Olympic Skiing with Eric Mitchell
Eric Mitchell is an Olympian who represented Canada in ski jumping from 2008 to 2013 including the 2010 Winter Olympic Games held in Vancouver, Canada. He was the youngest male on the Canadian Olympic team. He retired in 2013 in order to focus on his studies, attaining a degree in accounting from the University of Calgary. In 2015, he was appointed as Young Ambassador to Team Canada for the Lillehammer 2016 Winter Olympic Games. Currently he works for the auditing firm Ernst & Young as a junior associate and also serves as a Youth Olympic Games Ambassador.
On the 11th of May 2017, Eric Mitchell had a live Q&A session on Goodwall that was joined by students from over 30 different countries worldwide.
"All you have to do is train hard and follow your dreams - olympic sport is a life’s work!"
What a great way to start, I was originally inspired to compete in my sport when I was a little kid. Ski jumping seemed fun, not scary and it gave me an opportunity to follow my dreams.
Preparing for the Olympic games I felt as though I had no room for error.
I was 16 during most of the qualifying and it came down to the wire, eventually it was my last competition of the qualification period and I had still not qualified. Thankfully I managed to qualify in this competition.
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Install Goodwall App NOWI am 25 now! I was 17 at the olympics.
I have graduated from the University of Calgary, BCOMM in Accounting.
Competing after the fatal accident was very hard, but myself like the other athletes knew that the best way to honour him was to compete at our very best.
Now I am working as a junior associate at Ernst & Young (EY) but I am really excited to be working with the Youth Olympic Games (YOG); as an ambassador we are helping to reach many young people and show them the power of sport.
It was the best feeling in the world flying through the air but, working with the YOG has helped me find new thrills!
I was a lean flying machine! My best advice is to have breakfast every day, I am still eating my same oatmeal bowl.
My first jump was a little disappointing, for some reason I thought I would start at the largest jump but, that was not the case.
I think this is the most important part, what comes next. I am using the platform the Olympics gave me to help my peers (all of you included) reach for and achieve their goals!
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Install Goodwall App NOWThanks for asking! I was very lucky to help the Canadian youth team.
I was under a strict diet at the time but, it’s funny because it is one of the things that I value most now that I am retired.
