Darcy Mottier-Scheers is a force of nature. An international skater turned educator who has given so much to the children in the region, Darcy took a break from her busy schedule to meet with GstaadLife, reflect on the past 30 years, and look ahead to the future.

You are originally from Canada? What brought you to Switzerland?
I come from a small town in Ontario and was interested in travel from a very young age. I remember a butter commercial featuring a little Heidi singing in the Swiss mountains, and I told my parents I would live there one day! I studied French at university and, to become bilingual, enrolled to study in Villefranche-sur-Mer for a semester. As soon as I arrived in France, it felt like home.

When the semester finished, I wasn’t ready to go home. I met a family seeking an au pair for three weeks who enjoyed winter sports. As a skating coach, I fit the bill and accompanied them to their chalet in Gstaad. They told me I’d be a perfect match for their ski instructor,

Pierre-François. While I know the “love at first sight” thing is a total cliché, when I met him, there was an instant connection, and that was that!

I called my parents to say, “I’m staying in Europe. I’ve met the love of my life!” I hadn’t even known him for 24 hours at that point, but we married less than a year later, and we’ll celebrate our twenty-eighth wedding anniversary in April. We have three children, Kaite, Lise and Shon, and I feel very blessed. I have no doubt the stars aligned for us and this was destined to be. We are still really good friends with the family that introduced us and very thankful to them.

So you were unexpectedly staying in Switzerland – what happened next?
I had to find a job because my original career goals – to work for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or be a military pilot – were clearly no longer options! I had always been interested in working with children and had gained experience as a replacement teacher while at university, so I applied to the international school in Gstaad. I worked there for a year before moving into the public school system. Over my career, I’ve worked with children with special needs, taught kindergarten through grade 11 and also apprentices in the Saanenland before moving into the management of the school in the Pays-d’Enhaut. I feel incredibly lucky. It’s been such a fantastic experience.

You mentioned you were a skating coach?
I started skating when I was three. I’d skate on frozen puddles around our farm, encouraged by my mom, an ice skater passionate about the sport. So, it was no surprise that I became a junior coach.

Skating became a huge part of my life. I skated year-round, competing in individual and synchronised skating (which at the time was called precision skating) events. It was highly competitive, and you had to try out to be on the team of 20 skaters. It required a lot of work – you had to earn your place. It was a big investment involving lots of travelling, weekends spent on buses and hours at the ice rink. There was also lots of practice off the ice, focused on learning elegance and the various hand movements. Of course, accidents did happen. There were concussions and collisions on the ice. And if you didn’t stretch properly before doing a high kick, you could pull a muscle. And there were times when I skated off the ice filled with frustration, but I was a teenager. That was part of the experience – learning how to deal with emotions.

But it was a fantastic experience. The competitions were great because that was your moment to shine as a team and when you could count on everybody. Many of the time, these events were held in former Olympic ice stadiums. To this day, nothing makes me happier than walking into an ice rink, seeing the Zamboni prepare the ice and remembering the feeling of putting my blade on the ice.

We had a fantastic coach, Karen Haskins, who was one of the top synchronised skating coaches in the world. There would be hours of practice, doing the routines repeatedly until they were perfect. Sometimes, the coach would change an element just before a competition, giving us mere days to perfect it, but that’s how it was. She was high in her expectations but always there for us, and I’m thankful for all the years she dedicated to our team. My last international competition was in Helsinki, Finland, where we won a world bronze medal. Our team from a little town in Canada won an international bronze medal!

Then, when I left for university at eighteen, I told my mom I was hanging up my blades as I wanted just to be a student and have a normal life. I picked up skating again a year later but without the pressure, as I was skating for me. It was really lovely to discover that.

Do you still skate?
In my younger years, I taught skating at the Rosey and instructed the Château-d’Oex ice hockey team with power skating. I got involved because my son is a hockey player and needed to know how to skate well. Endurance is essential for hockey players and they need to be able to master skating skills in order to be successful at hockey.

Occasionally, I still skate with the classes here in Château-d’Oex, especially with the special needs class. I want them to feel confident when they go on the ice. A lot of the time, they say they can’t do it, but I show them that they can. And to me, that’s so satisfying.

I still love the feeling of being on the ice – it’s when I forget exactly how old I am – in my head, I’m still eighteen!

