Player's Own Voice: Laurent Dubreuil Transcript

December 14th 2021

Anastasia: Laurent Dubreuil is living proof that less is More.

After ten years of exhausting training, the long track speedskater decided last year to work out less and rest more. So of course he became world champion then and there.

He has been the man to beat, ever since.

As the child of two Olympians who had already made their mark, he also grew up with less pressure to live out pushy parent's vicarious dreams.

And now his own young daughter is making it even more clear… For Laurent Dubreuil, less work and more relaxation paves the path to success in Beijing

It's Player's Own Voice. I'm Anastasia Bucsis.

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Before we get rolling, more proof that the stars are alligning for laurent dubreuil: just before this goes to air, in a weekend of world cup racing in Calgary, Laurent smashed jeremy Wotherspon's 14 year old national record in the 500 meters...That is 8 podiums in 8 world cup races so far this year. So he is now the second fastest man in history.

Oh, bud. You started the season off pretty strong, How are you feeling?

Laurent Dubreuil: Feeling good. It was a tough race today, but I mean, the weekend went really well and it's been going really well in training as well. So I'm not necessarily surprised with the times I've skated. But, you know, training for what, six months before first races. There's a bit of jitters at the first weekend and also you you're looking forward to getting into it race wise. So it's it's been good. I'm excited, but there's still a lot more to come.

Anastasia: You've been at this level for a long time, though. Even when I was still skating, I remember being a young gun and you being even younger than me. So you've been like doing this for at least a decade?

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, I mean, I got on the team right after Vancouver, not because I made Vancouver, because I was way too young, but I made my first World Juniors in 2010, and then I qualified on the development team and my first world championships as a senior was in 2012, so it's going to be 10 years then next winter.

So it's been a long time. Sometimes I feel really old. Sometimes I feel really young still. Because, depends who I'm seeing, who I'm training with. If I'm competing on the world stage and there's three or four thirty five year olds with three kids on the starting line besides me. I'm still pretty young. But when I train at home and I'm training with young up and comers were like 20, 21, 22, I feel kind of old. I'm the only one with a family and they're not at the same place in my life as they are, but depends. Physically. I still feel good, but sometimes I feel older than the people I'm surrounded with.

Anastasia: Do I make you feel old or young?

Laurent Dubreuil: You make me feel young because I remember seeing you skate before I even got on the team.

Anastasia: good answer!

Laurent Dubreuil: No offence. No offence.

Anastasia: Yeah, yeah.

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Anastasia: You've been at this level for so long. But the success you've seen in the last, let's call it a year and a half has been paramount. It's been amazing. Why did it take you so long, bud?

Laurent Dubreuil: That's a good question. If I if I knew or if I had known, I wasn't necessarily doing the right things five or six years ago, I would have switched already. You know, I had a good season after Sochi, which I didn't do. I didn't qualify. I changed up a lot of things. And I had a good season the year after. But then after that, I had three or four seasons where I would maybe medal once a year and more, mostly finish 10th or something like that. And I knew that wasn't the best I could do. But those years my feeling was that probably I wasn't training hard enough and it was probably the opposite, so I would train more and get slower. And yeah, like two or three years ago, I decided to train less, more quality stuff more afternoons off, which I like. Helps improve my quality of life, but also made me faster. So it was a double win, in this way,

Anastasia: you've been with your coach, Gregor Jelinek, for ever. Why such an enduring relationship with your coach? What's special about it?

Laurent Dubreuil: I think, yeah, Gregor is a very human coach, so he wants what's best for his athletes, but not only as athletes, but as human beings. So that's why it's been going on, like he's been coaching me since 2009, and it's probably a race to see who's going to retire first or second. So maybe I'll retire after him and I'll have to get another coach for a few seasons.

But I mean, we get along so well. We're basically good friends and I still respect his authority over me. So he's still the coach. I still see it like that, but he's also the godfather of my daughter. So that's that explains it as best as I can. He is somebody he's not just a coach, is a mentor, and he's a friend at the same time.

Anastasia: You say he wants what's best for the human, what's best for you as a human?

