After narrowly missing out on qualifying to join Team Canada in 2022, Quebec’s Félix Pigeon decided he had no time to waste. It seemed logical to him since he does speed skating.
In Gdansk, one of the cities where Pigeon trains in Poland, he describes the environment as “magical”.
“There’s the city, but also the beach not far away, it’s really pleasant, you can cycle a bit, have a coffee and walk to the train,” he described.
Ask him again if he regrets leaving the Canadian team…
So if you see him competing at the World Cup at the Maurice Richard Arena this weekend, the 21-year-old will now be wearing the colors of Poland. He immediately became an important figure in the Polish team, which obviously doesn’t have the same history as Canada in short-track racing.
“A relief”
The athlete from Saint-Pie, near Saint-Hyacinthe, competed in a World Cup for the first time last weekend in Montreal and did fairly well, although he felt he made several mistakes during the races.
Photo agency QMI, JOEL LEMAY
“I felt a certain relief,” he said, assuring that he would feel even more comfortable next weekend at the Maurice Richard Arena for the second consecutive World Cup. Even though I made mistakes, I showed that I have the caliber needed to be at this level.”
“When I went to Poland last year, I felt like it was a kind of trip,” the skater confessed. For me it was an opportunity to travel and train with skaters in Europe. I kept the door open to come back, but that’s not really the case anymore.”
Far from the war in Ukraine
Thanks to the financial support of his parents and the Polish National Federation, which took him in free of charge, Pigeon has now decided to finally take the plunge. And if Poland is one of the states bordering Ukraine, he assures that he never felt in danger from the Russian invasion.
“When I got there, there were already a lot of Ukrainians who had moved to Poland,” he noted. We don’t feel the war, I sometimes even have the strange impression that we talk about it less in Poland than in Quebec.”
He heard more about the war in Ukraine from his grandparents in Quebec, who sometimes worried about him when they saw international news on television.
In the school of life
In addition to various stays in Poland, including Tomaszow and Opole, Pigeon also trained in Italy in the summer. It’s one of the different experiences he wouldn’t have had if he had stayed in Canada.
Pigeon uses his sporting talent and, in a sense, chooses the adventure and the school of life. His studies will be discussed later.
Although he says he likes mechanics, the athlete also sometimes imagines one day taking over the family business Automation LM in Saint-Pie, which operates in the areas of machining, welding and assembly, but which he has not yet taken seriously told his father about it… At the moment he is dedicating himself to speed skating. And under the colors of Poland.