Anne Terwiel, right, and her daughter Elli. Anne is a faculty member in Tourism Management and is at the Olympics in Sochi to present her research related to Olympic volunteering as well as collect more data. Meanwhile, Elli will be competing for Team Canada in women’s slalom alpine skiing.

When was the last time someone researching the Olympics Games got to do onsite data collection, present her research, and watch her daughter compete?

That’s the situation Anne Terwiel, a faculty member in Tourism Management finds herself in with the Sochi Winter Olympics in high gear and her daughter, Elli, to race next week for Team Canada in women’s slalom alpine skiing.

Since the 2010 Winter Games in Vancovuer, Anne has been studying how volunteers are trained for the Olympics and how, and even whether their skills are harnessed once they return to their communities. She also collected data from the 2012 Summer Games in London.

Elli also has a TRU connection—she supplements her University of Vermont schooling with TRU online courses.

Elli on social media
Follow and send her well wishes through her Twitter handle @elliterwiel or ask to be her friend on Facebook.

For Elli, being named to the Canadian team is an honour that almost didn’t happen because of concussion symptoms suffered in 2013. However, she recently got the all-clear and in late January was named one of the final nine members to the team. In total, 15 alpine skiers are representing Canada.

In 2013, Elli had three Top 20 finishes, with her strongest being No. 11. The majority of her younger training was at Sun Peaks with the Sun Peaks Alpine Club.