Laurent Dubreuil: What's best for me is being happy with my family and skating doesn't even come close to that, honestly. So he knows that, and he would rather me be happy and fourth at the Olympics than unhappy and win. And him thinking that and me realising that too with my family helps me a lot because I don't have pressure when I skate. Basically, I just skate because I like it. And if I don't like it anymore, I'm just going to stop. It's not about, this doesn't define me as a human. What defines me is what I do daily and my family. So he realises that, and he helps me mature in life and not just skating.

Anastasia: He has a tremendous amount of confidence. And even though I don't think I've ever told you this story, but I remember about a decade ago he looked at me. I don't know how it even came up in conversation, but he said "That one's special and he's going to be a champion." Have you felt that confidence from him since day one?

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, yeah, I have. And even I have another story I haven't told a lot of people, but like 10 years ago or something like that, I think I just won World Junior Championship and set the world junior record, which somehow still stands. I don't get that because people should beat that time from 10 years ago but … And he was approached by, I don't know it was probably like, I don't think he got a written offer, but he got asked about his interest in coaching US speedskating and Shauni Davis, and for people who don't know, Shauni Davis is like,

Anastasia: he's the king.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, exactly a mega superstar in speed skating and one of the best skaters ever. And he just flat out said no, he said, 'You know, I hopefully I got my future Shauni Davis with me' and I'm like 'you're crazy man'. I'm not Shauni Davis at all, but like just that day. And he told me that right away and I was like, like, this guy really believes in me and he's a bit crazy to believe in me that much, but he really believes in me. So it was it was a fun story for him to tell me. And just being, just doing like a third or a tenth of what Shauni did would be amazing for me. So I was a bit too much in my mind. But it shows the trust and the belief that I would make it that he had in him.

Anastasia: Well, you got one World Championship title to your name. You were so confident, but you're not a jerk. You know? Like you're not cocky and you've always been like that. How have you found that balance?

Laurent Dubreuil: I think I really believe in my ability. To perform and to win, but at the same time, I don't think that makes me a better human than somebody else, and unfortunately, some athletes think that. And like you said, their jerks to be around. But I don't want to be that. I want to, you know, some people on the circuit, and it's like that in some sports, every sport maybe, they're going to start talking to you once you get good.

Anastasia: Yeah, it's like, you're the cool person.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, exactly. Because now, now you've been winning medals, so you're worth them talking to you, which is total bull crap if you ask me. But to me, that's not how I want to live. And all my friends, all my best friends, are all retired from skating. Obviously, I had skater friends because that's what I was doing when I was a kid, but none of them are. Maybe Alex St Jean has made the Olympics, but he's the only one all the other ones maybe made world Juniors are not even close to that, but that to me, was not important to me. What was important was I was friends with them. There were good people, so I don't want to become somebody that only talks, you know, is that's just not who I am. That's just bad. This is bad behaviour in life. So it's that's not what I'm about.

And but at the same time, I still believe I can win. And Shauni was actually good as an example. He was super friendly with everybody, and I remember when I was 19 making my first World Cups. He would talk to me for 10 minutes and I'd be so starstruck. But at the same time, it was just like, so chill. And he'd still crush people, win medals and set world records, and he's just a good example in that regard.

Anastasia: I remember I was like 13 and skating mass start competition, and he came up and he was like, What are you doing? Like, Oh, we have a competition this week. Mass start is like what you do as a child. And he was like," That's the best. Like, have fun. I wish I could go back to that time!" And you're totally right. You've like, nailed him perfectly.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, that was that was a good moment for me as my after my first world championship here and I was flying back to Quebec City, but through Chicago and Shoney's from Chicago. So he was flying there and then staying there. So I was by myself and nobody else from the Canadian team was there. So he was just starting, started talking to me and we talked for like a full hour and I was like, just him taking two minutes to talk to me would have been big, and we just talked about everything. And he had, just for the first time in his long track career, not won the World Championship that year. It was his first season in I think eight years, not winning a gold medal. And he was still taking the time, and he was probably extremely disappointed. It was still taking the time to talk to me and just being just a good dude.

