Gymnastics | René Cournoyer: a team and its benefits

René Cournoyer was Canada’s only male gymnast at the Tokyo Olympics. In July, he’ll be anything but alone when he flies to Paris. “As far as performance goes, that’s definitely going to be a different story.”

“They are two different worlds,” admits the Repentignois.

Cournoyer earned his berth to the Tokyo Games based on his individual performance at the 2019 World Championships. The men’s team did not qualify.

In the months leading up to the Games, Cournoyer was the only one preparing. “Almost everyone else was on vacation,” he recalls. “I was in the gym preparing my routines, my Olympics, while everyone else was half-training, doing new moves.”

Gymnastics, Cournoyer reminds us, “is an individual sport that is won as a team.” In the French capital, he will be well surrounded by his teammates Félix Dolci, William Émard, Samuel Zakutney and Zachary Clay. The Olympic experience will be completely different for Cournoyer.

And then there is the encouragement. The support of four allies who will experience exactly the same thing as him.

“Having your team cheering you on, knowing the guys are there when you’re on the machine, it really lifts you up during your routine. It helps with performance.”

“Yes, there is a kind of stress where you don’t want to disappoint your team, but it reduces the stress to say to yourself: I have to do the best I can, but my team supports me. It’s an inverted approach.”

It should also be noted that three of the five members of the team are from Quebec: Cournoyer, Dolci and Émard. Cournoyer highlights the work of the provincial federation, “which has put things in place” in recent years, “which has really raised Quebec’s potential.”

“To say that years ago, they were all English speakers and there was only one Quebecer [et que ça] has transformed into a majority of Quebecers who represent the entire country, that is truly a source of pride in itself.”

A “very close-knit” team

René Cournoyer decided several years ago to train more often in his corner, in Repentigny, with his coach, rather than at the Olympic Stadium with the team. “It’s easier that way,” he says. But when a competition approaches, the entire team goes to the National Institute of Sport to train as a group, which creates “much greater team cohesion.” “It motivates us to surpass each other,” he explains.

According to him, the men’s team is “very close-knit.” William Émard and Félix Dolci, for example, are “almost like two brothers because they lived and grew up together,” he says.

Individually, Cournoyer has “always had the ambition to make a top 10 “worldwide.” Obviously, he would like to achieve it in Paris. Except that the “real objective,” he says, “would be to have a team final.”

“This would be the goal to have the most pride at the Canadian level, to show that we have become a strong country, that we have the next generation.”

“The results we had at the World Championships are much more promising than anything we’ve had in history,” he recalls, fire in his eyes. […] It proved to us that we are part of this elite and [que] Yes, it is possible to have a podium.