Sandy Lecour loves the feeling of a good track.
Like many, the Nordic skier moved to the Bow Valley for one winter in her 20s and never left. She found work, fell in love, and raised a family. Along the way, she represented Canada at the 1984 and 1988 Winter Paralympic Games, winning gold in the five- and ten-kilometre classic events in 1988, and later adding a World Championship title in 1989.
Four decades later, she found songwriting.
Now 69, Sandy has released her debut album, Listen T’ Me, a collection of 10 original songs that reflect the range of music she’s grown to love. There’s a little jazz, a little country, a little folk, and a little pop. Some songs are playful and upbeat. Others are more reflective. Together, they trace moments from a life that has been anything but ordinary.
After decades of defining herself as an athlete, this next stretch still surprises Sandy. “I have never thought of myself as a creative person,” she says. “I would’ve saved that for people who are creative, really.”
Yet she talks about songwriting the way she talks about skiing. On a good track, Sandy can relax into the kick and glide and the trust that the track will hold her; when everything clicks, she feels liberated. Songwriting gives her a similar sense of freedom, only with fewer boundaries. A ski track follows a set route. A song can go anywhere. Over time, that’s what Sandy has come to love about it.
"I've learned you don't have to identify as a creative person," she says. "You just have to create."
When it came time to share her music publicly, Sandy knew exactly where she wanted to do it. “I didn’t want to do a show in Calgary. I wanted to do a show in Canmore,” she says. “I wanted to do a show at artsPlace with my people.”
On a November evening at artsPlace, Sandy stepped out on stage to perform a full evening of original music for the first time. The room was filled with friends, fellow musicians, and members of the community—some she’s known for years, others she had never met.
“That was a real thrill,” she says. “I thought, oh, nobody’s gonna come… and then people came to the show that I didn’t know. I felt very comfortable and supported in that room.”
Looking ahead, Sandy isn’t interested in chasing a late-in-life music career. Instead, she wants to keep sharing her songs close to home, in a space she knows, with the community that has carried her through so much. After a lifetime of performing, those are the shows that feel big enough to her.
