After step forward at Paris Olympics, Canadian gymnast Félix Dolci looks to make a leap at L.A. 2028
Rising star says goal is to win world championship ahead of next Olympics
The Paris Olympics ended less than two months ago, but Canadian gymnast Félix Dolci is already thinking about Los Angeles 2028.
"L.A. was already in my mind before I even showed up in Paris, to be honest with you," Dolci said in an interview on Monday.
Dolci, 22, from Laval, Que., was a member of the first Canadian men's gymnastics team to compete at an Olympics since 2008 when he suited up in Paris. The five-man squad qualified for the team final, placing eighth. Dolci also advanced in the men's all-around, where he slotted 20th.
Yet while the experience — specifically making the team final — was viewed as a success, it only whet Dolci's appetite for more.
"I want to be a world champion in the near future before the next Olympics," he said. "And like I said, every single year will go by, more titles will be achieved. And once we show up back in L.A., we'll be looking for a medal, that's for sure. That's the goal."
As a new four-year cycle begins for summer Olympians, optimism will surely rule the day. But there's reason to believe the Canadian's goals are realistic.
Dolci, who last year became the first Canadian to win a Pan Am Games gymnastics gold medal in 60 years, took one week off after Paris before vaulting back into training.
WATCH | Dolci wins Pan Am gold:
He'll have his first crack at accomplishing his goal of becoming world champion next October when the biannual competition heads to Jakarta, Indonesia — and he'll have that Olympic experience in his back pocket.
"I feel like after everything that happened — the good, the bad — the learning process was tremendous, was very, very big. And I was able to kind of come out of these Games as a better athlete and also a better individual," Dolci said.
Curtis Hibbert, the first Canadian man to ever win a world-championship medal, compared Dolci to Philip Delesalle, the Canadian who competed at the 1976 Olympics and won two gold medals at the Commonwealth Games two years later.
"That was probably, I think, our strongest gymnast ever and he placed almost top three at world championships, so we don't have that athlete come along very often and to have [Dolci] come out the way he's performing, definitely he has the opportunity," Hibbert said.
In Paris, an equipment malfunction may have prevented Dolci from reaching his full potential.
During the high-bar rotation of the individual all-around competition, the Canadian's grip broke, sending him flying to the mat in a heap after an attempted trick.
He remained there for a few moments, shaken up but uninjured, and he received a do-over due to the nature of the fall.
But on his second attempt, Dolci fell once again — and this time, there was no equipment to blame. Still, he finished out his routine, received a loud applause from the French crowd and returned the love by creating a heart with his hands.
WATCH | Dolci has equipment malfunction in Paris:
"Words might not be enough to describe exactly what was going on in my head at that time," Dolci said. "But not only I was able to move on and keep the competition going, but I think that's where people really saw what gymnasts are built and made of as far as being extremely dedicated to their craft, being extremely determined to put on a performance, move on."
Similarly, Canada's men's gymnastics program has experienced many starts and stops over the years.
Hibbert and Dellesalle preceded Kyle Shewfelt, who won Canada's first gymnastics Olympic gold medal in 2004. Then, another long break occurred before what may one day become known as the Dolci generation.
Dolci said he's looked up to Shewfelt since he began in the sport.
"One of the hardest things to do in a country, specifically in a sport such as gymnastics, where the pool of athletes is not necessarily tremendously big, it's to keep that lineage," Dolci said. "You can have a pool of five athletes for four years that are extremely talented, extremely motivated to reach the pinnacle of their sport.
"But if you don't have the younger guys in the back that are also working every single day to slowly kind of take the relay, it's very difficult to keep that momentum going."
To that end, Dolci said the best thing he could do to ensure Paris was the start of a long, successful Canadian gymnastics arc is to continue putting on good performances and reaching podiums.
Dolci's next opportunity for competition will come when the World Cup season begins in February in Egypt. Three more events precede the Pan Am championships in May before the season ends with worlds in October.
Success at the senior level leads to more funding, which trickles down to the junior program — but the inverse is also true.
"Every single day I'm pushing to put Canada on the map by myself and making sure we can have those younger guys develop themselves into splendid seniors later on in their career," he said.
"That's definitely one of my missions."
