Speed ​​Skating | Laurent Dubreuil returns home after his “longest trip”

(Quebec) They were about twenty young people gathered in front of the arrivals gate at Jean-Lesage airport. It was the end of a gray Thursday in Quebec. But these little skaters had come all the way from Lévis to be here.

Gabriel Beland
The Press

They were waving signs with his first name written in big letters: Laurent. One of the passengers, surprised by the welcoming committee, murmured: “Who is Laurent? Another exclaimed, in the direction of the journalists: “Are you waiting for Star Académie? »

The welcoming committee was not expecting an academician or a hockey player. He was waiting for Laurent Dubreuil, the man who gave back his letters of nobility to long track skating in Quebec, who returned Thursday at the end of the day from a grueling ten-week trip around the world.

“What I want to do right now is spend an afternoon lounging on a couch and playing video games. It’s silly, too, ”said Dubreuil, very candid with journalists, while his daughter Rose was spinning around him.

The 29-year-old athlete took a huge trophy out of his luggage. This season he won the 500m long track speed skating World Cup. He is the first Quebecer to do so, and the second Canadian.

Then he also released his silver medal won at the Beijing Olympics. The young people from the Lévis Speed ​​Skating Club present at the airport widened their eyes.

“When he arrived, he immediately showed his medal to a child rather than showing it to us! “, remarked his mother, Ariane Loignon, who notes that the champion has remained very close to the little skaters.

“I’m satisfied”

All these honors he has won since leaving Quebec at the end of January. He was gone for over two months. “It’s my longest trip,” he said.

Perhaps also his most beautiful. Dubreuil took the time to reflect on what was probably his “best career season”. On the threshold of his thirties, he also began to make provisional assessments of his career.

“But if I don’t win any more medals in my life, I’m still going to have a very good career. I got there. Whether it happens or not, I’m happy with what I’ve achieved. There is no real pressure for the rest of my career. »

One thing is certain, Dubreuil’s successes are part of a new craze for long track skating in the Quebec region. Because if Quebecers are dominant in short track (111 m ring), their successes are sporadic in long track (400 m ring).

“We are relaunching the long track. There was a time when it was not easy. We trained outside, it was cold, it was windy. Young people under 10 went upwind, downright. Now that we have a new indoor ice centre, there is a craze for long track. It’s wonderful,” says Gontrand Lévesque, president of the Lévis Speed ​​Skating Club, whom we met at the airport.

The man was referring to the new covered ice ring in Sainte-Foy. Now, several young people from the region go there to train in long track.

“I think there will be a new enthusiasm in the Quebec region for long track. And in a few years I think Quebecers will become more dominant,” he believes.

Laurent Dubreuil is aware of the role he plays with young people. “What I’ve accomplished has an impact on young people and that’s good. Me when I was young it was Kalyna Roberge who had won medals in short track. She comes from the Lévis club too and that inspired us when we were young. If it can do the same! »

He will now take a few weeks off after a turbulent season. Then he will start training again. He swears he’s already looking forward to it.

Because even if we sometimes feel the detachment of the veteran in his words, it is clear that Dubreuil still wants to win. His long journey is not over.

“Obviously I’m not saying ‘it doesn’t matter if I finish fifteenth, I have an Olympic medal’,” he said. “Of course I will feel differently the day before the World Championship in a year. »