Meet Innisfail's water-skiing dynasty: The Llewellyns
While the Llewellyns live and train in Florida, the win still comes up for Innisfail, Alta.
Innisfail's Dorien Llewellyn just won a gold medal in water-skiing at the Pan American Games in Peru.
He took home the gold for the combined event, which aggregates the scores from slalom, trick and jump events. He says it was a stream of excitement and adrenaline that got him through the day of events.
"I felt really good out there, and I was really excited but I had to keep it together because I watched everybody else go out and have a good set," Dorien told the Calgary Eyeopener.
But 23-year-old Dorien is simply trying to fill the large wake left by his family members who came before him.
Dorien has been tethered to his dad's reputation his whole life. Jaret Llewellyn, 49, has been a member of the national water-skiing team for three decades and "has to be included in any discussion about the best water-skiers of all time," according to the Canadian Olympic website.
Jaret says it really floats his boat to watch his son dunk the competition the way he did.
"It's a hard process. I've been doing it for 30 years and you see ups and downs and you try to just help them and guide them, but Dorien dominated all three days," Jaret said. "He skied incredibly. It was a great experience for us."
And as if that weren't enough, Jaret married Austrian water-skier and world champion in her own right, Britta Llewellyn (née Grebe), who is now an athlete performance manager for Red Bull.
Even Dorien's uncle, Kreg Llewellyn, is a water-skiing guru, having brought home 18 medals from Pan-Am Games over the years (among other titles), before being inducted into the Alberta Sports Hall of Fame earlier this summer.
Dorien said wading through the additional pressure, while not insignificant, was worth it to share the experience with his family.
"But for me, there's two kinds of pressure: there's pressure from above that weighs you down, and there's pressure that pushes you forward and motivates you. My family ... everybody's been so supportive, my entire life."
While the family started training on Sylvan Lake, they now live in Florida for the better weather and more chances to train.
"Everyone starts that way," Jaret said. "It's a great family sport."
With files from the Calgary Eyeopener.