The Beijing Games were not like the others, but the athletes were prepared for it. However, they also found there the same anguish, joy, sadness and camaraderie as the other times. Believe their mentors.
This is the farthest we will manage to go in the Beijing Olympic Village. 100 meters from us, on the other side of the Place des Drapeaux, stands the fifteen-storey bronze-colored apartment tower entirely occupied by Canadian athletes based in the Chinese capital. Maxime Dufour-Lapointe comes to meet us.
Unlike her sisters, who this time were still competing in mogul skiing, their eldest has hung up her boards since the Sochi Games and was at the Beijing Games as a mentor to Canadian athletes, like five other former Olympians. “It doesn’t come with a job description,” said the 33-year-old in the colors, head to toe, as it should be, of the Canadian team. In my case, it goes from all sorts of useful little things, such as helping athletes find toilet paper, but also ensuring a presence near them to listen to them, share my experience, reassure them, console them. Tell them sometimes, because you have already experienced it yourself: “Well yes, today your life is a bit of m… But tomorrow, you will see, it will be better.” »
Maxime Lapointe-Dufour is notably responsible for a lounge where athletes can come and relax when they are not competing or in the cafeteria and do not want to stay in their room. “I see myself as the organizer of a house party. Every day, there is a little something special planned so that the athletes feel at home there, that they feel good there, because when you are good, you are better. »
Bubbles in a bubble
Unlike other Games, the health rules do not allow leaving the competition sites or its quarters in the Olympic Village, or even really mixing with athletes from other countries, notes Geneviève Saumur. This former swimmer is also a mentor to Canadian athletes, but in her case, at the Zhangjiakou competition site, 200 kilometers northwest of the Chinese capital, where the freestyle skiing, snowboarding and snow, cross-country skiing and ski jumping.
“It’s always a lot of pressure to participate in the Olympic Games, but it’s crazy the effort, not only physical, but also mental and logistical that the athletes had to put in before coming here, recalls the athlete who was her also the Beijing Games, but summer, in 2008. The mere fact of having managed to enter China took an enormous weight off them. I have since found them surprisingly calm despite the many health constraints. In 2008, the cafeteria was really a place where you could interact with athletes from other countries, but here, interactions are less natural and not really encouraged. Everyone must eat in their small cubicle and stay as much as possible with members of their own team. »
But the athletes don’t seem to care too much, notes the 34-year-old former swimmer. “It must be said that they have been living in the era of the pandemic for two years, that they know that it was going to be that here and that they are preparing for it. »
Athletes are not so different, in this respect, from the rest of the population, notes Maxime Dufour-Lapointe. “Even at home, we had less chance to mingle with our own family and friends. It’s like that. Everyone is already just grateful to be able to be here despite the global pandemic. And then, those for whom it is the first Olympic experience do not really know what they are missing, and the others say to themselves that it is less serious because they have already experienced it. »
In addition to a demonstration of incredible sporting achievements, the Games are a human experience in which individuals experience a roller coaster of emotions, challenges, successes and disappointments.
Having tasted the roar of the crowd and the thunder of encouragement and applause at the Beijing Games in 2008, Geneviève Saumur was also struck by the silence that reigns today during certain competitions, for lack of a sufficient audience. The absence of family and friends no doubt weighed on the athletes as well, although a way was finally found to replace the electronic devices they had to leave at home for fear of hackers so that they could keep remote contact with the house.
The human experience
On the other hand, the former Olympic swimmer was struck by the extraordinarily warm and human side of the relations between all the athletes for whom she was responsible. “It’s a beautiful band with a real family spirit,” she reports. A great camaraderie that was not possible during its own Beijing Games because there were so many athletes each busy with their own business.
Geneviève Saumur says she was also very impressed by the exploits accomplished by these snow athletes. “I don’t think TV captures what it’s like to compete in the cold, snow and wind. In swimming, we sometimes have to deal with variations of only a few degrees. They have to excel in such variable and extreme conditions, I don’t know how they manage,” exclaims the woman who made it a point of honor to welcome Canadian athletes to her own living room with hot chocolate.
“What really warms my heart is that the magic of the Olympic Games still worked,” said Maxime Dufour-Lapointe. In addition to a demonstration of incredible sporting achievements, the Games are a human experience in which individuals experience a roller coaster of emotions, challenges, successes and disappointments. This time around there may have been a little less distraction for the athletes, but that may not just be a bad thing. They showed themselves to be really welded together. It was beautiful to see. »
“At the end of the day, each of the Games has its own story, its own dynamic. These Beijing Games were not like the others. It’s true. But that forced us to find other ways of doing things. And who knows, we may have discovered the advantages of doing certain things differently that we will want to do again the next time. »
This report was financed thanks to the support of the Transat International Journalism Fund. The duty .