“I know I love this sport, but there’s something inside of me that’s a little broken. »
This is what Florence Brunelle wrote in an Instagram publication last January. Ten months later, the short track speed skater is doing “really well”. “Really”, yes, because she has often pretended in recent years.
“When people asked me how things were going, I said that things were going well even though they weren’t going that well,” said the Trifluvienne on Tuesday morning after the Canadian team’s press conference for the two World Cups in Montreal.
Brunelle says it herself: since a young age, she has performed well in her sport. Rarely has she experienced failure. She was only 16 years old when she joined the senior national team. “I was still a child,” she notes.
Already, she was considered one of the next Canadian sports stars. In 2021, she made the team for the Beijing Olympics. There, the young athlete did not do badly, but she did not have the expected results. She notably fell in the final of the mixed relay, depriving the team of a bronze medal. “To err is human, it’s nothing serious,” she recalls, but she did not deliver the performance she would have liked.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Florence Brunelle is back in great shape.
In the year that followed, therefore, she felt the need to take a step back. All of a sudden, she felt overwhelmed by events, by everything she had experienced in the two years that had just passed.
“I needed to take the time to sit down, to really dissect what had happened, to understand in depth, and then move forward. Rebuild myself a little, too. Growing as a person. »
At the same time, she experienced what she describes as a “little teenage crisis”. “I questioned myself a little. It’s something super normal, it’s just that, the moment when all this happened, it was a lot. »
Like many adolescents or young adults, Brunelle had to understand who she is and who she “plans to become one day”. She consulted a psychologist. She wondered if she really wanted to be a speed skater. “The question, I think, is legitimate. But here, I have a good answer: I love it, skating, and I can’t wait to see what the next few years will look like. »
Failure and success
Florence Brunelle is therefore back in great shape. She was beaming on Tuesday morning at the Maurice-Richard arena.
“There, things are really going well!” she said with a smile. I’m really in a good state of mind. I am happy. I like what I do. »
The days when she falsely said that “everything was beautiful” and that she “understood everything” are over.
“Concretely, you don’t know everything. You know absolutely nothing. It’s really normal to go through lots of emotions. But I was young. I just wanted to feel like I was in control of something when I wasn’t necessarily in control of everything. I think it scared me. »
Now, I really feel more ready to assert myself, to say what I really think and to remain honest with myself.
Florence Brunelle
She also developed a “healthier and more beautiful” relationship with success and failure. Since she only competed in one competition last year, she didn’t make the national team, but she is part of the NextGen team. She nevertheless obtained her place on the team which took part in the first four World Cups of the season, including the first two in Montreal.
“I think the relationship I have with myself, regardless of success or failure, has really improved. There’s nothing that scares me about the results, I’m more excited to see what I can do.
“I have this new phrase that I often tell myself when I board: “Just go do what you know you can do.” I know that, like that, I won’t be disappointed with what happens. »
The coach of the Canadian team, Sébastien Cros, advocates patience with the young woman, who is still only 19 years old.
PHOTO HUGO-SÉBASTIEN AUBERT, THE PRESS
Sébastien Cros
” It’s necessary [qu’elle retrouve] this level of competition, he notes. […] It’s about continuing to support, being patient, and not forcing things. The talent is there, the form is there, it will happen. »
Still, the situation experienced by Brunelle reminds us that a young athlete is, in fact, young before being an athlete.
“I would recommend to any young athlete to create that really good relationship with feeling a little lost and not necessarily in control,” Brunelle says. That doesn’t mean that everything is going off the rails: it’s just normal, because we’re experiencing everything for the first time. »
Who is Florence Brunelle?
- 19 years old
- Originally from Trois-Rivières
- In 2021, she became the youngest Canadian in history to compete in the Olympic Games in short track speed skating.
- She won three gold medals at the 2022 ISU World Junior Championships.