Alex Bilodeau was sick - sore throat, headache - but that didn't stop him from spending Monday on the glacier, teaching the next generation of freestyle athletes some of the tricks that put him on top of the world last February. Or from sitting down with Pique to discuss life and the future of freestyle skiing.
It's been a busy five months for Bilodeau, one of the most recognizable heroes of the 2010 Olympics. He is in demand as a speaker, promoter, coach and fundraiser, on top of his own commitments as an elite athlete. At just 22 years old he could be skiing moguls for Canada at the Olympics in 2014, 2018 and even 2022 if he stays healthy, and be a fixture on the World Cup.
It's been a whirlwind, but one Bilodeau has enjoyed from the moment the gold medal was placed around his neck.
"I got to go to a lot of events at the Games, a lot of skating events, skiing events, the sliding centre and some hockey games which was pretty cool and exciting," he said. "(Since then) I've been speaking at a lot of conferences, I've gone to events with Sidney Crosby a few times and a lot of fundraisers. It's been pretty busy, and I've had to find time to go skiing as well."
Bilodeau says his time with family and friends has been short, but he heads back to his home at Rosemere, Quebec at every opportunity.
"They know that I come home when I can, and all along everyone has been really understanding that I'm on the road a lot, so they have my thanks. Everyone has been behind me so much in my career, and I've always been grateful for that."
Bilodeau won Canada's first gold medal of the 2010 Games, not to mention the first gold by a Canadian in three Olympic Games in Canada. Prior to his victory at Cypress, Canada was the only Olympic host nation in history not to win a gold medal.
But what made Bilodeau such a great story was Bilodeau himself - serious, humble and well-spoken in interviews, deferential to his family and visibly proud of an older brother who was diagnosed with cerebral palsy more than 15 years ago.
It was his brother and the need to find activities that the family could do together that prompted the family to start skiing on the weekends rather than following Bilodeau and his hockey team from arena to arena. It was a tough sell at first, but after the seven-year-old Bilodeau saw Jean-Luc Brassard win moguls gold in 1994 in Lillehammer he quickly shifted his focus to moguls.
His family would drive to the ski hill together, then split up - meeting for lunch and at the end of the day.
"Skiing was a good family sport because we could all go out and do our own runs, but still meet up and go for a run together or get lunch in the lodge. We really looked forward to weekends and holidays."
The enthusiasm was infectious. Bilodeau's younger sister Beatrice is also an up-and-coming freestyle skier. She turned 17 this year and got off to a strong start on the World Cup circuit with a couple of results in the top 15.
When things got tough Bilodeau said he only had to look at the example set by his older brother Frédéric, who never complained about his condition and has bucked the odds his whole life. Doctors once told Frédéric that he would be unable to walk by the time he was 12 years old. But at 28 he's still able to get around on two legs.
At the time Bilodeau was getting into skiing most kids his age were out snowboarding, but he never gave it much thought.
"I would never get into a sport because it was bigger, but because I have a passion for it," he said. "Even now I'm still having so much fun skiing, which is why we do it. Everyone in our sport is loving it and investing so much time in it to get a little better. The World Cup circuit is a really fun place to be."
Bilodeau has also been an outspoken supporter of the Own the Podium program, which boosted funding for Canadian winter sports and athletes by $117 million over five years leading up to the 2010 Games. After winning gold he promised that Canada would go on to great things, and he was right - Canadian athletes earned a record 14 gold medals, the most by any nation in Winter Games history.
The future of the Own the Podium program was uncertain through most of the Games themselves, but by the time the Canadian men's hockey team was celebrating their own gold medal performance the federal government had guaranteed funding of $33 million a year for the future.
"I started freestyle skiing when I was seven years old, 15 years ago - I've been with the national team for five seasons and Own the Podium has been here for five years, so it's been there for most of my career with the team," Bilodeau said. "We've already seen the results, and you can imagine what we're going to see in the next 15 years when the next generation has this program there for them from the start. There's still a lot of cool stuff still coming."
As well as winning three medals in the 2010 Games (including Jenn Heil's silver in moguls and Ashleigh McIvor's gold medal in ski cross), the Canadian Freestyle Ski Team also claimed its sixth consecutive Nations Cup title at the World Cup level.
As a result, Bilodeau says confidence is sky-high.
"There's definitely a lot of confidence there on the national team, and with the upcoming generation it's there, too," said Bilodeau, pointing to the results of development team members in Nor-Am Cup competitions and during World Cup starts this past season.
"Mikael Kingsbury is only 18 and he's winning Nor-Am titles. Eddie Hicks is up there too. These are guys that are ready to ski on the World Cup and will be taking our spots."
Bilodeau wishes that the International Ski Federation (FIS) was as aggressive as the national freestyle program. While FIS has revived the popularity of moguls by allowing flips and double twists, Bilodeau says it's still a challenge to add new tricks.
"If you have a new jump you have to send in the video to get approvals and it could take two years, three years, before the panel rules," he said. "Right now we're trying to add spins, and if it were up to me I'd add flips tomorrow. FIS isn't even open to the concept of doubles and triples.
"It's like we're given a menu of tricks we can do, but it's not as fun going from A to B. You should be able to do what you can - if you can do doubles and triples then you should be able to do it."
Bilodeau has also had issues with judging from time to time, but says the judges are improving.
There was a minor judging controversy after the event when members of the Australian team alleged that Bilodeau's turn scores were too high, but later that day the media used a program called Dartfish to compare the runs of silver medallist Dale Begg-Smith and Bilodeau in the final and found the judging to be more or less accurate.
"There are no replays in the booth, but what the technology is doing is providing the judges with more information so they can watch the tapes and learn and be better," he said. "I think airs and jump scores are still off a bit, but it's coming along. It took a while for the new jumps to get scored properly."
Bilodeau's stay with Momentum Ski Camps is just one week, July 2 to 10. During his time in Whistler, if he can get the best of his cold, he's looking forward to doing some coaching, participating in the water ramp competition on July 6, playing soccer with the campers and doing some training with his own teammates.
"My goal is to enjoy the summer," he said. "To keep the passion alive and to pass it on."
