A 16-year-old Newmarket, Ont., girl may be the youngest member of the Canadian Olympic team headed to Sochi next month after a podium finish at the recent national championships.
Gabrielle Daleman trains at the Richmond Training Centre in Richmond Hill, Ont., and finished second at the national championships in Ottawa last weekend.
That performance has landed her on the Olympic team headed to Russia.
"It’s just breathtaking. I’m speechless. I feel like the world’s spinning, like it can’t be true, but it is," she said. "I’ve worked so hard for this."
With some members of the Olympic team not yet named, she’s the youngest member so far.
The prospect of being among some of the top athletes in Canada is still setting in.
"I think just seeing the Canadian team I'll be like: 'Oh my God, I'm standing with former Olympians, champions and everything," she said.
Coach Andrei Berezintsev helps Daleman balance being both a teen and an aspiring champion.
"It’s not easy because she's like a horse, she wanna go, she wanna do it," he said.
CBC Toronto armed her with a GoPro camera as she practiced Thursday, one of the last she'll have on home ice before flying overseas with the team.
"I want people to say...she is the best in Canada and she deserves to be here and she's an inspiration," she said.