Olympic athletes have something to impress with their extraordinary physical abilities. Subjected to intensive training, they reach a high level, at a very young age for some. Even if it seems difficult, it is not impossible to get started in a sport that fascinates us on the screen these days, on the occasion of the Paris Games. For adults, it can even be an excellent idea. Today: rowing.
On a beautiful July day, Susanne Kreis is waiting for us with a broad smile at the Olympic basin on Notre-Dame Island, in front of Hangar 9, which houses the premises of the Montreal Rowing Club.
Wearing a cap, her eyes hidden behind her large sunglasses, the petite woman stands out a bit among the athletes with their toned bodies and broad shoulders who frequent the place.
It’s not her height or her colorful leggings that set her apart from other rowers, but her age.
At 74, the lady of Swiss-German origin is a good half-century older than some of the athletes you see along the two-kilometre pool, one of the legacies of the Montreal Olympic Games, held in 1976.
Growing up on the shores of Lake Constance in Switzerland, and born to a father who was a rowing coach, Susanne Kreis had everything she needed to discover this sport from a young age. But it was rather at the age of 60, on the advice of her brother (who is still rowing at 83), that she finally tasted the joys of this water sport.
“After my studies, I left my home region, and there were few opportunities to row. Even in Zurich, it was difficult to join a club, there were fewer women at that time. And the clubs were expensive. It was later that I started, here, in Quebec,” she explains.
To (re)read, in the same series
The taste of water
“Being on the water is great,” the former architectural draftsman replies in her sing-song accent when asked what got her hooked on the sport.
We get corrected by the coaches, but we don’t care! We allow it because we’re older.
The fresh air, just like the particular rhythm of the plane, would have unsuspected relaxing virtues, according to her. “It frees me to be on the water,” says Susanne Kreis, while in the distance bustards land on the basin. We have nature here, we see birds, animals, it’s very beautiful.”
His partner in the double sculls (a boat with two rowers), Martine Lavoie, took up rowing for the first time at the age of 62, as part of a business activity.
“The repetition of the movement makes me switch off. It’s like Philip Glass music. It’s a very Zen activity,” describes the lady, full of enthusiasm.
At 69, her practice is primarily recreational, far from the pressure of performance. “We get corrected by the coaches, but we don’t care!” says the sixty-year-old with a laugh. “We allow ourselves to do it because we’re older.”
“When you’ve been around for years like we have, it’s harder to change things,” adds Susanne, with a wry smile.
This does not prevent the two women from participating in the club’s training sessions two to three times a week. But only when the weather permits. “When it’s too cold, or too hot, we don’t come,” Martine sums up.
The self-described “curious” sportswoman tried her hand at several disciplines before settling on rowing: scuba diving, skiing, snowboarding and golf, which she started playing at the age of 50.
Today, she also promises herself to continue rowing for as long as possible. “We like being together and having our own rhythm,” she says of her relationship with Susanne.
“At first, rowing, you think it’s going to be easy, but the more you do it, the more you realize that you know nothing! You never stop learning.”
With virtually no impact on the joints, rowing is ideal for white-headed athletes. “We highly recommend it to people who have had sports injuries,” says Daphné Bisson, president of the Montreal Rowing Club.
Rowing is also considered a complete sport, which uses both the cardiovascular system and a wide variety of muscles. “People think that you’re using your arms, but what you’re using is your legs first, your core [les muscles abdominaux et du dos]then the arms. All this helps to maintain good general physical shape, without creating wear and tear on any particular part of the body.”
For all, together
Rowing has a reputation as an elitist sport, a small, closed circle essentially reserved for students (often male) at major universities.
To break the mold, the Montreal Rowing Club offers introductory courses for beginners.
A bit like apprentice cyclists who take their first pedal strokes on a bike equipped with small extra wheels, participants in the Learn to Row program practice in single-seater boats equipped with small… buoys! “The idea is to provide more stability and autonomy” to beginners, explains Daphné Bisson, before they join boats with two, four or eight rowers.
The president herself can testify to this, having started rowing at the age of 32, encouraged to give it a try by a work colleague. “I ran away after my first lesson, I wasn’t competent at all,” she says, laughing, seven years later.
Through perseverance, she was finally seduced by rowing, she who had never practiced any sport assiduously before. “I don’t have a sports background at all, but rather an artistic one,” explains the woman who studied clarinet and now works in business intelligence for the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.
Playing an instrument and rowing in synchronicity have a lot in common, she says. “Rowing is very technical, it’s very similar to learning an instrument. The repetitions, the small changes to technique, the discipline, these are learning concepts that we know well.” [nous, les musiciens]. »
And just as music requires players to play in harmony, rowing requires near-perfect cooperation from rowers to reach their destination safely.
“The ‘doing-together’ has always been an essential element of my love for music. Here, it’s the same thing,” confides Daphné Bisson, describing the clan spirit that reigns inside the club.
“Even if you’re all alone in your boat, you’re never really all alone,” she says. “When we go to a regatta, the whole club comes out. Everyone helps put the trailer up, everyone helps take it down. If your race is coming up, everyone is ready to help you, with your oars, your boat, whether they’re in your crew or not, or at the same level as you or not.”