Olympian Brooklyn McDougall has been well represented, and well decorated for her performance on the long track ice, having made her Olympic debut at the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022.

Notably, especially for a winter sport athlete, she made her summer Olympics debut in Paris in 2024 for an entirely different reason—her art.

The IOC commissioned McDougall to do a trio of portraits of the first female champions of the 1900 Paris Games, the first in which the Olympics allowed women to compete.

“Fast forward to 2024, it was the first Olympics where we actually achieved full gender parity among athletes. So it was really a kind of a perfect, full-circle moment to have that project be on display at Paris,” she said.

In Calgary, she was commissioned to create the official T-shirt for the 2024 ISU Speed Skating World Championships which was a successful project both culturally and financially.

The profits from the sale of that shirt were donated to the Women’s Centre of Calgary on Jan. 16, ahead of the 2025 ISU Speed Skating World Championships.

“We wanted to announce that donation, and then also announce that the design for the upcoming World Cup next weekend. I’m also designing a [new] t-shirt so the profits will go to the Women’s Center as well,” McDougall said.

“It’s a really unique way to connect communities in Calgary, and sometimes sport is very separate from different parts of Calgary. So, connecting the art and sport community and the charities in Calgary, I think is just another unique way to kind of bring our city together.”

McDougall said there is a huge connection between her sport and her art.

“For me, I’ve always skated my best when I’m doing multiple things. I have tried just speed skating, but I think it’s really important to have those outlets to allow yourself to just grow and work your brain in a different way as well,” she said.

“Art has been an outlet for me from skating, and I think it’s been really great for my mental health. But then also, you know, speed skating has been an outlet from art, so it really balances each other out. I think the life lessons are very similar, which is great.”

More than just athletic performance

She said many athletes in the city are quite multi-faceted, and her art being on display at the World Championships and the Olympics helps to highlight those sides of her.

“We’re usually in the media for speed skating and specific to our sport, and it can feel very all encompassing of your identity. But I think we are all multi-faceted people,” she said.

“Tapping into those different stories and… how they merge together, and especially for my art and speed skating, but I think it is really important for athletes to be recognized for other parts of themselves.”

Part of that story is her family’s history in the arts. Her grandfather was a woodworker and a woodcarver, and her grandmother was a multimedia artist.

“I was surrounded by artists growing up and they really inspired me to pursue art. My grandpa, he passed away in 2019, but right before he passed away, we went for lunch and, and I was talking about art, and he was saying, ‘you know, I really think you should get back into art. I think it would be a really good idea,'” McDougall said.

“I feel like I’m connected to him when I paint.”

For her 2024 T-shirt, McDougall chose to honour another part of the city’s heritage by paying homage to the Calgary Stampede and their iconic posters.

But for 2025, she said she was turning to inspiration from Formula One—a fact about the passion of fellow Team Canada speed skater Ted Jan-Bloeman, brought up by LWC to her surprise.

“Now that you say that I should chat with them about that,” laughed McDougall.

The 2025 ISU Speed Skating World Championships returns to the Olympic Oval from January 24–26.