Audrey Leduc | “I’m just riding the wave”

” What’s your name ?

— “Audrey.

“Ah, it’s you who made the record…”

Apart from being recognized more, Audrey Leduc does not see any difference since she propelled herself into the firmament of the best sprinters in history in Canada.

On April 20, in Louisiana, the runner from Gatineau etched her name in the annals by recording a time of 10.96 s in the 100 m, thus erasing a 37-year-old national record.

“I’m not even aware of the impact it had,” assures the main interested party, a month and a half later, after training at the Claude-Robillard sports complex.

“It’s surprising how much people have heard about it. It hooks them. This is what we want for sport, if only on a business level. The more attention, the more money. But it can go either way. Attention can turn negative at any time! Right now, it’s fun for sport, for athletics. »

Leduc expects this enthusiasm to carry over to the Olympic and Paralympic Trials which will take place on his track from June 26 to 30. “Look, come see us, we’re here! “, she proclaims.

Additional pressure? She shrugs between mouthfuls of crackers. Her place in Paris is practically assured since she is the only one to have passed the direct qualification standard (11.07).

The psychology graduate imagines being encouraged as she herself would for any Canadian athlete.

“I don’t put pressure on myself. I’m just getting on board with the wave. It may not go as well in certain races and that’s normal. In life, not everything goes well. When things go less well, it will be a learning experience. That’s how you grow. »

She herself “grew up” very quickly in the world of sprinting, where every tenth and even every hundredth is acquired with pick and shovel. In less than a year, she shaved four tenths off her personal best, almost unprecedented. The question is where it will stop.

“We are right!” »

Audrey Leduc had agreed to allow us to attend her training Monday morning. As the requests poured in, Radio-Canada was also there for a filming. With the rain, she moved her session indoors for the cameraman.

On one side of the 200m track, around fifty dynamic retirees were working out in groups under the direction of two coaches. In the middle, surrounded by high curtains, Sunday tennis players exchanged balls. On the other side, Leduc was warming up alone under the buzz of the neon lights.

Her coach Fabrice Akué installed magnetic cones every 10 meters on the outside straight. A chip attached to the runner sends the times simultaneously to the phone of the sprint manager at Athletics Canada’s high performance center in Montreal.

“Ideally, she must demonstrate to me her ability to accelerate in each zone,” explains Akué, who knew Leduc at Laval University. In their fifth year of collaboration, the duo has established a solid bond.

“He will tell you if you bother him,” assures the 25-year-old athlete. You think ? ” Yes ! He’s that type…”

After an hour of warming up, she puts on her spikes while chatting with two teammates. It’s time to get down to business. She first tackles two sprints of 60 meters, the maximum possible in this room where “the wall arrives quickly”, says Akué.

The man in the red Canada t-shirt proves faithful to the description of his runner when he lectures the videographer who tries to interact with her. “Can we just let her focus please? he thunders. There, we are right! THANKS. »

The exercise was conclusive: the fastest Canadian in history accelerated from one terminal to the other and was faster at the second 60 meters, as prescribed by the coach.

After a few minutes to catch his breath, Leduc sets up a block to rehearse four starts, one of 40 m and three of 30 m. This portion still needs to be worked on for the one that stands out more for its top speed. “We want to improve that, but for the moment, that’s not its strength,” agrees Akué.

Set, announces the terminal on which Leduc pressed after positioning himself. At the sharp crack of the gunshot, she takes off. And it’s mind-blowing. The photographer François Roy shows me a photo where the runner, her arms whirling, looks like a character from Asterix who has just swallowed a magic potion.

After each sequence, she sits on the pole vault landing mat to chat with her coach.

“My strides are really long. It is too big ?

— I want it more compact, more rhythmic,” he agrees.

We are obviously in the in-depth analysis. “It was better, but not perfect,” slips Leduc while closing his bag. Direction: weight room.

“Make people proud”

With two journalists, a photographer and a videographer on her trail, she does not go unnoticed when she enters the small gym of the Conseil du sport de Montréal, in the basement of the complex. Young skiers and gymnasts are hard at work in this room, visited mainly by up-and-coming athletes.

Physical trainer Thomas Côté measures the sprinter’s momentum with jumps on the spot on a plate. His improvement has been marked since his debut at center in the fall of 2022, particularly in the last year.

“It’s a very impressive progression,” says Côté, who acts mainly as an advisor. “As far as charges go, his work ethic, it’s unbelievable, actually. It is correlated with its performance [sur la piste]. »

This work in the gym, immediately after his running sessions, is the main factor raised by Leduc to explain his meteoric rise in 2024.

“She has reached muscular maturity,” adds Akué, observing her performing Russian rotations with a weighted ball.

After the thirty-minute session, Leduc and Akué take leave of the media to chat for a few minutes behind the scenes. The schedule is busy with four competitions between now and the Trials, including one in Atlanta on Friday evening.

Audrey Leduc is no longer that triple gold medalist from the 2022 Canada Games who dreamed of a place in the relay for the 2024 Olympics. Not only will she be a key part of this relay – she should take care of the last curve, as at the recent World Relays in the Bahamas -, but she now looks like a potential finalist in the individual event, which would be unprecedented for a Canadian since the 1984 Olympics, boycotted by the Eastern bloc.

The MBA student does not hide that a final is now her ambition, otherwise “it would be setting limits”. However, she hesitates to proclaim it in the media “because we know what it can do”. She simply wants to “have fun running in the next few weeks” before setting more concrete goals with her trainer.

“I’m going out there to do the best I can, represent the country the best I can and make people proud. But also to make myself proud of what I do. »

This is already a good start.