Canadian Olympic gold medallist in woman’s hockey, Laura Fortino was in North Bay Friday night to greet fans and give inspiration to young girls.
Speaking at the Davedi Club, the 24 year old from Hamilton told BayToday, "Ever since the Olympics I take pride in coming back to the community and sharing knowledge and skills and especially to be a role model to young girls and boys whatever their passion may be. I try to inspire them and let them know that dreams can come true."
She remembers that gold medal winning goal clearly.
"I think every emotion went through my body at that moment. It was so surreal and a dream come true. When I passed that puck to Marie-Philip Poulin and it went in, it was just pure excitement.
See the winning goal here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wg3Pjk8G5-U
"We came back and fought as a team and never gave up and won a gold medal."
Fortino has been playing for Canada in international competition for seven years. In 2008 she won the first of two straight silver medals at the IIHF U-18 Women’s World Championships.
According to the Team Canada website after several appearances with the national under-22 team, Fortino debuted with the National Women’s Team in 2011, which included a silver medal at the Four Nations Cup. She made her world championship debut in 2012 as part of the gold medal-winning squad and returned to win world championship silver in 2013. She made her Olympic debut at Sochi 2014, where she assisted on Marie-Philip Poulin’s overtime winner that gave Canada its fourth straight gold medal in women’s hockey.
"I definitely want to compete in another Olympics and I'm training hard for 2018 to compete for Canada again, that's my main focus right now is to train for that."
