N.S. cross-country skier wins 3 medals at Canada Winter Games

A cross-country skier from Fall River, N.S., is celebrating after bringing home three medals from the Canada Winter Games in Prince Edward Island.

Emma Archibald, 19, won two gold medals and one bronze during the Games, which came to a close on Sunday.

Nova Scotians brought home 24 medals, including seven gold, seven silver and 10 bronze.

It was Archibald's first time competing in the Games, and she was the only para-nordic skier to be named to Team Nova Scotia.

Para-nordic events include athletes with a physical disability or vision impairment.

Archibald won gold in the 2.5-kilometre women's para-nordic standing classic and the five-kilometre women's para-nordic standing free, and silver in the para-nordic standing sprints. 

Archibald, who is the assistant captain of the University of Ottawa's Gee-Gees nordic ski team, spoke with CBC Radio's Alex Guye about her experience on Tuesday. 

Their conversation has been edited for clarity and length.

First off, congratulations. How are you feeling?

Thank you. Good, good. I'm a bit tired today, it was a long travel day yesterday, but overall pretty good.

Awesome. Other than winning medals, how was your experience?

Oh man, it was amazing. The Canada Games committee just did such an amazing job. It was just such a fun environment to be a part of, and even though there was some big competition, everyone was just like — you compete and then you kind of just leave it on the course — and everyone's having a blast. 

It's kind of fun to be interacting with all the different provinces and no one gets too down on themselves or too caught up in the results. It's a pretty fun environment to be a part of.

Let's get into some of the races. Walk me through what it was like, because you competed in different ways. What was one of your more challenging races?

I'd say one of my the best races was probably my five-[kilometre] race, using a skate technique on Friday. That one, I just felt it was very good. My race plan went all as planned and I just gave it my hardest and it was the last of my individual races.

I was really proud of that race and I think I was proudest of that win as well. The first race, which was 2.5-[kilometre] classic technique, that was my first win, so I think that just meant a lot just to be able to win a gold medal for Nova Scotia and just have everyone so excited. 

It was a really great energy after the race and I think overall I was just really happy with my race that day and how the results turned out and just everyone who was cheering me on, so that was pretty nice.

This is all kind of based on your own personal time, right? So like you're out there and you're just trying to do your best.

Right. Yeah.

So how did that feel, knowing that you did your best, but you also were awarded medals for that?

Yeah. My two classic races, they felt strong, but I wouldn't say they were my best races, especially the sprint race. 

I had a great qualifier, but unfortunately in the final, on one of the downhills, I just got a bit caught up and ended up slipping so I lost a bit of momentum. But overall, my skate race, I just felt like that was the best race I could have had and then the results just followed with the win. I was just super proud of that race.

So it was your first time there and you even received two gold medals and a silver. Overall, how would you say your experience went?

I think it was pretty amazing. I've haven't been with the Nova Scotia team training in the winter and racing for a few years now, so just being back with them was such a cool experience and we had such a great Nova Scotian energy.

We're all pretty tight knit, so it was great to be with the back with the group again and the skiing community there as well, just having everyone from across the country just was very positive and everyone was just pretty excited to be there, which made racing so much more fun.

What's next for you?

Thursday, there's a few of us that are heading off to nationals in Thunder Bay,[Ont.,] so we'll be gone for a week and then, yeah, that's about the end of the season.

Awesome. You still have goals of getting to the Olympics at some point, right?

Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I'm really looking at the next one.

How was your overall experience of getting to the Canada Games this year?

I wasn't really sure what to expect and it definitely exceeded my expectations, just how they organized it all and it was really just cool to be with all these other sports as well, and even just like the closing ceremonies, being able to interact with all the other provinces and even like trading clothes — it was just a really, really cool experience.