Myriam Bédard

Myriam Bédard (born December 22, 1969, Ancienne-Lorette, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian biathlete who was the first North American to medal in the Olympic biathlon, earning a bronze medal at the 1992 Winter Games in Albertville, France. She later won two gold medals in the biathlon at the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway.

(Read Scott Hamilton’s Britannica essay on "Training for Olympic Gold.")

Bédard competed as a junior figure skater until the age of 12. Figure skating became too expensive, however, and Bédard was forced to look for a new sport. She turned to the biathlon and soon found that she had an exceptional talent for it. She was the Canadian junior champion at age 17 and won her first world championship (1993) when she was 23, a young age for a champion in such a grueling sport.

Bédard was part of the Olympic debut of the biathlon for women at the 1992 Winter Games. There she captured the bronze medal in the 15-km individual event. At the 1994 Games she overcame a poor start in the 15-km race to win the gold and then pulled off the first double gold-medal performance by a woman in the Olympic biathlon competition by winning the 7.5-km sprint race. Her gold medal in the sprint event was made more surprising by her discovery at the end of the race that she had been using mismatched skis. Bédard participated in the 1998 Nagano (Japan) Games but failed to earn a medal.