Photo credit: Doug Stephen
The month of June is National Indigenous History Month. BMG will highlight the Month with a series of feature articles on the BMG web site, which will also be posted to the BMG FaceBook and BMG Twitter accounts. In this issue we profile Indigenous Athlete, Jesse Cockney.
Jesse Cockney is an Inuvialuk cross-country skier who competed for Canada at both the 2014 and 2018 Winter Olympics. Cockney was born in 1989 in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories and started skiing when he was 3 years old. Skiing was an integral part of his family’s life. His father skied on the national junior team and won 2 Canada Games gold medals. His sister has also skied for Canada in international competitions. When Cockney was 7, his family moved to Canmore, Alberta, where he was able to get involved in competitive cross-country skiing.
In his junior career, Cockney won 3 gold medals at the 2011 Canada Winter Games and finished sixth in the classic sprint at the 2011 FIS World Under-23 Championships. He competed in his first World Cup race in January 2011. In December 2012, he finished ninth in the free sprint. Cockney made his Olympic debut at the 2014 Winter Olympics where he finished 54 in the 50-km free mass start, 11 in the 4x10km relay, and 53 in the sprint free. In 2015, he competed in his first FIS World Championship, and in 2017, he skied as a member of Canada’s world team. At the 2018 Winter Olympics test event, he finished 10th in the classic sprint. He also broke into the top 10 of the free sprint at the World Cup Finals in March 2017. In the 2018 Olympic Winter Games, he finished 35 in the sprint classic. Jesse started an undergrad at the University of Calgary and hopes to graduate with a double bachelor in Kinesiology and Commerce. To stay involved in the community, he is also coaching in Calgary for the Foothills Nordic Ski Club, of which he has been a member since 2008.
Find out more at Canadian Olympic Team, Jesse Cockney.
Source: Indigenous History Makers: https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1559226684295/1559226709198#chp4
