“I never win in the first part of the race, I win at the end because I don’t give up. I think it’s a perfect analogy with my life. »
Posted at 6:00 a.m.
These words are those of Justin Lavigne. At 21, the native of Pointe-Claire is one of the best kayakers under the age of 23 in the province and he is participating this weekend in the World University Championships in Poland.
But the road to get there was winding.
When she got pregnant with Justin, Caroline Lamoureux had just overcome Hodgkin’s lymphoma. “It hadn’t been a year since I finished my chemo. For me, it was already a miracle baby. Because I could have been sterile, I could have been dead”, she tells with emotion to The Press around the table in the dining room of the family home in Pointe-Claire.
When her son was born after forty-one and a half weeks of pregnancy, in May 2001, he was a blue baby. Quickly, the doctors take him away. Mme Lamoureux and his spouse, Sylvain Lavigne, do not see their son again until five hours after the birth.
Justin spends the first two days of his life in intensive care, in an incubator, then he is operated on for a transposition of the great vessels, a heart defect.
According to Nancy Poirier, pediatric cardiac surgeon at Sainte-Justine Hospital, between 2 and 4 children out of 10,000 births are operated on for this malformation. “At Sainte-Justine, we operate on between 12 and 15 babies a year with this type of malformation,” she says.
Everything goes well, but Justin spends the next week in intensive care, then two more in intermediate care.
“There it was pink, all beautiful, remembers the mother. He was taking lots of antibiotics. We called it the mushroom because it took everything we gave it. »
After several weeks, the parents finally left the hospital with their son, but returned several times a year for follow-ups. “There was never any assurance given to us regarding life expectancy. It is always monitored. »
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, THE PRESS
Justin Lavigne with his parents Caroline Lamoureux and Sylvain Lavigne
Kayak, double bass and french horn
Justin Lavigne started kayaking at age 10. “We were worried,” said the mother. We were always asking if there were any restrictions. [Les médecins] always said, “He’s going to feel it.” »
To this day, Justin’s heart is doing well. He is followed by doctors from the Montreal Heart Institute. A few times, he had little scares, false alarms.
There have been a few times when I felt worse than usual, but if I’m able to speak and breathe normally, that’s for sure okay. It never really stressed me out that much.
Justin Lavigne, kayaker
In kayaking, it hasn’t always been easy for the young man. He struggled to “find [sa] place” within the Pointe-Claire Club. He loved sports, but “it was hard because of the environment”. Every summer, he hesitated to pursue the sport. “One last,” the family agreed each year.
In addition to his sport, Justin played several musical instruments. From the third year of high school, he played the double bass at school and the French horn at the Conservatoire de musique de Montréal. Let’s just say his schedule was full.
That year, his kayaking coach advised him to take part in a three-week camp in Florida. “I wasn’t tempted to go there,” says Justin. I preferred to stay with my friends, my music group, with whom I really got along better. »
After discussion with his parents, he went to the southern United States. And against all odds, it was there that he became passionate about the sport. The real passion. “It was no longer a case of who is friends with whom, but rather who is good. »
Goal: national team
For two years, the teenager divided his time between his two great passions, music and kayaking, until his schedule became too hectic. At the end of the fifth secondary, he had to make a choice. And it was the kayak that won out. “I found it more fun to have tangible results in sport. »
From his first year of CEGEP, Justin began to improve, from competition to competition. Gradually, he reduced his times from the previous year. He devoted himself body and soul to his sport, and it paid off. “It was really motivating,” he says.
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, THE PRESS
Kayaker Justin Lavigne has won four medals at the Canada Games.
In 2018, he made his place in the Quebec team. Since then, things have been going pretty well. The past season has been his most eventful, and probably his most successful. After training in Florida from February to April, he qualified for the Canada Games and the Canadian Championships. At the Games, he won four medals, two gold and one silver as a team, as well as an individual silver.
It’s almost my best performance ever.
Justin Lavigne
The following week, at the Canadian Championships, he was “mentally and physically drained” due to the summer that had just passed. He therefore took fifth place in the open 500m. “It wasn’t bad, but I feel like I could have done better,” he said.
He is taking part this weekend in the World University Championships, his first international competition, which ends this Sunday. Many of the adults he now coaches at the Pointe-Claire Club have financed his competition.
Justin, who is studying social work at the University of Montreal, dreams of one day making his place on the national team and taking part in the Olympic Games. Those of 2024 will be difficult to reach: “The guys in front of me are titans, he says. You never know what may happen, but 2028 seems to be the most realistic. »
In any case, he has something to congratulate himself on. As her mother says: “You always have to think about what’s behind it all. He has a small heart [re]built. He is a miracle of life. He’s in an elite sport and he’s fighting for a place where, even with normal hearts, people fight. »