Kéven Breton, Paralympic Games anchor | The “culmination” of a passionate man

His advisor “quickly discouraged” him from going into sports journalism. “The example he gave me,” says Kéven Breton, “was that when he listened Throw and counton the press gallery, the journalists are perched. “You’re not going to see well, you know.”

Breton, who describes himself as a disabled person, “similarly listened to him.” And he did well.

After hearing him brilliantly describe athletics events at the Paris Games in the company of the colorful analyst Nils Oliveto, you will soon see him on your television as co-anchor of the Paralympic Games for Radio-Canada.

“It’s really cool!” rejoices Breton in front of The Press. I would never have imagined this even four years ago.”

He will share this role with his colleague Geneviève Tardif, “a girl with a huge drive and extremely good on TV,” for 12 consecutive days, from August 28 to September 8. The shows will air from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. They will present live competitions and summaries of the day’s events.

After his coverage of the Olympic Games, the journalist is currently in the middle of his preparation for the Paras.

He has arranged to meet us at noon at the Brasseur de Montréal, not far from his home, for an interview that will last about 45 minutes. It is raining non-stop on this Wednesday in mid-August. Raindrops on his round glasses will eventually dry up.

From his wheelchair, Breton emphasizes that this assignment as anchor of the Paralympic Games is “a bit of a culmination” of work that began a few years ago. His role as sports columnist on the show Draw me a morning with Franco Nuovo, on weekends, gradually allowed him to “forge links with the Paralympic world”.

“Every week on the radio I talk about parasports,” he says proudly.

And when he speaks about it, it is in a “natural way”, without this often used preamble suggesting that these athletes “must not be forgotten”.

He agrees that “it’s often the same things that come up” when it comes to adapted sports. He thinks of the always inspiring stories of athletes whose lives were turned upside down after a car accident, and who found in sport a way to hang on.

But according to Kéven Breton, “there are other things that we talk about less”, such as the “more technical notions of sport”.

“I think there are Paralympic athletes who are a little tired of talking about their personal stories and who would like to be talked about mainly for their performances,” he says. Chantal Petitclerc told me that she felt that way, too.

How do you push a wheelchair? How do you improve your technique? What is it like to train with a disability? He “really likes to be interested” in the issue of classifications, which vary according to the situations of para-athletes. As well as that of doping in the Paralympic world.

“That’s another matter! [Certains athlètes ont] therapeutic needs for drugs, so it is often very contradictory.”

“Qualified” and “passionate”

You will have understood that for Kéven Breton, parasport is not a secondary subject.

In this capacity, “there is no better ambassador at Radio-Canada Sports to present the Paralympic Games as anchor,” believes his colleague and friend Nils Oliveto, reached on the phone a few hours after our interview with Breton.

“It’s a very well-deserved privilege,” he said in a tone of voice that would be recognizable even across a packed Osheaga crowd.

“Keven is very, very skilled in front of the camera,” Oliveto continues. “He’s skilled behind the microphone as a describer, that goes without saying.”

Paris was the third Games for the Breton-Oliveto duo, after Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing in 2022.

But the analyst had noticed the talent of the man who would become his colleague well before, when he was learning the ropes on AMI-télé. The channel offers content dedicated to people living with disabilities. Breton hosted the magazine show there for seven years It’s my businesswhile also leading a “freelance life”, collaborating with Balle Courbe, Vice and the NHL website.

Today, outside of the Games, the 34-year-old journalist is a full-time sports editor at Radio-Canada, in addition to his “spot” with his radio “gang” that he is already “looking forward to getting back together”.

“As a recognition”

Kéven Breton is originally from Beauce, where there were “not a lot of resources” for adapted sports in the 1990s. Communications were therefore for him “another way of living” his passion for sports.

And if his advisor’s advice was not followed to the letter, there was still an element of truth in his words. It “stuck in the back of Kéven Breton’s mind.”

For example, the journalist has already covered the Montreal Canadiens, in Brossard, for Radio-Canada. But he does not have access to the press gallery at the Bell Centre, which, unlike that of the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, is inaccessible to wheelchairs.

And by his own admission, his “personality” confirms that he “doesn’t want” to impose himself in scrums of journalists, these scrums where there is often elbowing for the best square foot.

Which doesn’t stop him from encouraging young people with disabilities who dream of becoming sports journalists to go for it. “There are some who have the drive to do it! But there are definitely obstacles.”

In any case, Kéven Breton is thriving in his current job. With the chance to bring historical moments to life for his viewers.

After having gently “broken the ears” of his listeners and colleagues about parasport over the last few years, he will now have access to “the biggest stage” to talk about it.

“It’s like a recognition of my work.”