Le Quebec Air Force

Now that Canada has gotten the Golden Olympic Monkey off its back with Alexandre Bilodeau’s

Alexandre Bilodeau
spectacular victory in moguls skiing – let us also hear 4 great big cheers for Le Quebec Air Force – Alexandre Bilodeau 1st, Vincent Marquis 4th, Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau 5th, and Maxime Gingras 11th – what a show they put on for Canada.

There is no doubt that Alexandre Bilodeau has a special relationship with his older brother Fredrique who has Cerebral Palsy. One can see both a mutual devotion and respect which has acted both as a base and a motivation for Alexandre. But let me suggest that on the ski slopes, Alexandre and the other 3 members of Le Quebec Air Force are a motivational team as well.

Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau	Maxime Gingras

All of the Quebec Air Force are fighters. Maxime Gingras in 2008-2009 was demoted down to the Development squad; but by the end of the year had moved right back up to the full team with several wins and has a world ranking of 10th. Pierre-Alexandre Rousseau is the hard-bitten veteran of the team having missed the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics with a neck injury and then 2006 Turin Olympics with mononucleosis. So Pierre, after putting down a superb run in the finals, was justifiably jubilant.

Vincent Marquis
Vincent, a quarterback in football, knows all about injuries and has had to battle back twice from knee and leg surgery. And Vincent was just 0.21 and a slight aerial waver from a Bronze medal in Vancouver. But this was not a fluke showing because twice this year the Quebec Mens Mogul Air Force had unprecedented sweeps of the podium in World Cup events. So the World should not be surprised by Alexandre’s gold medal – he had an Air Force behind him. Tres bien fait par tous.