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For starters, I’ll let you in on a small physical description… I’v often heard : « woah! In the news paper pictures you look like you're a mastodon! » or « hmm.. you looked bigger on TV…». The truth is, I weigh a small 140 pounds (wet) and am 5’7 (172cm), but I wont hide from you that I do appreciate the effect pictures and cameras do to make me look bigger hahah! It’s fun feeling taller from time to time… being one of the smallest athletes in the team! So there you go, aint nothing more to hide there! Lets move on to the real deal

Let’s start by a quick backgrounder on my life before Biathlon. I was born in Kingston, Ontario and a couple of days after birth, without knowing it, my life was predetermined to a whole lot of moving ( witch I actually like! Aint nothing like seeing some new land and faces!). So we moved to Ottawa. I did my pre-school there and by the time I was old enough for the first grade… we were moving in England! I think I should explain that radical change of environment… my dad was in the military and studying for aeronautique engineering… he had a stage to complete in England! We stayed there for a good 2 years and then came back to home land… and I mean that in the way we even came back on the same street!

We then moved in the Gatineau region… probably the place where we stayed the longest… from my 3rd grade to the fifth… considering I did my fourth all over because of a very week French… long live the Queen I guess??

Thats where I developed my sports abilities… you know… TV’s, video games, computers, none of that ever got my attention… why play a BMX game when you can do some tricks for real on a real bike? The thrill is obviously better! Anyway.. personal point of vue… So yeah, I was constantly playing outside, hockey, roller skating, biking you name it! I also swam for near to 10 years, the last ones being competitively… I wasn’t half bad… anyway, I was young and got fedup with it. I then switched to soccer, for the fun of it, no competing and for a good couple of years. I was also big on martial arts (and still am). So we stayed in Gatineau for about 6 years.

My dad got an interesting offer to work in the Mirabel region (near Montreal) and we moved in the «Laurentides» region in a small town called Lorraine. Completely new life style. I did my sixth grade and was on my way to high school. I then turned 12 and the Cadet Movment had my attention, so got signed up in a Squadron in Laval: 660 des Milles-Îles. I was still into soccer and karate and with school I started to be interested in basket-ball, badminton and some more adrenaline pumping sports, such as breakdancing and roller skating in skate parks!

So thats really where I got hooked on adrenaline sports and I started doing all kinds of crazy stunts and lets say it, stupid stuff too! My career in the Cadets was going pretty well… and since we’re into that teenager part of life, I have to say I never really had that teenage crisis… not that I was totally the overprotected mama’s and papa’s boy… but we tend to say that that crisis is about the research of identity…. Drugs, friends, nocturnal visits in the parks… none of that really got me going… I was into sports and I avoided any brat in school… you know… them guys who think they’re cool, don’t go to class to smoke up and stuff… that’s the type of thing I’m talking about and the best example I can think of… Then came the day at our Cadet squadron where they put in the Biathlon option… what the hell is that? Let me tell ya… at 13, all that matters is that your shooting .22!! Lets change paragraphs

When I said completely new life style up above… its from this moment. At the first year I tried out the sport I made it to Cadet provincials. My first trip into Quebec! And I missed Cadet Nationals by 30 seconds because I took a wrong turn in the trails (rookie) and by the time I turned around and got on the right way.. you know where I’m getting at?Damn! That’s when I decided that the next year… I was gonna be there! Long story short, I did make it and did fairly well… a couple of top 10’s if my memory is right…anyway, it was a good week! Plus, we had the luck to go on a trip to British-Columbia in the spring..since nationals had been in Quebec for the past four years the comity decided to treat us a bit! So, realising that Gold wasn’t to far, I decided that the next year, I wanted to win Nationals

The year went by and Nationals came around once again… in Quebec! :p… and my objectives had been realised… But I didn’t win the overall Championships. To win them, you need the best overall time of the week. During the event, a certain mister Daniel Lefebvre, a visionary coach who was starting off a new elite team for the 2010 Olympic games approached me. He told me that if I passed the tests to join his team, I would get a racing suit, a new personal rifle lent by Biathlon Canada and a year training program… I jumped on the occasion, it was the perfect timing since I wanted to start civilian biathlon!

That was the official point where I was hooked on biathlon, a major change in my life : I started to train hard for the civilian league… and thus for Cadets as well! The 2010 group was composed of: Pierre-Olivier Désilet Villeneuve, Patrick Motard, Dominique Villeneuve, Maxime Picard, Maxime Lebœuf, François Lebœuf, Marc-André Bédard and me… the dude from Montreal. These are the names with whom I trained at the Myriam Bedard Eastern National Training Center. I say these are the names because the actual 2010 group was spread out in the province… so I obviously skipped a couple of people… anyway, I was out of my league…these boys had cross-country skiing backgrounds and were in the best out there… they were skiing machines… yeah they were fast… but this is biathlon… and I knew how to shoot! :

That’s where I had an advantage, in the range. But it wasn’t always enough… in the civilian league anyway… because I was ripping the trails up in the cadet competitions… that civilian experience was beneficial. I won the Myriam Bedard trophy twice and by that time I had improved my ski technique greatly. All that because of a God of ski technique named Denis St-Amant, who was my personal ski coach. I cached up to the others in the training center quite fast and was actually pretty much equal

