'Nice guy' coach Gilmore Junio lets action speak louder than words. 'I still have that fire'

"We're gonna be one of the teams to watch," said coach Gilmore Junio in the second round of Canada's Ultimate Challenge.

Team Orange has been smashing it, at or near the top of the leaderboard as they go into the series finale. "Winning is kind of fun, and we got to do a lot of that this season," boasts Gilmore Junio, a long-track speed skater who has represented Canada three times at the Olympics. 

Watch some of #orangecrushers successes.

He's as famous for his athletic prowess as he is for his Olympic moment of mensch-iness: In the 2014 Winter Olympics, he gave up his spot in the 1000 metres to teammate Denny Morrison, who missed the qualifying event after a fall. Denny went on to win silver and started an online drive to nominate Gilmore as Canada's flag bearer at the closing ceremonies in Sochi.

His latest challenge is helping Team Orange win on CBC's new reality series. And he did it all with a consistently chill style. "We don't make for great TV," says Coach Gilmore, "I loved being just a fly on the wall, being observant. I'll let my opponents take each other out. That kind of is my strategy."

"I had the easy job as coach," said Coach Gilmore, who admits that a lot of the challenges weren't his area of expertise. "It was about getting everybody's head in the right place and into the performance mindset." 

Watch how Gilmore dealt with a particularly devastating loss in Round 3. 

"Coach Gil is more about bringing the best in working with his team," says showrunner Jeff Thrasher, "he's got a very collaborative, inclusive approach which is part of their success."

Team challenges have been a strength for team orange which they've won or placed second nearly every week racking up game points. They dominated the leaderboard for the first half of the series, placing at the top for the first four rounds.

"We were able to talk freely and openly and productively during our strategy sessions and everyone felt heard and was able to bring something to the table. Even if you weren't participating in that challenge, you felt like you had something in that overall competition that day," says Gilmore.

"I've always lived by this quote from Steve Martin. He said, 'be so good they can't ignore you.' If I let my actions speak louder than my words, once you start winning that's when people start to take notice."

But will it be enough to defeat Team Black?

For Vinny Rojas, who moved from Team Black to Team Orange in the player shuffle, it comes down to personality. "Coach Gil is someone who's good at bringing the whole team on an even playing field to strategize together. I much prefer a coach that screams in my ear. I love Luke for that. He is a football player. He knows how to kill it and that is exactly what I need to have."

But Gilmore says don't count him out as a fierce competitor, "no matter how far removed I get from my speed skating days, I still have that fire. That fire still burns."