The daughter of Canadian Olympic gold medallist Myriam Bédard has been reunited with her biological father, a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs told CBC.ca Saturday night.

"They are together as we speak," Catherine Gagnaire said in a phone interview from Ottawa. She would not give details of where the meeting took place or when Jean Paquet and his daughter were expected to return to Canada.

Myriam Bédard will be held in custody at the Howard County Detention Center in Maryland until she appears before a judge on Tuesday, according to the U.S. Marshal Service.
(CBC)

Bédard remained in custody Saturday after U.S. marshals and police located her and her 12-year-old daughter at a hotel in Columbia, Md., about 50 kilometres north of Washington, D.C., around 10 p.m. ET on Friday, Bédard's 37th birthday, police said.

The former biathlon champion is accused of violating a child-custody agreement with the girl's biological father, Bédard's ex-husband, and has been the subject of an international search. Quebec City police issued a Canada-wide warrant earlier this month.

Bédard is to appear in court on Boxing Day as extradition proceedings get underway, U.S. law enforcement authorities said Saturday.

"She'll be held in custody at the Howard County Detention Center in [Jessup] Maryland and she'll be held until her first court appearance, expected to be on Tuesday morning," said Michael Kulstad of the U.S. Marshal Service.

Const. Jean Sebastien Roy of the Quebec City police said earlier Saturday that Bédard's daughter was in the care of U.S. social services as she awaited the arrival in Washington of Paquet, also a biathlete.

"There is no word when she will be back in Quebec City. It will take at least a few days," Roy said.

The girl, whose 12th birthday also fell on the day of the arrest, has access to Canadian consular officials, according to media reports.

Bédard, originally from Loretteville, Que., won two gold medals in the biathlon at the 1994 winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Two years earlier, she became the first North American ever to win an Olympic biathlon medal, taking bronze at Albertville, France.

Parents relieved

Bédard's parents told Radio-Canada that they were relieved when she was found.

"We were worried," her father, Pierre, told CBC's French-language sister station Radio-Canada on Saturday. "I'm happy. It's good for the family. It's a big relief."

"We'll have a nice holiday," his wife Francine added.

She and her current husband, Nima Mazhari, went to the United States in October and did not conceal their trip, the Canadian Press reported.

Quebec City police spokeswoman Sandra Dion said her force had received information on Bédard's whereabouts and passed it on to the RCMP, which acts as liaison with foreign police forces. The Mounties then alerted the marshal services, the United States' primary fugitive hunting agency.

Dion did not have any information about Bédard's current husband. She said the arrest warrant only applied to Bédard.