I was born on December 14th,1981 in Brussels, Belgium. The following year my parents decided to immigrate to Canada and settled on Nuns’ Island, a suburb of Montreal. We lived right next to the municipal pool. My sister Severine and I passed our entire summers at the pool. It was in this pool that I first experienced diving, but my biggest memory is of a very big belly flop off the 3M diving board.
When I was about 5 years old, we moved to Montreal’s South Shore and that same year I started participating in gymnastics. From the ages 5 to 11 gymnastics was my big passion, but, unfortunately, I didn’t have the ideal body shape to perform in that sport. My coaches then advised me to redirect my interests to another sport, such as dancing or diving. I tried diving and was instantly entranced by it.
I soon had success at the regional as well as national level, but my first significant result on the international scene was in the summer of 1997; That was my winning the junior World Championship in Malaya.
Two years later, in 1999, I won the gold medal at the Pan Am Games.
In the meantime, I was completing my secondary school studies at Antoine de St. Exupery School.
In the year 2000 I realized my childhood dream, that being to compete at the Olympic Games. I couldn’t have asked for better in this, my first Olympic appearance: 5th place in the 10 M individual event, and the silver medal in the 10 M tower synchronized diving event, accompanied by Anne Montminy.
After 2 years at Andre Grasset College, I decided to focus on diving and to complete my collegial studies taking correspondence courses.
2003 was a dream year for me and one of many honours. I won the World Championship in Barcelona and three gold medals at the Pan Am Games. After these victories I was named Athlete of the Year at the Diving Canada Awards, the Montreal Awards, and the Sport Quebec Awards. As well, I was elected Sports Personality of the Year by the readers of La Presse newspaper and finalist of the Radio Canada Excellence Awards. Finally, I was guest of honour at a number of events such as the Montreal Games, the University Sports Awards and the Sport Etude Foundation.
2004, an Olympic year; The unforgettable bronze moment! It was the first medal for Canada and the first medal of the Olympics. Above all, for Blythe and myself, it was the medal of friendship and hard work.
I was very disappointed after the 10 M tower competition…A fourth place finish, only seven points from the podium; I have rarely experienced as difficult a moment in competition.
The post-Olympic year saw me entering university to study towards my Bachelor of Fashion and Design…The start of another passion. That was also the year of Montreal 2005, with its saga of losing the FINA World Championships, its subsequent rescue by Mayor Tremblay, my role as ambassadress of that event and flag bearer for Canada. However, above all, it was the year of controversy with my coach, Michel Larouche. It was with an enormous lump in my throat, but also with wonderful memories, that I left CAMO, its coaching team, my team-mates, its Directors and its volunteers, for the Pointe-Claire Diving Club.
It took a while to familiarize myself with my new training environment. Certainly I benefited by the exclusive presence of my coach Yi Hua Li, but I also missed the old gang as well. From a sports competition viewpoint, 2006 was a very positive year, with a victory at the Canada Cup and bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games and the FINA World Cup.
2007 was a peculiar year in the sense that the quality of my training rarely reflected itself in my competitions. Despite this I won a 14th straight 10 M tower national title, finished third in the final standings in the Grand Prix series, and third in the first edition of the Diving World Series. My association with Marie Eve Marleau in synchro was a mutually satisfying one; We won gold at the Italian Grand Prix and the Pan Am Games, and silver at the World Series.
2008: In this Olympic season, I reached the podium in five of seven international events and placed fourth in the other two. This helped me to enter the Olympic tournament with a lot of confidence.
I earned my third career Olympic medal by placing second in a very close women’s 10-metre tower event at the Games in Beijing. I’m only the fifth Canadian to win medals at three consecutive Olympic Games.
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