At my second year in the civilian circuit, we were old enough to race the trial races for World Youth Championships ((WYCH) the age for the category was 16/17 back then). I came in second in the overall times and should have qualified… but I messed up a shooting sequence in the range (rookie) and got disqualified… I was pissed… I kept that energy bottled up for next years trial races… and the fact that I was the only one of my team to go, with all them Albertains ( no disrespect intended), for that first international experience got me down a bit too... One thing, on the other hand, was comforting. I was going to be a bit more part of group from then on, since my family and I were moving (while at the WYCH) in a town named Shannon, no more no less than 5 minutes from the range! Ok, back to World Youth’s… they were in Poland. It was out of this world, the ambiance, seeing all these other athletes from all these other country’s reunited in the same goal of performance on that given week! I did a reasonable first world performance out there, 26th in the sprint, 33rd at the individual and 33rd at the pursuit. That’s also where the Olympic dream had officially been born. After tasting that exceptional experience, I felt like I was already a step closer to these 5 rings and I was entirely devoted to get there. I said to my coach on the flight back home: “Coach, I know what I want to do for the next 10 years!” He smiled and answered: ”Well, you know what you got to do!” And at a mental level, it made a hell of a difference in my training methods… because I knew where I wanted to go… witch sounds rather simple put like this… but lets just say I wasn’t totally aware during the World Championships… and now I knew! Anyway… I know what I mean :p

Like I said, we had moved to Shannon, 5 minutes away from the range. I also said I would be more directly linked within the group… What I did not mention, is that when I had that radical life change back in Montreal once I started training, this is what I mean: Imagine getting up in the morning to jog for about 45 minutes plus dry-fire shooting drills before going to school. After school, your mom comes and picks you up, and you roll 45 minutes to get to the ski trails and ski for 1h30. After that, you roll 30 minutes to go shoot in an indoor shooting range from the municipal police station, for an other 1h30…then you roll 15 minutes to get back home, have supper, study for a couple of hours and go to bed. And here we go again in the morning. Well… that was the routine I had with my mom for 2 years… and to make things easier on the time schedule, I home schooled to finish my high school… witch was pretty fun though. So I was embracing the day we moved to Quebec for a very good reason!!!

I then got qualified for the 2004 World Youth Championships and guess what, my boys too!!! That year, WYCH were in France. It was also the year where Biathlon changed at the Quebec scene and heck.. even the Canadian scene! I came in fourth at the first race, the individual, and missed the podium by one target! ( in the individual, one missed target adds one minute to the total ski time…per target!) Knowing from that moment on I was in the game, I came in first at the following race, the 7.5k sprint!!! Never before seen for Canadians! I was in paradise. I then came in second at the pursuit, a target more and I had a second gold medal… and then, for the last race, THE MOST UNEXPECTED HAPPENED… I started the relay race and had the race of my life, good skiing and clean shooting, I came in first with a minute and 26 seconds infront of the other teams. I gave the tag to Marco, who had a very good race, he got caught up a bit but we sill maintained a very good lead and Frank had the last leg of the race and we came in Second!!!!! Canada! In Biathlon!! In the Relay Race!!! SILVER!!!!! They were memorable World Championships… witch is why I stretched this subject out a bit :P

If we come back on a more personal and biographique note, you might just be asking yourselves the following question: Did he keep on studying? Well my friend, the answer to that question is yes, I did. Between the fall of 2003 and fallowing fall in 2004, I was signed in at that François-Xavier-Garneau College in Sc. Humaines… I don’t know the term in English… full time. The problem was, 1) I’m not the best teacher listener in class and 2) lets just say pencils and blank paper were good allies… yep… I drew… not always don’t worry! But in my case, I’d say that method of learning wasn’t the most efficient one and even less productive to say the least… being in school for me is harder to whip my rifle off my back, shoot clean and put it back on in less than 18 seconds… I decided to go back to home schooling like in grade 10, it’s been a breeze since then.

My philosophy is this, studies are a priority, but not necessarily THE priority and I dont beleive that giving yourself at 100% in school and 100% in sports is possible… not by being in both full time none the less. So since I have a promising career, so far, I keep studying by home schooling, witch is, granted, slower, but I do get much better grades. Witch in the end, permits me to be fully concentrated on my biathlete career. And, to be 100% in my studying, when I study. In theory, I’ll be completing my DEC a slower pace, but as long as my career will be going on and up… lets just say I’m in no rush of getting out of University and looking for a lifetime job. And my career goals, while we’re at it, are to go into graphic designing and then scope out the lines of publicity or video games… its still very far, but it’s a good motivation for studying and… studying with no motivation… doesn’t get you very far… my personal point of vu once again :P

Finally, I am now living with my girlfriend in the town of Val-Bélaire in a small town-house… and boy did we house shop! Actually, ironically, we’re front neighbours with Jean Paquet, a training machine, outstanding athlete, good guy and trainer at the Center hahha… evidently, before putting an offer down on the house, I asked him if there were any problems… I thought important to clarify before any final move :p We actually bump into each other quite rarely and usually satisfy ourselves with brief Hello’s… we just talk more at the training center haha! Aint it perfect that way Johny?!

So that’s where I’m at in life. I skipped a couple of details, otherwise you’d still be stuck here reading this while I’ll be taking my start at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games! Hahahah So, I linked here beneath my Biathlon Canada Biography, for those of you who are interested ;)

Cheers!

J-P | O O O O O |

To the Pursuit of Excellence!