Lise Meloche was born in Ottawa in 1960 and began her athletic career in Alpine skiing

Alpine skiing

Alpine skiing is the sport of sliding down snow-covered hills on skis with fixed-heel bindings. Alpine skiing can be contrasted with skiing using free-heel bindings: Ski mountaineering and nordic skiing – such as cross-country; ski jumping; and Telemark. In competitive alpine skiing races four...

 and Sprint kayak

Kayak

A kayak is a small, relatively narrow, human-powered boat primarily designed to be manually propelled by means of a double blade paddle.The traditional kayak has a covered deck and one or more cockpits, each seating one paddler...

ing. She won the junior national championships K2 in 1979. Soon after she became more active in cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing

Cross-country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

 and competed for Canada in 1983.

In 1984 Lise transferred to biathlon

Biathlon

Biathlon is a term used to describe any sporting event made up of two disciplines. However, biathlon usually refers specifically to the winter sport that combines cross-country skiing and rifle shooting...

 and rapidly dominated women's biathlon, not only in North America but on the world scene for nearly 8 years. Meloche was the first Canadian to win a world cup gold medal in biathlon.

Meloche was one of the pioneers of women's biathlon.