Our Olympic Athletes! - Siblings!

The Olympics are obviously a family event. Families around the world tune in or attend the games, cheering on their countries' best. However, inside the games themselves, there is a lot of family bonding happening between and during each event. It is common for Olympians to have sporty siblings to compete with and cheer eachother on. The athletes mentioned here are the siblings of other athletes in the Olympics!

The fist sibling mentioned is François Hamelin. Born in Lévis, Québec, Francois' family is known to be called the "First Family" due to him and his brother Charles debuting in Vancouver's 2010 Olympics in the Short Track Speed Skating events as well as standing on the top of the podium together winning their first and first gold Olympic medal. As per typical sibling rivalry, Francois and Charles do their best to outdo or do better than one another. Both athletes are very well trained (even making their own training ecersize; Operation Cobra, to get ready for competitions) and have an even amount of skill, so one is never quite sure which to declare "ahead" or "better". With various medals under his belt from 2010, Francois is an athlete (and brother) to be reckoned with!

Want to read about Francois' older brother, Charles? Check out my article about him here! http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/01/our-olympic-athletes-charle-and-charles.html

Our second sibling-athlete is Jamie Gregg who; once his idol Jeremy Wotherspoon retired, stepped up to be declared Canada's top-ranked male athlete in short and long track events! Specializing in long track events, Jaime earned his place in the Olympics by finishing these long distance events in record timing! Going to Vancouver with his sister, Jessica Gregg, they both did wonderfully. Jaime was able to be the greatest Canadian athlete in his 500m event, beating his training mate and future brother-in-law by one place. With a speed skating mom and a hockey playing dad, it's no wonder that Jaime had the blood of an athlete. He has various 5 World Cup medals to show for his experience, so Long Track Speed Skaters, you better watch out!

Want to read about Jaime's sister, Jessica? Check out my article about her here!
http://letsfindsomethinginteresting.blogspot.ca/2014/01/our-olympic-athletes-charle-and-charles.html

The next few of athletes are all sisters who have convinced eachother to practice the same sport! There's even a funny story of how the youngest sister was bribed with chocolate to practice and race with the older two. The next three athletes I'll talk about are the Dufour-Lapointe sisters who all compete in Freestlye Skiing!

Maxime Dufour-Lapointe is the oldest of the three sisters. Being born in Montréal, Québec, she made the Olympic team in Vancouver's Olympics in 2006. Although not being part of the national team this year, he has had a reputable athletic career, being a forerunner at our Olympics and being just short of 3rd in the World Cup. Always looking to improve herself, Maxime started Freestyle when she saw and was inspired by a friend competing. After that, she would practice and skii her heart out and to make matters fun, encouraged and bribed her sisters into doing it as well. The result was a lovely set of sisters competing to outdo the other while being the greatest support an athlete could ever have.

Chloé Dufour-Lapointe is the middle child in this trio of athletes who was the first sister to have her Olympic debut at the ripe age of 18, just missing a place on the podium in Vancouver. With medals from the World Junior Championships and World Cups under her name, the only athlete Chloé's particularly training hard for is her younger sister, Justine. Watching older sister Maxime do Freestyle, she was determined to join and compete against her sister, soon helping big sis bribe little Justine to join them as well.

Our last but certainly not least athlete and sister mentioned in today's article is  Justine Dufour-Lapointe. Being the youngest of the three, Justine was often seen training hard in order to keep up with her older sisters and is famous for receiving bribes of chocolate in order to continue on. (This caused her to have numerous cavaties apparently.) Being only 19, she is recently regarded as the most successful of the trio winning bronze in her World Championship debut and silver in her World Cup. Competing with older sister Chloé, they finished 5th in Vancouver and is hoping to join her sister up on the podium for Sochi.

Do you have any siblings you like to compete with? Are there any athletes you want to know about in particular? Comment and let us know!