Can NWT's 'golden girl' repeat her Arctic Games sweep?
By Patti-Kay Hamilton
for CBC Sports Online

From the land of northern lights and diamonds comes a petite sharpshooter with the competitive heart of a tiger.

Lindsey Bolivar was nicknamed 'Golden Girl' after sweeping the medals in biathlon at the Arctic Winter Games in 2000.

Lindsey Bolivar uses athelticism and mental toughness to stay on top

The 18-year-old strapped on her first skis when she was a child growing up in Yellowknife.

"I've been cross country skiing since I was young. My parents threw me on skis when I was four or five," she says.

At 13, the sport of biathlon lured Bolivar away from cross-country skiing. Since then she's won four bronze medals at three national championships.

For the second year she's qualified for the Canadian team competing at the World Youth Biathlon Championships in Europe. Now Bolivar is on a hunt for gold at the Canada Games in New Brunswick.

It won't be easy, because she's a youth racing up as a junior woman.

But her coaches say one of Bolivar's strengths is mental toughness. At the 2002 Canadian Championships in Quebec she won two bronze medals despite a painful leg injury.

“I was very far back from the other Canadian who got gold and silver and that was discouraging,” she says. “But I think when you're not doing well there's even more motivation to do better, because I know I can do it. I can beat those people! I can shoot better. I can ski faster and I'm going to do it.

“I'll just train harder and things come back together.”

To help her concentrate before major competitions Bolivar plays a favorite tune, “St. Elmo's Fire”. It reminds her of former teammate, Mary Beth Miller, who was killed by a bear during a biathlon training exercise in Quebec in the summer of 2000.

“She's a huge inspiration for me. She was dedicated to biathlon and she didn't make the national team or get to the Olympics because she never got the chance. So I decided I will -- both for myself and for her as well."

Bolivar is a member of the Olympic 2010 squad training at the National Nordic Center in Canmore, Alta.

She says she hopes to win a medal or two for Team N.W.T. at the Canada Games in New Brunswick.

If she's successful it will be the first medal won by an individual female from the Northwest Territories since the Firth sisters won in 1975.