And that was that was big for me. I was like, If that guy has the time and and interest asking questions about me, it was just not just me asking questions about him. He was asking as many questions about me as I was doing for him, and it was just a big moment knowing that, you know, you can win and not be a bad person because sometimes you see that right the killer mentality or whatever. And those people are just not good humans. Jerks, but that you don't have to do that to be good. And it was an eye opener for me.

Anastasia: Well, your parents, of course. Formidable Olympians as well. Competed 1988. And in Albertville, what were some of the values that they instilled in you?

Laurent Dubreuil: For us at home? Obviously, sport was important, but it was about trying hard and healthy lifestyle. It wasn't about winning. I've been, my dad has yelled at me for winning a race and not trying until the finish line, and he's been proud of me for finishing last but giving it my all. So it was always about trying hard and, you know, persevering and just working hard and doing my best. And so you see how I mean, I was pretty good when I was a kid, and grew up fast, too. So that helps when you're young. But my parents never put pressure on me to win. They put pressure on me to try hard and to work hard and to lead by example amongst my group of friends. So it was it was like that, and I think I got lucky because while obviously I love my parents and they're good parents, but they lived their own dreams, you know, like they didn't try to live through me.

For them, me making the Olympics or not or whatever didn't matter to them because they made it the way they lived their career. They retired when they were ready and they just wanted us to play sports and they would be proud of us. So my brother made three world juniors and then retired and my sister made Canada games and then retired. So all three very different levels, and I don't think they're more proud of me than they are my sister who just finished pharmacy and school. I think they're proud of all three of their kids and also makes me made me realise that, you know, my worth as a human again was not tied to my results because my parents are proud of me. If I try my best. They're not proud of me if I win.

Anastasia: That's hard, though. I mean, a lot of athletes put their self-esteem and tie it directly to their results. Have you ever struggled with that?

Laurent Dubreuil: I have, especially earlier in my career, I have had a couple, like when I missed Sochi by four hundredths. That was tough I felt like. I didn't feel like very good about my life. At that point. You invest so much in it and then you don't make it. You go like that. Did I just waste a couple of years or even like a decade or whatever? But my parents helped me realise that that's not true. And no, it's. It's still fun, you know, it's sometimes they help me just take a step back and realise that I'm doing what I love most and some years, I just I find it's easier now because I'm wiser and I'm older, and I probably have less years left ahead of me as well, so I take more time to appreciate what I'm doing.

But these are probably the best years of my life, I would say. So, I mean, it's my dream job, so the next job is probably not going to be as fun. So I need to have fun, even though I know I'm not going to win every race. Not even close, actually. And some years are going to be worse than others. But it's still, I'm still, you know, earning a living speedskating, which was my dream when I was five and 10 years old. So I'm living my best life right now.

Anastasia: Do they give you technical advice? Are you like, 'Mum, Dad, stop.'

Laurent Dubreuil: They don't do it anymore. They don't do that anymore. Back in the day, yes, but now they they both say, my mom says it more often than my dad, but they both say they're like: "I don't think we can help you anymore. Like, you're too good now, and we're too out of touch. "

Even though my dad works at the quebec Federation, but he's not a coach, so every year he's further out from his own career. But when I was younger, yes, and my mom did actually coach me for a few years, she would do it, not as a private coach. It was at a regional centre where I trained. And that was that was tough because I was not, I was not a good athlete back then. I mean, I was good, but I wouldn't listen to anything she said. So it's probably very hard on her, but I should have listened more. It was a tough few years, but like aside from like the basics, they don't really give me… It's more emotional support and whatever I need now than technical cues.

Anastasia: And speed skating is like lovely because you actually peak so late in life. I think the number I usually use is 28 years old. What have you changed so drastically, you know, sitting here now compared to, let's say, 2014?

Laurent Dubreuil: I mean, I have a kid now, right? So I made a conscious decision when my daughter was born, not to train twice a day, not to train as much as before. And if that made me slower, then so be it, because I didn't want to miss moments with my family. The family was really is more important than skating to me. So it's tough being on the road, but so my training camps, I shortened them when she was born by like almost a week every camp. I take all my afternoons off. And that actually made me faster!

So I think I was probably training too much my whole life before that because we figured out that for me, what works best is a lot of rest and quality stuff. And obviously it's not a one size fits all for other athletes might be very different, but for me, as a sprinter, I perform good when I'm rested, I train good when I'm rested, so doing too much is counter-productive.

