Me and Jenn

My new BFF and her silver Olympic medal

Guess what?? Jenn Heil is every bit as darling and well-spoken and completely real as she appears on television. I mean, where are we getting these absolutely superb young Canadian Olympians? From Alexandre Bilodeau to the delightful Jenn, they couldn’t have been picked out of central casting to embody a more positive Canadian ideal.

 Thanks to the folks at Birks I got to meet Jenn up close at a pr scrum for Jenn Heil’s line of Olympic-inspired jewelry and accessories–a line of pretty silver dangly things that she has created in sponsorship with Birks that is selling so briskly that Birks CEO Tom Andruskevich told me that Birks will likely recoup its $3.2 million investment in the 2010 games  from its Jennifer Heil collection sales alone.

I asked Jenn, who told me that she represents a number of charities including one aimed at encouraging young women in sport, whether it was ever hard to be a girl in her field. “Well, yeah, ” said Jenn, meaning “d-uh”.

“Most of your fellow athletes are guys. All the coaches and sports psychologists are guys. It can be pretty hard finding a mentor.”

Jenn added that she had however taken a lot of comfort from her friendship with one female predecessor, now turned glamour girl sportscaster, Catriona LeMay Doan.

By and large, however, the Olympic field can be a pretty barren place for women. But thanks to Jenn, and Birks, pretty and sparkly and feminine are no longer unthinkable in any conversation about the Winter games.

Jenn let me hold her medal, which is remarkably heavy. You practically have to be an Olympic athlete to wear it around your neck without faling over. Like her jewelry collection, it’s silver and very contemporary in design. After speaking with her it was clear that Birks, in choosing her as their spokesmodel, won the gold.