Anouk LEBLANC-BOUCHER

Short track speed skater Anouk Leblanc-Boucher first made a major mark on the international scene in 2004, when she took gold in the 500m event at that year’s World Junior Championships. A year later she had advanced to the senior team, had won a bronze medal in the team competition at the 2005 World Championships, and was an ecology student at the University of Quebec at Montreal when she qualified for the 500m, 1,500m, and 3,000m relay events at the 2006 Winter Olympics. She took bronze in the 500m and silver in the 3,000m relay, and followed her success up with two more bronze medals, in the relay and the team competitions, at that year’s World Championships. She announced her pregnancy late that year, although she claimed that she would continue to compete in hopes of making the 2010 Winter Olympics after her child’s birth. Her son was born in June 2007, but Leblanc-Boucher decided to retire shortly thereafter to work as a coach. In 2009 she began working as a personal trainer at GoodLife Fitness in Quispamsis, New Brunswick.