Family ties a theme in world champ Laurent Dubreuil’s speedskating career

By: Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press Posted: 10:41 AM CST Monday, Jan. 31, 2022

Laurent Dubreuil still chuckles recounting how he once told his mother she didn't know much about speedskating.

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Laurent Dubreuil still chuckles recounting how he once told his mother she didn't know much about speedskating.

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This article was published 31/01/2022 (1338 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Laurent Dubreuil still chuckles recounting how he once told his mother she didn’t know much about speedskating.

The cheeky youngster was born after parents Robert and Ariane raced in the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, and he wasn’t yet old enough to know that.

“My mom was tying up my skates when I was a kid and she was telling me something about what I should do on ice,” Dubreuil recalled.

Canada's Laurent Dubreuil skates during the men's 500-metre competition at the ISU World Cup speed skating event in Calgary, Alta., Sunday, Dec. 12, 2021.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh

“I told her ‘You don’t even know how to skate mom, like what are you talking about?’ She just started laughing and one of the other parents was tying up his kid’s skate and said ‘No, no, your mom knows how to skate. She skates really fast.'”

Dubreuil (pronounced do-BRAY) says his parents didn’t talk a lot about their own speedskating exploits, so it took a few years for him to realize they were Olympians.

Robert raced short-track as a demonstration sport in Calgary before competing in long-track four years later in Albertville, France.

Ariane raced five long-track events in Calgary and was pregnant with Laurent as a spectator in Albertville.

“It did take a while for me to realize my parents had been world-class skaters,” Dubreuil said.

“Them having achieved their own dreams having gone to the Olympics, world championships, having won international medals, they didn’t try to live through me. They never put pressure on me, but whenever I would need advice, they would be there for me.

“Sometimes you see kids having a lot of pressure put on by their parents, but that was really not the story of my life. It was completely the opposite.

“They would never give me more than I needed or I wanted, but always as much as I needed.”

Robert says he and his wife just wanted their three children — Laurent, Daniel and Anna-Belle — to be physically active in sport.

Ariane coached Laurent in speedskating at a club level, but their son also ran track and field at a provincial level and played soccer.

“We’re sports fans as a family,” Robert said. “We were positive with all the sports they practised. The one we knew the most was speedskating and maybe the passion came through in our discussions and the attention we put on it.”

Dubreuil is the reigning world champion in the men’s 500 metres, which is the same distance his father raced in Albertville.

The 29-year-old from Levis, Que., could be the first Canadian man to win Olympic gold in the event when he skates at the Beijing Games.

“It would mean a lot to win. It’s crazy to think we haven’t had a winner in the 500 metres,” Dubreuil said. “It’s overdue for us to have a winner.”

He was just was six years old when Canadians Jeremy Wotherspoon and Kevin Overland earned Olympic silver and bronze medals respectively in Nagano, Japan, in 1998.

Quebec is a factory for elite short-track speedskaters, and Dubreuil skated both disciplines as a youngster. Watching Marc Gagnon and Jonathan Guilmette win short-track gold and silver respectively in the 500 in 2002 in Salt Lake City was a revelation for him.

But a growth spurt and concussions — one from short track and the other from basketball — had Dubreuil favouring long-track, where there aren’t collisions affecting the outcome.

“I was probably a bit too big, bit too heavy for short track,” he said. “I’m 190 pounds, and there’s no short track skater that size, so I would have had to switch anyway at some point.

“There’s a chance factor in short track which makes it really exciting to watch, but for me really frustrating to skate. Long track, you show up on the line, the best skater wins.”

Dubreuil tops this season’s World Cup standings in the 500 with a medal in all eight races, including two wins.

The 2021 world championship in Beijing was cancelled due to COVID-19 and relocated to Heerenveen, Netherlands, where Dubreuil won his world title in the 500 and bronze in the 1,000 metres.

There was no test event at Beijing’s National speedskating Oval, but that doesn’t concern the Canadian. Growing up exposed to the elements on the outdoor Gaetan Boucher Oval in Quebec City made Dubreuil adaptable.

“Whatever it is, I’ll be ready. I think I’ll be one of the skaters to adapt the quickest,” he said.

The communications student at the University of Laval and wife Andreanne Bastille have a two-year-old daughter, Rose.

The couple decided they could start a family when construction on Quebec City’s Intact Assurance Ice Center, which houses an indoor oval, started four years ago.

“That’s why my daughter is alive right now,” Dubreuil said. “That’s big, the difference it is going to make for us because it allows me to be home two more months every year, instead of being four and a half months away.”

Robert believes having a family gave his son perspective and life balance that makes him a better speedskater.

The father points out that Dubrueil’s greatest successes have come since marriage and fatherhood.

Dubreuil was 18th in the 500 metres and 25th in the 1,000 in the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

He concurs that an Olympic gold medal is important, but not more important than Andreanne and Rose.

“I used to think it would be life changing, and now my life is more centred on my family than it is on sports,” he said. “It would be a crowning achievement of my career just like the world championship was last year. That would be even bigger, of course, but I don’t think I would be happier.

“My happiness is more tied to my family, my daughter, my wife than it is to my skating, so I can see my myself being extremely happy in life without winning it.

“I’m more a bit detached and more relaxed about it, and I’ve been skating better since I switched to that mindset. It makes me a dangerous skater come Olympics time, but whatever happens, I’m going to be happy in March, going home to my family after the Games.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 31, 2022.