Dufour-Lapointe sisters: Thanks, Mom and Dad!
SOCHI, Russia -- Skiing sisters Justine and Chloe Dufour-Lapointe won over many new fans as the first Canadian siblings to medal in the same Olympic event.
But in a packed news conference Sunday, Chloe wept as she reflected on two of their most important: their parents.
''I'm sorry I'm overwhelmed,'' said the 22-year-old women's moguls silver-medalist. ''This is the best moment in my life.''
She said she and her two sisters - 19-year-old gold-medalist Justine and 25-year-old Maxine, who competed in the same event but didn't place - knew they couldn't let their parents down after they'd made sure their daughters had everything they needed to participate in sports.
''You would think that it's not a big deal because it's a run down the hill,'' Chloe Dufour-Lapointe said. ''But there are years of training behind it and I just told myself, `You have to be very brave, you have to do what you can.'''
The moment loosened up a tightly orchestrated news conference, with French and English-speaking journalists squabbling about which language answers should be spoken in and where everyone should stand when the athletes entered the room with their parents.
The middle sister made the affair a family celebration, where the girls and their parents talked about sharing pea soup, summers on a sailboat and sibling rivalry.
And the future, too - Maxine said she plans to definitely compete again to try to match her sisters, and Justine speculated about launching a clothing line.
Sitting next to them, their father Yves Lapointe was asked about the sacrifices he'd made to get them to that point.
The engineer said he wouldn't put things that way.
''It's all about choices - what you want to do,'' he said. ''Sacrifices, I don't think is the right word. Choice is much better.''