a Canadian online classified advertising website and part of eBay Classifieds Group, which was acquired by Adevinta in 2020. It operates sections for cities and urban regions, for posting local advertisements. Kij ...

selling her Olympic silver medal and the skates she competed in from the

. After being inspired watching the

2014 Winter Olympics , ''Zharkie. Zimnie. Tvoi'') , nations = 88 , events = 98 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , athletes = 2,873 , opening = 7 February 2014 , closing = 23 February 2014 , opened_by = President Vladimir Putin , cauldron = , stadium = Fisht Olympic ...

in Russia, she expressed interest in competing in the sport once again, seeking offers that would help with her finances. Her asking prices were listed at $1 million for the medal and $7,000 for the skates, excluding the individual bronze medal she won in the 500m race. In March 2014, it was reported she would not have to sell her medal or skates as her Kijiji advertisement resulted in sponsor offers to help fund her comeback at the

2018 Winter Olympics , nations = 93 , athletes = 2,922 (1,680 men and 1,242 women) , events = 102 in 7 sports (15 disciplines) , opening = , closing = , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Yun-a , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic Stadium , winte ...

in South Korea. Leblanc-Boucher now plans to resume training to return to competition in preparation for the upcoming Olympic season.

References

Sports Reference

1984 births Living people Canadian female short track speed skaters Olympic silver medalists for Canada Olympic bronze medalists for Canada Olympic short track speed skaters of Canada Olympic medalists in short track speed skating Short track speed skaters at the 2006 Winter Olympics Medalists at the 2006 Winter Olympics Sportspeople from Quebec Canadian female speed skaters 21st-century Canadian women {{Canada-speed-skating-bio-stub