Anastasia: Yes, see, I like to rest, but I was never a real champion. So what the hell?

Laurent Dubreuil: Probably weren't resting enough maybe or something Iike that!

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Anastasia: I ask this, though, of a lot of athletes who are parents too, I mean, how did she change your perspective on winning? I mean, was it like, wow, a brand new world?

Laurent Dubreuil: Rose changed, my daughter Rose, my perspective a lot, because if I do good or if I do bad and I call them, I Skype them, she doesn't care at all. She she's just happy seeing daddy, or sometimes she just doesn't want to see me. So it's like she has no idea what's going on, right? So to me. It made me realise if the one human being I care about most in the world doesn't care about my skating, then maybe my skating is not as important as I thought it was. So to me, I would rather make my daughter proud, make her happy and help her have a good life, then be a good skater.

So. But at the same time, I'm faster than ever since she was born. So it's probably, I think it's probably putting too much pressure on myself. And ever since I realised that skating wasn't as important as I thought, I skate like freely on the ice. I feel lighter. Even though I'm heavier than used to be with all the weight training, but I feel lighter. I just let myself skate. And back then I would say I was more like fifth or sixth or seventh in the world. I would try harder during the race because I need to win a medal and then I would perform worse. But now I just show up, do the best race I can, have fun while doing it. Then whatever the result is, I'm happy seeing my daughter again, so it's a lot easier. And it's helped me tremendously.

Anastasia: Getting faster, do you feel lighter on the ice? Has the birth of Rose changed your nerves before a race?

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, I don't really get nervous anymore. I mean, hopefully I'll be able to keep that mindset at the Olympics. But I get to the rink on race day and I'm like, this can be a fun day. It's not a stressful day. It's a fun day. I'll miss doing this when I'm 40 and I'm not skating anymore. So also, I'm at the point in my career, but I've had like hundreds of international races, maybe or something. So. One more good or one more bad race. What difference does it make at some point?

But I just enjoy doing it now. I know, like back in 2014, let's say, the morning of the Olympic Trials, when I didn't make it, I probably didn't have a very good breakfast. I was probably so stressed and overwhelmed by the moment. And now I just, you know, I get up and I'm not nervous. I sleep well the day before, and I'm just happy doing what I do.

Anastasia: well you are two time Canadian champion now. Good job, and it's tracking nice and well. How do you keep hungry after you've won so much?

Laurent Dubreuil: I don't think I've won enough to be … No, I'm not full yet. I still need to eat a bit, I think. But I mean, I think again, winning is not that important anymore. I just love what I do, and I love going fast too. So I have more fun if I'm going faster. So I still think I can improve my starts right now. My speed is at the level I needed to be. But my second lap in the in the thousand was tough this weekend. That was still a good thing but..

Anastasia: But yeah, you were in a world of hurt.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, exactly. I don't think I've ever heard like that in a 1000m, so I think I can work on that a bit, but it's just little details. I'm not far off from where I need to be. I think I need to be just a bit better to maximise my chances of winning, but I think I have the level to win medals right now. So it's just little details and I think I can get a bit stronger, a bit more explosive, a bit more smooth in my technique. But we'll take it one day at a time and see where it goes.

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Anastasia: Speed skating is Canada's most successful Olympic sport. Hands down. Where do you think that comes from?

Laurent Dubreuil: We have a great history of speed skating. We weren't necessarily good like 50 years ago, but I think for us, Gaetan Boucher was huge. Him winning four medals in years where you had to be East German or Russian to win.

Anastasia: Mm-Hmm.

Laurent Dubreuil: We know why. But him beating those guys was was big. And then after that, in the 90s and and 2000s, we took off like crazy. We won like we would win like five to almost 10 Olympic medals in one Olympics. So it waspretty insane. And I grew up watching that too. So that was big and it gives us confidence that if the previous generation did it, we can do it as well. And hopefully we'll do it this Olympics and then the kids watching at home, they'll be like, Oh, those guys did it. In 10 years, I'm going to do it. So, you know, it's a cycle when when you're from a country that doesn't perform in the sport, it's tough to actually believe you can do it. But for us, we've seen people win. At my first world championship, I did that. Denny Morrison won the 1500, first time I'm there. We got a world champion and we almost had a world champion every year, so that was big. And we're still keeping it going. So hopefully we'll have young kids coming up and they'll win in eight years.

