Nathan Smith (Photo Credit: Nordic Focus)

Nathan Smith and Jesse Cockney, both long time Foothills Nordic members have been selected to represent Canada at the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018!

Nathan Smith, brother of Biathlon Head Coach Tyson Smith, was initially a cross country skier with Foothills Nordic until he discovered the biathlon program.  The spark was ignited! He started competing in biathlon at the age of 10.  In 2002, Nathan represented Canada internationally at the world junior championships.  Three years later, he won a bronze in the 4X7.5km relay.

Nathan competed in the Sochi 2014 Olympics where he helped the men’s relay team to a Canadian Olympic best-ever seventh place finish and tied the Canadian Olympic best-ever finish in the 12.5km pursuit.  In 2015, he became the first Canadian male biathlete to win a world championship medal, earning silver in the 10km sprint. Later that season, he won gold in a 12.5km pursuit, just the second Canadian man to stand on a World Cup biathlon podium.  In 2016, his history making continued when he was part of a team that won bronze in the 4X7.5km relay for Canada’s first-ever relay medal at the IBU World Championships.

Jesse Cockney (Photo Credit – CBC.ca)

This will be Jesse Cockney’s second trip to the Olympics as a member of Team Canada.  In 2014, he earned a spot to represent Canada at the Sochi 2014 Olympics. Now in his 10th season on Canada’s senior squad, Jesse has shown that he can compete with some of the world’s best earning a handful of top-10 finishes on the World Cup circuit throughout his career.  Last year, he gained energy from the hometown crowd when he sprinted to 10th place for the second time at a World Cup in Quebec City.

Jesse also enjoyed an impressive junior career with three gold medals at the Canada Winter Games, in addition to finishing sixth in the classic-sprint race at the Under-23 World Championships in 2011. 

Jesse is a proud member of the Foothills Nordic Ski Club. He started skiing at an early age developing through the levels from Jackrabbit, to Racing Rabbit, to the Banff Ski Runners.  

Congratulations Jesse and Nathan!  We’ll be cheering for you and all of Team Canada!