Jules Burnotte is a free spirit with diverse interests and opinions who does not intend to be entangled. The biathlete, however, says he understands better today when it is more useful for him to be silent.
We are immediately struck by the unusual way the 25-year-old Sherbrooke resident talks about his sport and his own performances. At the time of our conversation, two weeks before the opening of the Beijing Games, the athlete with voluminous red hair had just completed a particularly difficult individual 20 km event at the World Cup in Antholz, Italy, where he had missed almost half of its targets.
“It happens to have a bad day, but let’s say that it happens to me a little too often for my taste”, he had noted bluntly. “I’m a better skier than shooter, but I have to be honest: it takes a lot of work and rigor to be more consistent. A rigor that I don’t really have. I never really liked practicing shooting. »
It is in this event that the Quebecer will launch his Games on Tuesday (3:30 a.m., Montreal time).
While many athletes came to the biathlon through the cadets, Jules Burnotte started practicing the sport at 12 years old because a club was very close to his house and his parents preferred it to having to drive him to a ski club. bottom half an hour away. “They got screwed, because when I started getting successful and shooting rifle [de calibre] 22, they had to take me every weekend when there were shooting ranges in Mégantic, Québec or Gatineau. »
An original route
Athlete with multiple interests, Jules Burnotte does not hesitate to say that while he loves his sport, his favorite is another: cross-country running. “Rifle shooting has always been far from our family. It took me maybe a year to start having trouble fun to shoot, and three or four years before really understanding what it was all about. »
His shooting skills will be challenged at the Beijing Games. Battered by a cold, shifting wind that froze faces and drove balls crazy, the competition site in Zhangjiakou, 200 kilometers northwest of the Chinese capital, on Saturday enraged competitors in the mixed relay in the gay snap of firearms and the tinkling of projectiles on metal targets.
The journey that enabled Jules Burnotte to qualify for the Beijing Games already illustrates his talent and originality. Refusing from the beginning to leave everything to join the other members of the Canadian biathlon team based in Canmore, Alberta, he had to train alone in recent years. To complicate matters, he also suffered two concussions in quick succession in addition to dealing with a severe episode of COVID-19.
“Training alone is not ideal, but that’s what I chose. Everything fell into place just in time for me to prepare and qualify for my first Olympic Games. In the end, I was lucky,” he admits, modestly.
The choice to stay in Quebec was also intended to enable him to pursue studies as a sports educator, which branched off into philosophy for children, the analysis of teaching issues and education in eco-responsibility. “I have always had great difficulty doing just one thing. »
Athletes’ voice
A little over two years ago, the athlete stood out for having dared to question the links that his sport had with sponsors from the oil industry and the firearms lobby. “I come from a rather militant background, where social and environmental involvement was part of our daily life,” he explains.
The Quebecer is not the only amateur or professional athlete to have wanted, in recent years, to take advantage of his forum to express his point of view on issues that are close to his heart. Aware of the phenomenon, and anxious to regulate it, the Olympic movement has tried to relax its rules a little in Tokyo in order to allow the expression of a certain political or social voice on the part of the athletes, but not within the framework competitions or on the podium. The fact that, six months later, the Games are being held in a country often rightly accused of not respecting freedom of speech and human rights will perhaps be a first test of these new rules.
One thing is certain, the public outings of Jules Burnotte did not seem to please everyone, and we did not hesitate to let him know. The main interested party now believes that he made a mistake.
“As a citizen, I remain committed, but I have understood that you have to know how to choose the way, the place and the time to do things,” he explains in a steady voice. It’s not up to me, for example, to say whether or not we should boycott the Beijing Games. And if your ideas are not sufficiently constructed and you’re only emotional, maybe you’re better off not saying anything right away. »
“That doesn’t mean we have to close the door,” he insists. It just means that it is better to talk about it, to ask questions and to progress together. Otherwise, all you get is people getting pissed off. »
In the meantime, the Quebecer does not sit idly by. He recently joined a committee of the International Biathlon Union on sustainable development. In particular, we will look at how far athletes are willing to go to reduce the ecological footprint of their sport.
He is also pleased to have found a sponsor in accordance with his values. This is the car-sharing company Communauto.
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund.The duty.