The opening of America’s largest skating center in Quebec has several benefits, one of which was completely unexpected: it brought back to the capital one of her favorite children, a national hero, Olympic champion Gaétan Boucher.
Since he resumed training to compete in the World Masters Games, which he won, Gaétan Boucher drives the road from Boisbriand, where he lives, to Quebec every week.
From Thursday to Saturday he stays in the capital where he was born and grew up and which he left many years ago.
“Because of the ring, I decided to come back,” explains this great speed skater after several hours of training on the ring that bears his name, located in the heart of the brand new Quebec Ice Center.
When I ask him what this return after 25 years without skates brings him, the athlete replies with beaming eyes: “Just being back on the ice, that’s paradise”.
Entered the legend
Gaétan Boucher was born in Charlesbourg in 1958 and started skating at the age of nine. His father swore by ice hockey but didn’t interest him.
So when he saw a poster announcing the creation of a speed skating club on the school notice board in Saint-Denis, he was in a hurry.
“When I told my father that I had decided to join this club while he was watching La Soirée du Hockey, he said to me, ‘I don’t believe in that stuff.’ »
The story ended there until a neighbor pointed out his son’s accomplishment to his father. “He told her: Your son goes shopping and he wins them all! ‘ says the athlete.
His father died 20 years ago and his father always encouraged him to become club president.
As for young Gaétan, he has lifted the whole of Quebec on several occasions in championships and Olympics.
He became a legend at the 1984 Sarajevo Olympics, winning a medal in each of his competitions.
At the time, he was recovering from an ankle injury that ended his career early after the 1988 Calgary Games.
The skater has long been Canada’s most decorated Olympian at the Winter Games.
After sports, Gaétan Boucher studied marketing at HEC and then turned to physical education.
Then he got an offer from Bauer and became a product developer.
Since 2012, he has been General Manager of the Rosemère Culture and Sport Development Society.
A real marathon
Gaétan Boucher has been separated from the German Karin Fliege, also a former skater and mother of his four children, for three years.
The couple remain on good terms and she was present at the Quebec games in January.
After 25 years of cycling and golf, the skating legend has reconnected with his sporting passion, not without some pitfalls. He had to learn a new technique with the clap skate.
He’s also been struggling with heart problems, requiring surgery last fall to unblock an artery.
It’s also thanks to the intense workout that he put his finger on the sore spot and consulted for what he thought was heartburn.
“Without that, I could have had a heart attack,” he notes, believing the skate likely saved his life.
His doctor had advised him not to compete before February. With a little cheating, he was able to accept the challenge at the end of January, but it was quite a marathon!
skate to win
Gaétan Boucher therefore intends to take part in the World Masters Games again next year.
He immediately warns that he “never lost that championship and has no intention of losing it”.
Note to those interested, he is also looking for financial partners to support him.
The dream of the Quebec Olympics
As a member of the Québec City bid committee for the 2002 Olympic Games, Gaétan Boucher still dreams of his hometown one day hosting this great event.
He would certainly support an application and would not oppose participation in view of what it would entail.
“Of course I believe in it because it educates young people,” stresses the one who also sees the Olympics as a way to encourage young people to exercise at a time when phones and iPads are king.
“And then it allows you to develop certain facilities,” the skater points out, adding that it’s so expensive and valuable. »
Some tricks
1980: Silver medal at the Lake Placid Olympics
1984: Two gold medals and one bronze medal in Sarajevo
gold medal at the World Speed Skating Championships
Oscar Mathisen Prize for the best season
trophy Lou March for Canada’s outstanding athlete
induction in Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame
January 2023: He won the World Masters Games