Anastasia: He won in Heerenveen if I amthinking of the right one? World Championship. Yeah, that was a good after party. Yeah. Cafe Bach for all of our Dutch friends…

Laurent Dubreuil: We'll not get into that story!

Anastasia: I know there's a lot of buzz around this Canadian team, though, lots of chatter about perhaps it being one of the most successful teams that will send. What do you think is so special about this team?

Laurent Dubreuil: I think like you said earlier, your prime in skating comes later and we're basically have almost the exact same team as four years ago. And we are all a bit older. And I think most of us are in the prime of our careers now. So I think that's part of it. And also, we have a few young skaters coming up that are not necessarily in the prime of their careers yet. But like Fish, Graham Fish he's won the World Championship two years ago, and he was what was 21 or 22?

Anastasia: 22 from Moose Jaw!

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, exactly. So that's crazy, especially in the longer distances that just doesn't happen very often. So I think we have a very good set of talented individuals and a great support system around all of us, great coaches. And I think everybody's peaking at the right time because we have the same group of athletes, mostly as we did four years ago, and we only won two medals last time. So I think with the same skaters, four more years of training, the times are a lot faster and I think we can we can have a lot more than that. But who knows, it's a very high level. We'll see.

Anastasia: I'm a kid from Calgary and I started speed skating at the age of four. So every time I walk into the oval, I feel the legacy. Really. I mean, that sounds dramatic, but I know just the blood, sweat tears that people have shed in that 400 metre track. St Fois now has its own oval, indoor covered oval. What's that going to do to speed skating in Quebec?

Laurent Dubreuil: That's going to be huge for us. Just long track speed skating as much as I love it, was not very attractive as a sport for kids in Quebec. I don't know if people have ever skated at minus twenty. But what we're wearing is not made for minus five weather, like it gets cold skating at 15 degrees inside sometimes, and we would skate in the same skin suit at minus 20. So it was tough and people would just not try it very much. So when you think about the number of good or even great world class or world record holders, we have in short track that just would never even try long track, not even think about it. And now we have….it's beautiful in Quebec city, the facility now. So it went from being something I'm not even sure I would have signed up my kids for long track skating,it was way too cold. But now with their facility we have, it's beautiful and it's so much fun skating and I think people will try it. People will love it and people will perform.

Anastasia: I want to have kids. Obviously, I don't have kids yet, but I'm like, if I live in Toronto, I got to put them in short track. I'm not going to be able to help them!

Laurent Dubreuil: Me neither. Because short track, I'm really bad at it. So, but short track is fun for kids, though, because it's a shorter oval so they can see their friends more often. The long track oval is very big, so you don't see, you know, it takes a long time to do a full lap. But indoors it's so much fun and from what I see from my daughter, she really wants to skate, so she probably we'll probably try to put her on a hockey skates. But in there, it's so much fun.

It's fun in Quebec City, too, because you don't feel trapped, some indoor ovals, you feel like you're in an airport hangar or something. Yeah. But ours, the windows are right where you look, when you skate, like they're at ground level. So there's a lot of natural light coming in and you see the grass from outside. And while it's winter the snow, but it's beautiful, it feels alive.

Anastasia: So she's going to become a speed skater?

Laurent Dubreuil: if she wants to. I couldn't praise my parents for not putting pressure on me and put pressure on my kid. That would be dumb. Of course, I think it's probably going to be hard or challenging for me to not want to give her too much support and let her take it at our own pace. But if she needs stuff from me, I'll give it. I'll probably sharpen her blades very often. But we just want her to be happy. She really likes other sports as well, so we just want her to be active and happy.

Anastasia: What are some of the values that your folks instilled in you that you'll instil in her?

