It was 30 years ago. Quebec discovered biathlon at the Winter Games in Albertville, where Quebecer Myriam Bédard would win a bronze medal in the 15 kilometer race, the first Olympic medal in this sport by a North American athlete.
Two years later, during the Lillehammer Winter Games in 1994, the whole province fell in love with this strange discipline where, in the same event, you have to give your all on the ski slope. then, on command, become perfectly calm and still to hit tiny rifle targets. We weren’t going to be disappointed. The athlete from L’Ancienne-Lorette, near Quebec, had won two other medals, but gold this time, in the 7.5 km and 15 km. These three Olympic medals are still today Canada’s only ones in this sport.
Other Quebecers nevertheless did well thereafter. This was particularly the case for Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, with a sixth and fifth place respectively in the 10 km at the Games in Vancouver in 2010 and Sochi in 2014. manifest, among other things, by the presence of only one Quebecer (Jules Burnotte, from Sherbrooke) out of the eight biathletes who will represent Canada at the Beijing Games from February 4 to 20.
Crumbling
This “erosion” is the result of a set of factors, believes Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, who was, until last spring, head coach at the Quebec Biathlon Federation (FQB). “First, biathlon remains a relatively niche sport when you compare it, for example, to its cousin, cross-country skiing. [De plus,] its popularity has always been quite cyclical and is based on the qualities and work of a relatively small number of volunteers. »
The Canadian Biathlon Federation has also long sought to concentrate the development of the country’s elite athletes in its training center in Canmore, Alberta, a “real nursery, with more than fifteen clubs in the region”. In addition, since the funding of elite sport in Canada relies heavily on successes achieved on the international scene, a bad patch can quickly lead to a vicious circle.
“But money isn’t everything. I have already trained with clubs in France where you literally had to pack the cows that were grazing in what served as a shooting range, ”says Jean-Philippe Le Guellec.
Quebec biathlon had nevertheless managed to reconstitute a group of promising young athletes when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, argues Mario de Lafontaine, general manager of the FQB. “But for two years, our athletes have not been able to practice their sport. We have not stopped canceling competitions. »
However, says Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, at a certain level, competition becomes the main motivation in sport, but we are still too young to succeed in projecting ourselves far into the future and persevering in spite of everything in our training.
In search of young people
To strengthen its vitality and reconnect with success, Quebec biathlon must seek to broaden its base, particularly among young people, says Mario de Lafontaine, who took up the post a little over two years ago with the mission of restructure the work of the Federation, which currently has 245 members.
Even today, the Quebec biathlon finds a good part of its new followers among the cadets, who have a long tradition of physical training and the handling of weapons. The former physical educator would like to expand and diversify the range of young people his sport reaches and has started to hold initiation activities in day camps and schools. First, we want to emphasize the recreational side rather than the competitive side.
He notes, among other things, that while many children are drawn to the prospect of handling rifles, first air or laser rifles, then 22 caliber when they are a little older, it is not always the case of their parents, especially those in the cities.
play biathlon
To be most successful, these activities aimed at the youngest should distance themselves from the more rigid and competitive approach of biathlon, linked to its military tradition, to emphasize the game and the pleasures of sport, says Jean-Philippe Le Guellec, himself a former cadet. “I have a six-year-old daughter who has just started cross-country skiing. When I see, on Sunday afternoon, at Mont-Sainte-Anne, more than a hundred children with, as coaches, young athletes who make them play and show them how to have fun on their skiing, I find it beautiful. And I tell myself that it’s the best way to discover and bring a sport to life. »
The biathlon is not there, however, he recalls. “All of this is going to be a long-term job. »