If you’ve recently read or heard a report on long track speed skater Laurent Dubreuil, you can’t help but know that he is the proud father of a two-year-old girl named Rose. In addition to filling him with happiness, this newcomer has led him to review his priorities in life and to put his successes and failures in his sport into perspective. Which ultimately made him a better athlete, he says.
But that doesn’t come without adjustments to how you practice your sporting craft. “From the moment you choose to have a family, of course you want to be at home more often, that you try to limit training camps and unnecessary trips”, he notes by example.
Themselves Olympic skaters, his parents, Ariane Loignon and Robert Dubreuil, did not have the opportunity to make the same choices, says the 29-year-old son. “As soon as my mother got pregnant with me, my father retired. Not because he wasn’t good anymore, but because he had a family to support. Today, my sport allows me to earn enough money not to have to end my career, like them, before my expiration date. I even consider myself at my peak, and there are other guys on the same starting lines as me who are 34 years old and have three children. »
His teammate on the Canadian team Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu learned the hard way the paramount importance of a feeling of balance and mental well-being in the practice of his sport after abusive training conditions pushed him to 20 years interrupting a promising career as a short track speed skater.
“We maintain a very romantic image of the athlete who gives himself body and soul solely to his sport, but this is not viable in the long term. Whether you are a sportsman or do any other job, maintaining a balance with the other facets of your life is necessary to surpass yourself,” underlines the 29-year-old skater.
The person before the athlete
What convinced Antoine Gélinas-Beaulieu to move from Montreal to Quebec and put on his skates again after a five-year break was the presence of Gregor Jelonek. The long track speed skating coach claims to have seen too many “athletes terminate their rear prematurely because they were burned physically and especially mentally”.
He bluntly acknowledges that this perception may be due to the fact that he tends to “love the person more than the athlete”. He immediately points out, however, that a good balance in life is also the best guarantee of success. “An athlete who is happy, who feels that he is developing at school, who is well surrounded by his family, who is close to his girlfriend, who arrives at training happy to be there… That’s what who keeps the passion. This is what gives the energy. »
These types of factors, including sport-family balance issues, will only come up more and more often, observes Amélie Soulard, psychologist and mental preparation specialist at the Institut national du sport du Québec. “We learned how to better train and protect the bodies of athletes, which allows them to pursue their careers longer. But they claim to be able to be both athletes and parents. This comes with the importance now placed on mental health. »
In interview at Duty last month, the head of sport at the Canadian Olympic Committee, Eric Myles, said he was particularly proud of the efforts made at the last Summer Games in Tokyo. For example, when a special exemption was granted to a basketball player from British Columbia so that she could bring her three-month-old daughter to Japan to breastfeed her. Or, that we take into account the fact that if an Ontario boxer did not qualify at the same time as the others, it was only because she was on maternity leave.
Six months away from his family
But it’s still not easy for everyone. As soon as he showed promising dispositions at 15-16 years old, biathlete Jules Burnotte was invited to move his household near the Canadian national training center in Canmore, Alberta. “Each year, I answered them: “That’s nice, but no thank you. I feel at home, in Sherbrooke.” I was convinced that I had everything to succeed. And there were many other things than just sports in my life. »
However, the invitation ended up becoming more and more pressing, until last spring, when he was asked to choose between a full place on the Canadian biathlon team or Quebec. He still chose to stay in his city, but still found a way to qualify for the Games and leave for Beijing with the others.
The price to pay to go to these Olympics was higher, in this regard, for Samuel Giguère. The 36-year-old former professional footballer converted to bobsleigh has hardly set foot at home for six months. “An Olympic year is always more training,” explains the father of two little girls. And since the only two bobsled tracks in Canada are in Alberta and British Columbia, and the nearest is in Lake Placid, New York, the Quebecer may have spent a total of three weeks home since the beginning of August.
“Of course if I could stay at home to train, it would be better, but that’s not the reality, and we have to deal with that. Fortunately, my wife and children came to spend time with me this summer in Alberta. I was supposed to be able to come back for a ride at Christmas, but COVID complicated everything. When the Games are over, I’m really going to be happy to go home. »