PERIANNE JONES CROSS-COUNTRY SKIING
Age: 28
Local Club: Nakkertok Nordic
# Olympics: Second
Medal threat: 3 stars
By Leah Larocque
Cross-country skier Perianne Jones is no longer the new kid on the block.
With four solid years of training under her belt since her Olympic debut in Vancouver, the 28-year-old Almonte native hopes to bring home some hardware for Canada in Sochi.
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~~~~~~~~~ Advertisement ~~~~~~~~~“It is definitely different this time around,” Jones indicates. “I am more mature. In Vancouver, I was just happy to be there. I was just stoked to be on the Olympic team and really excited to race at a home Olympics, but I was more of a participant. Now I am gunning for the podium.”
In 2010, Jones competed in both the sprint and 15-kilometre distances, finishing 41st and 56th in those events. She says that experience was invaluable.
“I have a lot more confidence,” signals the Nakkertok Nordic athlete who used the Ottawa club as a launching pad for her international career.
In Sochi, Jones is expected to compete in several events, including the individual sprint, the women’s 4×5 km relay, as well as the team sprint – her forté along with Canadian teammate Dasha Gaiazova.
Sochi track success
The pair have been training hard in Austria and Czech Republic in the lead-up to the Games, where they’ll look to repeat the podium performance they achieved at a World Cup race in Sochi last season – the second time they combined to win a World Cup bronze medal last year.
“The course really suited us well and gave us a taste of (what to expect at the Olympics),” recounts Jones, who skipped the season’s first World Cups in favour of more training at home and then posted a career-best 10th-place individual sprint rest Jan. 18 in Poland. “For us to have had success there is definitely encouraging going into the Games – to know we have done it before, have seen the tracks, and we have raced well.”
Preparation will nonetheless be challenging since weather and course conditions can always throw a wrench in plans.
“The thing with cross-country skiing is that it is both an art and a science,” notes the veteran of nearly 70 World Cup races. “It is tough because you can never really know the conditions. They could be totally different the next day.”
That highlights the importance of the whole Canadian team, including wax technicians such as Jones’ husband, Joel Jaques, who were married two summers ago in Canmore, Alta., their home base with the national team.
Hometown pride high
Although she spends the majority of her time out west, there’s always plenty of support back home from her town of almost 5,000.
“The community in Almonte is so great,” Jones underlines. “I just ended up putting on some Mississippi Mills patches on my racing suits because a group of people there are raising money for me to race. It’s a really pretty special community. I definitely feel the love. I feel lucky to have all of them behind me.”
After the Olympics Jones plans on returning to Almonte to visit her former high school and elementary school and share her experiences in Sochi. She’ll also accompany some young cross-country skiers to Nicaragua in April to help build a school for local children in April through SchoolBox, a local charity that helps children access primary education in Central America.
But before then, she’ll take her place at the start line amongst the mountains near the Russian resort town, backed by years of experience, but still expecting to fully feel the excitement of the moment.
“There will be nerves and I need to be conscious that it is an Olympic event,” Jones details. “But I cross-country ski race every single weekend all winter, we have been practicing the process all year, and that’s what I will be focusing on when the race comes.”
MESSAGE TO ASPIRING OLYMPIANS:
“Dream big. I am just a kid from a tiny town in Almonte and I set a lot of goals and ticked them off one by one. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it and then lay things out and see what it will take to get there.”
SCHEDULE
Sat., Feb. 8
Skiathlon
5 a.m. ET
Tue., Feb. 11
Sprint Free
5 a.m.
Wed., Feb. 19
Women’s Team Sprint
4:15 a.m.