Laurent Dubreuil: It's not about winning, it's about trying hard and overcoming obstacles. That's what sport is about, and that's how sport sets you up to succeed in life, too. It makes you a more disciplined person and makes you a hard working person, and that's what I want her to be. I want her to not be afraid of working hard, but realising that happiness is more important than than success, if you will. I want her to be happy, rather than successful. Like if she's both, then great. But success should never come at the expense of happiness. So I want her to like what she's doing in life.

Anastasia: Usually when you're happy, you're successful.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, it helps. Absolutely, it helps. But I've seen people win stuff and hate what they're doing, It's sad because they they finish their career and they're like, I've won a bunch of medals, but they don't even look like they enjoyed it. And I don't know. It's to me that's sad. If you started skating because you liked it when you were a kid, you should never lose that love of what you're doing. And me, it's that's what I swore to my wife as well. I said, If I don't like it or if I'm not giving it, it 100 percent anymore, I'll stop. Like I owe that to my family. Like, I leave for a few months every year and I don't leave to not try my best. So, but at the same time, it needs to be fun.

Anastasia: What does success look like for you in Beijing?

Laurent Dubreuil: I mean, speed skating, you can only control your own race, right? So of course I want to win, but. How can I win is by skating a fast time. But it's the same for everybody, if I get a fast time and three people skate faster, then so be it. You know, I can live with that. That's why I like skating, too. I've I've always liked that the three best skaters actually win and there's not no chance involved or anything. It's just you do your own thing, your race. And if you're faster than everybody, you win. If three people are faster than... I mean, it's easy for me to realise when three people are better than me, so I just have to race fast, but I won't lie. Obviously, I want to win it, but I'm not focussed on what the others can do. I'm focussed on what I can do to do that.

Anastasia: What do you think going to the line?

Laurent Dubreuil: It depends on what race, if it's a thousand metres, I think it's going to hurt like hell. Laughs.

Anastasia: And you do it anyways, it's like you… Oh my gosh. That's what I always struggle with. I'm like, I don't want to hurt this much.

Laurent Dubreuil: Me neither. It's every time. Like, why? Why do I even do that?

Anastasia: One and a half minutes or one minute, sitting on a couch goes by real quick and one minute on a track feels like forever.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah, but it's also because it hurts for an hour after! So it's not just that one minute its that hour after that I'm scared of, but no, I think about a couple of technical cues and to be aggressive off the line, but also to have fun because if I think about trying too hard, I underperform. I get stiff and I don't even like what I'm doing. So just I'm just like enjoying what I do honestly. Like, you got on the ice like 10 minutes before your race and a few years ago, I would be like 10 minutes of like pure stress, you know, like very nervous, tight.

And now I get on the ice and I'm just like, Yeah, it's going to be fun. Like, I like what I'm doing. So then of course, some nerves, there still some nerves, but you can control it. Like you see how Usain Bolt would just like fool around until like 10 seconds before his race or something like that. And that's what I'm trying. I'm not like a showman like he is, but that's what I'm trying to do. And I'm enjoying what I do. But then when it's go to the start? Then I'm serious. You know.

Anastasia: I hope you have fun.

Laurent Dubreuil: I do

Anastasia: Just have fun in Beijing, bud.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah exactly. I mean, who knows how fun is going to be with all the COVID measures, but skating is going to be fun, that's for sure.

Anastasia: I was in Tokyo. It'll be good. Yeah, yeah. It still feels like the Olympics. That whole conversation of like: Oh, there's no fans, do the athletes even know that it's the Olympics? Yes, they do. You see see those rings, and you know.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yeah. We didn't have any fans in the stands last year, at the World Championship and people skated fast. It's still, you know, people still skated fast. So, that to me is not a bother. I don't have to skate in front of 10,000 people to enjoy it. I would skate in front of nobody and I still enjoy what I'm doing.

Anastasia: Fast is fun. Fun is fast.

Laurent Dubreuil: Yep.

Anastasia: Thank you so much for taking the time.

Laurent Dubreuil: Thank you, Anastasia. Yeah, it's a pleasure

Anastasia: A pleasure to catch up with you. See you in Mainland China.

Peace!

[music]

Laurent and I met up in an Airbnb in Calgary. Celebrities, they're just like us!

Players Own Voice podcast is a cbc sports production.

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