Mollie Jepsen (born September 17, 1999) is a Canadian alpine skier.

Early life

Jepsen was born in

West Vancouver West Vancouver is a district municipality in the province of British Columbia, Canada. A member municipality of the Metro Vancouver Regional District, West Vancouver is to the northwest of the city of Vancouver on the northern side of English Ba ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

without several fingers on her left hand. She learned to ski by the age of two and also took gymnastics classes. Growing up, she attended West Vancouver Secondary which she graduated from in 2017.

Career

She was influenced to start competitive skiing after watching the 2010 Winter Olympics and joined the Whistler Mountain Ski Club. However, when she was 13 she tore her right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) and again when she was 15. Despite this, she was selected to compete with Team Canada during the 2018–19 season. Upon returning to British Columbia after partaking in Team Canada's summer training camp in Chile, she was diagnosed with

Crohn’s disease Crohn's disease is a type of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) that may affect any segment of the gastrointestinal tract. Symptoms often include abdominal pain, diarrhea (which may be bloody if inflammation is severe), fever, abdominal distension, ...

. She qualified for the

2018 Winter Paralympics ) , nations = 49 , athletes = 569 , events = 80 in 6 sports , opening = 9 March , closing = 18 March , opened_by = President Moon Jae-in , cauldron = Kim Eun-jung Seo Soon-seok , stadium = Pyeongchang Olympic ...

in PyeongChang, South Korea, where she won her first gold medal in the super combined event. She also won a silver medal in the slalom and two bronze medals in downhill and giant slalom. She was named the Female Para-Alpine Athlete of the Year at the Audi 2018 Canadian Ski Racing Awards and the Best Female Athlete at the 2018 Canadian Paralympic Sport Awards. She won Canada's first gold, the gold medal in the women's downhill standing event at the

2022 Winter Paralympics The 2022 Winter Paralympics (), commonly known as Beijing 2022 (), was an international winter multi-sport parasports event held in Beijing, China from 4 to 13 March 2022. This was the 13th Winter Paralympic Games, as administered by the Inte ...

held in Beijing, China. She also won silver in the giant slalom and was honoured to be chosen to be Canada's flag carrier in the closing ceremonies.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Jepsen, Mollie 1999 births Living people People from West Vancouver Skiing people from British Columbia Paralympic gold medalists for Canada Paralympic silver medalists for Canada Paralympic bronze medalists for Canada Medalists at the 2018 Winter Paralympics Medalists at the 2022 Winter Paralympics Canadian female alpine skiers People with Crohn's disease Paralympic alpine skiers for Canada Paralympic medalists in alpine skiing Alpine skiers at the 2018 Winter Paralympics Alpine skiers at the 2022 Winter Paralympics 21st-century Canadian women