A few years ago, I achieved my ultimate skating dream when my husband took me skating on a lake at the Vallée de Joux. I hadn’t skated outdoors like this since childhood; it was the best feeling! Of course, there were consequences. The ice was really bumpy and littered with little rocks, which didn’t do the blades on my expensive skates any good! But happily, they could be rescued when I took them to be sharpened. It was such a fabulous experience, and I’m so grateful to my husband.

How important has sport been to your life?
I loved school, so I was always reading books and studying. Ice skating provided balance. It’s a sport that combines elegance, determination, and creativity, but it’s demanding on body, mind, and time.

Sport teaches you to work hard and learn from your mistakes, which makes you stronger. You would fall, then get up, and then fall again, then get up, and you would just keep doing it until you got it right. I broke my tailbone several times. Thankfully, skaters today have padded clothing and harnesses for learning jumps, but we had none of that.

Belonging to a team changes things too, because it takes you out of your individual bubble. To be a good team player, you learn discipline, patience, communication skills and how to deal with frustration because it can be challenging when there are twenty of you skating together. But when you’re in a team and believe in and trust your coach, it’s amazing to work together towards the ultimate goal – the gold medal. If you’re a competitor, you go out to win, and it’s such an adrenaline rush.

To this day whenever I hear the song “We are the Champions”, it takes me back to all the times I skated around the ice to that song with my teammates. It brings back all the emotion and the pride that we got so far, especially coming from such a very small town.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to take up skating?
You need to be willing to work hard and go the extra mile. For instance, my students would do crossovers in one direction, and it would be beautiful. Then, when I asked them to go the other way, they sometimes said they couldn’t because that was too hard. So that’s what we would then focus on to make it easier.
I think young people today have something of an advantage because there are now so many resources available to learn and improve, they can watch YouTube videos and chat with people online who can help with advice or creative ideas for programs. Years ago, we spent hours working on piecing our music together and creating our programs.

I’m thankful for my time on the skating team. Those were some of the best years of my life and I can only encourage others to go for it.

I believe you founded the ice-skating club for the Pays-d’Enhaut?
When I moved to Château-d’Oex I discovered there was no ice-skating club for the local children. My colleague and friend, Hélène Ardila-Lenoir and I decided to set one up and to put on shows with all the glitter and sparkle.
We put an ad in the paper and held a sign-up day. We started with a small group of 20 children, and it grew from there. At our peak, we had about 140 skaters in the club, aged from 4 up to 65. It’s a really inter generational sport. The goal was no competition, but if we had children I thought had potential, I would speak to their parents and a few of our skaters took it further. We also had an adult synchronised skating team.

Thanks to a dedicated committee, we loved putting on shows and included everyone in the performances, regardless of their level or physical capability. We wanted everyone to join in. And there was so much glitter and sparkle, too! I brought materials from Canada to make the costumes, and when ready-made versions became available, we ordered those from Canada, too. My, we paid so much in duty!

I have great memories of these shows in Château-d’Oex. As it was an outdoor rink, sometimes it would snow, but that just added elegance to the performance – especially during the Nutcracker. Then we had rain and wind, but the boys and girls had a great attitude, and the show went on. The show must always go on!

I’ve retired from running the club, but it’s still going strong, and the children are still enjoying themselves on the ice – that’s what counts.

What would you like your legacy to be?
I want to be remembered for how I made others feel.

One of my favourite songs is, “Je ne regrette rien”, by Édith Piaf. I haven’t led a perfect life – who has? – but for me it’s been a learning experience. I hope I’ve been able to bring joy to people. I hope they feel I’m honest and perhaps one of their biggest cheerleaders.

I think we leave such an impact, especially in a school, in sports, in friendships and families. And I hope I leave a positive one.

Finally – what is your own favourite spot in the region?
We live in such an amazing area, I don’t really have a favourite place. It’s just about anywhere. Every day, I wake up and think, “Wow,” especially when I look out of the huge picture window in our kitchen. I love watching the seasons and landscape change throughout the year. It’s like a piece of artwork. The view is unbelievable.

We’re also lucky to live close to the Saanenland. For me it would be such a dream to one day have a bilingual high school in the area. I think German is so important for the French speakers, and vice versa. I think this would be a logical move and I’m hopeful that in future we’ll collaborate further with our neighbours. I’m big on bringing people together. We have a great community in the region and you never know what’s going to happen. Anything’s possible.

ANNA CHARLES