UBC's First Female Winter Olympians Inspire Generations

It took over 80 years for the first female varsity athlete from UBC to compete in the Winter Olympics, but when she finally got there, Alexa Loo was determined to make every moment count.

Loo's path to the 2006 Turin Olympics wasn't traditional. She didn't pick up a snowboard until age 15, drawn in simply because "it looked cool." While competing for the Thunderbirds in swimming and rowing, she experimented with snowboarding at her family's cabin in Mount Baker.

After graduation, Loo turned her weekend hobby into an Olympic dream. The sport was so new that she had to piece together her own training program, finding gym workouts and figuring out nutrition on her own.

She failed to qualify in 1998 and 2002, but Loo finally broke through in 2006. Despite a strong eighth-place first run in Turin, a mistake on her second run dropped her to 20th, and she missed the finals.

What haunted Loo most wasn't the fall. It was her blank response in the media zone afterward, when CBC asked about her race. She realized she'd missed a chance to inspire others, to share something meaningful about the journey.

That regret fueled her preparation for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. This time, Loo didn't just train her body. She reached out to local schools, talking to kids about pursuing their dreams and bringing the community along on her Olympic journey.

She placed 12th in Vancouver, but the result barely mattered. "Nobody actually cared that I went left and right on the snowboard," Loo said. "It mattered that I was able to inspire people to work hard towards their dreams."

Why This Inspires

Loo's Olympic legacy extends far beyond her race times. As Richmond's first female city councillor, she continues using her platform to give back, proving that an athlete's greatest achievement isn't always measured in medals.

Her journey opened doors too. At those same 2010 Vancouver Games, fellow UBC alumna Ashleigh McIvor became the first Thunderbird woman to win Olympic gold, competing in ski cross.

From one woman in 1924 to over half of Canada's 2026 Olympic team, the Winter Games have transformed. Loo helped write that story for UBC, one inspiring conversation at a time.