It happened quietly, but as time passed, Meaghan Benfeito realized that she was no longer bored with endless training sessions at the Olympic swimming pool and thousands of water entries. She has therefore decided to officially announce what has been unofficial for a few months for her: she is leaving diving after 25 years.
“I haven’t resumed training since the Games. I haven’t set foot in the Olympic Stadium since before Tokyo, Benfeito explained during an interview with The Canadian Press on Wednesday. [Après les JO]I went to join my boyfriend [Alexandre Dupuis] in Regina, where he was playing for the Roughriders, and I was around the national team at that time. I was by the pool four days a week for three months, and I never got bored. I like it, being surrounded by young people and coaches, but diving as such? No. I did what I had to do. »
The three-time Olympic medalist had been thinking about it for some time. What made her hesitate were her results in Tokyo, where she missed bronze by a few tenths of a point with her partner Caeli McKay, and missed the semi-finals in the individual tower dive.
“There’s no one who wants to end up not getting the results they want. I was going to Tokyo to win medals, and it didn’t happen, the 33-year-old dropped. At the time, you want to do another year, you don’t want to end up like this. But over time, looking back on it, I said to myself that I was really proud of what I had achieved and that, no matter the results obtained in Tokyo, the difficulties encountered in a career or in a year, when you have a dream, you can achieve it. My goal was to get to the Tokyo Games, and I succeeded. »
“Caeli had injured her foot less than a month before the competition, and despite her pain, we came within a point of the podium! I really wanted to take the time to rest, my body hurts! I wanted to make sure that if I was going to start diving again, that was really what I wanted. Finally, I was not bored as much as I thought! I’ve been diving for 25 years: I think I’ve done the trick. After four Olympics, I think I can hang up my jersey. »
Revealed in Montreal
Inspired by Alexandre Despatie and Émilie Heymans, Benfeito started diving at the age of 7. She was revealed to the world in 2005, when she and her partner Roseline Filion won bronze at the FINA World Aquatics Championships. Then aged 16 and 18, the two women went on to become one of the best pairings in the history of the sport on tower.
“It’s definitely the best moment of my career, when I take stock,” admitted Benfeito. We didn’t really know what we were getting into and we came out of there with the bronze medal. Everything else followed. »
Everything else is notably three bronze medals at the Olympic Games: Filion and she won bronze at their second Olympic Games in London, in 2012, as well as in Rio de Janeiro, in 2016. The same year , Benfeito took third place in the individual competition.
To these conquests, we must add three other medals won at the Worlds, six at the World Cups, five at the Commonwealth Games and seven at the Pan American Games.
With her 58 medals won at the FINA World Series and the 41 others at the FINA Grand Prix, she will have won 124 medals on the international scene between 2005 and 2021.
Benfeito now cherishes the dream of running a childcare center with her sisters — she has been working there as an educator since last January.
” It’s a passion ! We are Portuguese, so I have a big family: I have lots of cousins who have children. My sisters have already been educators for seven years in two different CPEs. It’s an atmosphere that I liked, and I had the opportunity to start in January. It confirmed to me that this is what I want to do. I will start my 14 month training in April. »
She also wants to remain involved in her sport, whether with young athletes or by giving talks, but not as a coach. “I should be seen at a competition or two in the next few years,” she concluded.