Jennifer Heil - Freestyle Skiing

(Canadian Press) - Canada will play an ace to open the 2006 Winter Olympics - freestyle ski moguls champion Jennifer Heil.

Heil is one of Canada's best gold medal hopes at the Games and has a chance to spur the entire Canadian contingent in Italy with a win on the opening day of competition February 11.

But don't expect the Spruce Grove, Alta., native to carry the grand piano of a country's expectations on her back.

''We have an extremely strong team,'' she says. ''The whole Canadian team - we've had our best winter ever.

''So I don't see it that way. It's the team.''

Heil goes into the Games as the dominant women's moguls skier in the last three years. The 22-year-old was World Cup moguls champion in 2004 and 2005 and has been at the top again this season.

Extra funding allowed her to add a sports psychologist and a nutritionist to the entourage that is helping her prepare for the Games, so she hopes to arrive at the competition site at Suze d'Oulx in the Italian Alps in top form.

Jennifer Heil at a Glance
Born	4/11/1983
Home Town	Spruce Grove, AB
Events	Moguls
Best Olympic Result	4th (Moguls, 2002)

And there is motivation - to erase the disappointment of missing a medal by 1/100th of a point at the 2002 Winter Games in Utah.

''The smallest possible margin,'' she says with a sigh. ''But it was an amazing experience.

''I was only 18 and I was well ahead of my own schedule. My goal was just to wake up the next day with no regrets - that I gave it 100 per cent. I was thrilled with my performance.''

Heil has dominated since she took the 2003 season off to have chronic shin splints treated by Montreal osteopath Dave Campbell.

She has been based in Montreal ever since, attending business administration classes at McGill University and working out under the supervision of Montreal Canadiens' strength and conditioning coach Scott Livingston.

''It was different four years ago,'' she says. ''Everything happened so fast between making the national team and going to the Olympics.

''I did the best I could, but it was nothing like now. Now, I'm working with a team of professionals. My goal is to come in fully prepared.''

In the 2004 and 2005 World Cup seasons, she visited the podium 14 times, including nine victories. At the world championships last spring, she won gold in dual moguls, a non-Olympic event, but dropped to fifth in moguls.

So the gold won't be a gimme.

In Italy, she will be challenged by 2005 world champion Hannah Kearny of the United States and 2002 Olympic champion Kari Traa of Norway, as well as Nikola Sudova of the Czech Republic and Margarita Marbler of Austria.

Heil said some competitors may outscore her by doing ''tricks'' with a higher degree of difficulty off the two jumping ramps on a moguls course.

But she relies on speed and strong skiing on the bumps, or moguls, that make up most of the course and most of the scoring, as well as executing her jumps perfectly.

''The judges reward you more for something well done,'' she says.

Skiing fast and hard has become natural for Heil, who first took to the hills when she was two.

''My dad (lawyer Randy Heil) is a ski fanatic,'' she says. ''He took me and my sister (Amie, a law school grad) to ski moguls before I knew it was a sport.''

When Heil was nine, she saw a poster advertising freestyle skiing at the Edmonton Ski Club and enrolled right away. At 16, she was Canadian champion in moguls and dual moguls, in which two skiers descend the hill at the same time.

Two years later, she was at her first Olympic Games in Utah.

''I remember being on the chairlift and seeing all the people there and they were playing the Olympic song,'' she recalls. ''It goes right through you.

''Everyone who goes to an Olympics says it's not like anything else. There's no way to prepare for it. You just have to go and experience it.''

Now, Heil is going in as a veteran, with a chance to start Canada's Games off with a bang.

''I like to ski right away,'' she says. ''I'm looking forward to it.

''It's a great opportunity, although unfortunately, I'll miss the opening ceremonies.''