(Quebec) Last spring, Laurent Dubreuil ran into Régis Labeaume in the newsroom of The Press when the former mayor of Quebec came to take his photo as the new columnist. The speed skater presented him with his silver medal from the Beijing Olympics, which the ex-politician had found very heavy.
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“There is a good part of the Ice Center in there,” said Dubreuil, well aware that the new building was Mr. Labeaume’s first election promise in 2007.
A few months later, the Intact Insurance Ice Center, a big silver UFO that sits on the edge of the Henri IV highway in Quebec City, will serve as the stage for the very first Canadian Combined Long Track and Short Track Speed Skating Championships. From Thursday to Sunday, the best long blade skaters in the country will compete for available spots at the fall World Cups.
For Dubreuil, prequalified by virtue of his results at the Olympic Games, the matter is already settled. If the competition had been held at the Olympic Oval in Calgary, as it has always been the case since the beginning of his career, he simply would not have participated.
It is that the 30-year-old athlete became a father for the second time two weeks ago. As Nathan was born a little earlier than expected, Dubreuil took the opportunity to break the ice in front of family and friends on Thursday (500m) and Friday (1000m), short nights or not.
The Olympic vice-champion in the 1000m and winner of the general classification of the World Cup in the 500m is not there to make an appearance. His daughter Rose, now 3 years old and already introduced to skating, now expects dad to bring her medals.
Laurent Dubreuil aims above all to record fast times after a hectic off-season – and not just for family reasons.
“May to the end of July was my worst start in years! “, he exclaimed after having groaned while putting his “old athlete’s back” in a seat in the bleachers overlooking the Ice Center on Tuesday afternoon.
Magnetic resonance imaging told him he had two herniated discs. The pain radiated to one foot. No wonder for someone who had suffered so much between his heartbreaking fourth place in the 500m in Beijing and his surprise rebirth six days later in the 1000m.
Thanks to anti-inflammatories, a cortisone injection and physiotherapy, Dubreuil was able to resume “adapted” training. No more squats with a bar of almost 400 lbs which caused him pain.
“Better than last year”
Curiously, this change of diet did not bother him one penny. “For two months, two and a half months – since I stopped squats, in fact – I’ve been doing really well. It’s better than last year at the same date, especially in the 1000 m. It’s hard to understand because it had been quite a dreamy summer. As close to perfect as it had ever been. This year, it was really catastrophic. Then at some point, we adjusted, things started to go well and the sensations came back…”
The birth of her second child also “refreshed her memory” and reminded her that speed skating, an obsession from early childhood, was no longer an absolute in her life.
And even less since he won this Olympic medal, a year after his world title in the 500m in the bubble of Heerenveen.
“I achieved two of the big goals that were dear to me. Now I have a career I can be proud of no matter what. It just allows me to be more balanced than ever in my life. The pressure is no longer there, but my thirst for winning has not disappeared. I still want to win lots of medals. In fact, it’s going so well that if I don’t win any this year, I’m going to be in a bad mood…”
Beyond national titles that have no meaning in his eyes, Dubreuil is targeting specific time goals this week, ie 34.5 s or 34.6 s in the 500 m and 1 min 08.5 s in the 1000 m.
Such times would tell him that he can compete for the podium next month at the World Cups in Stavanger (Norway) and Heerenveen (Netherlands).