In April, Dawson Commerce student Olivia Di Giandomenico, an elite athlete with Les Suprêmes, won the gold medal at the International Skating Union World Synchronized Skating Championships in Hamilton, Ontario.

Dawson’s Communications Office interviewed her after her big win.

Q: Tell us all about this great accomplishment and your involvement in the sport.

A: I began synchronized skating at the age of seven in the youngest category in my club and what attracted me most about it was the team aspect. I liked skating when I started but it wasn’t until I started synchro and skating on a team with all my friends that I fell in love with the sport.

Before a performance, I make sure to take many deep breaths to calm my mind and I really focus on having fun with my team on the ice and sharing our love with the crowd.

Synchronized skating has taught me so many important life lessons at such a young age. We learn about teamwork and respect for one another. We have also traveled across the world to attend various international competitions, which has given me the opportunity to discover new countries and cultures. I feel so happy and proud that our team was able to achieve this goal. We have been through so much together during the last two years and even when it got hard, we made sure to stay motivated as we all had a goal in mind: to compete at these world championships. It was so rewarding that they ended in this way.

It is the first time in history that my club has won the gold medal at the World Championships and it feels so good to have all the hard work from all the previous skaters on the team finally pay off. This win has been a long time coming and we have been working so hard for so many years.

Q: How do you manage it all- being a full-time student and elite athlete and working a part-time job?

A: It may be hard to manage at times, but I think that being so busy actually helps me stay so organized in my life. My weeks are planned out almost to the hour, between school, work and skating, and depending on the time of the year, I spend my free time either studying or seeing my friends.

Q: What do you like best about Dawson? What do you like best about the Commerce Profile of Social Science? 

A: What I like best about Dawson is its versatility, inclusion and understanding. Our school is unique in the sense that many different people attend from all over Montreal and it is nice to see how everyone is included.

Dawson has also been so supportive and understanding of me and my sport. I had the privilege of being part of the student athletes at Dawson, which has allowed me to take a reduced course load and choose my classes according to my skating schedule. This has really helped. All my teachers have also been so understanding and supportive when I would miss classes to attend competitions.

What I like best about the Commerce profile at Dawson is the classes and liberty that we have to take whatever classes we want. I really enjoy math and really enjoyed the teachers that I had. I also liked the extremely wide variety of complementary courses, which allow us to explore and learn new things that we wouldn’t normally learn.

Q: What is next for you?

A: As this is my last semester at Dawson, the next step will be attending Concordia University in the fall. (I am pursuing a) Bachelor of Commerce, Major in Finance. I will also continue to skate competitively with my team at the elite level and will hope to attend another world championship next year.

Q: How do you maintain good physical and mental health? 

A: Life is all about balance, and it is so important to have a healthy balance physically and mentally, which is something that I learned especially during the pandemic. As important as it is to do well in school and in my sport, I also make it a priority to take some time for myself to recover and relax when I can as well as plan time to see my friends outside of school and skating to switch off from the constant hard work and organization and to just have fun. It’s super important to have a healthy work-play balance in life.

Q: What advice do you have for other student athletes and for fellow students? 

A: Work hard and follow your dreams. As cheesy as it sounds, it’s true. No dream is too big, and if you truly want it, you will work hard to get it. It may take some time but it will all be worth it in the end.

You can watch Olivia’s gold-medal performances:

Video of Short Program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZlGPe4yiiqc

Video of Free Skating: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0ccBKaZfkg