FROM THE BACKYARD POOL TO THE HALL OF FAME
Decorated diver Despatie won two Olympic and eight world championship medals
Alexandre Despatie was only three or four years old when he got his first perfect-10 mark in diving.
The judging, however, was rigged.
Despatie learned to dive in his family’s backyard pool in Lavalsur-le-Lac, competing against his older sister, Anouk.
“We used to pretend we were in the Olympics,” Despatie recalled. “The only way I would go inside is if I got my perfect 10. So I guess my grandmother knew that and when she was tired of it she’d just give me a 10.”
At age 5, Despatie joined Montreal’s CAMO Diving Club and he competed in his first junior national event three years later. At 13, Despatie made headlines across Canada when he won a gold medal on the 10-metre tower at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur. He also made it into the Guinness World Records book as the youngest male diver to ever win an international event.
Two years later, Despatie competed in his first of four Olympic Games, in which he won two silver medals and had six top-five finishes without the advantage of having his grandmother as a judge. He also won eight worldchampionship medals, 11 Commonwealth Games medals, seven Pan American Games medals and was crowned a Canadian senior champion an incredible 37 times.
Last week, the 32-year-old learned he will be inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame on Oct. 18 as part of the Class of 2018.
“I was surprised,” Despatie said about the honour. “I got a phone call a few months ago and this is going to sound a bit cliché, but awards are not things we think about as athletes or former athletes, especially. So it didn’t really cross my mind. When the phone call came it was very special. I was actually in Toronto just walking to a restaurant and I ended up just smiling by myself.
“When the announcement was made last week, that’s when it really hit me when the announcers started saying that this is the highest sporting honour in our country. It’s a privilege to be a part of such a select group of former athletes.”
Despatie had to keep the Hall of Fame call a secret until the official announcement last week in Toronto, but was allowed to tell his family members. The first people he called were his parents, Pierre and Christiane.
“This is something I think about for them also,” Despatie said. “They invested so much into my career, not just financially, obviously, but just their time and their love and their emotions. In a way they’re also being inducted with me.”
Sports have always been a big part of life for the Despatie family. Despatie said his parents still remain very active and introduced their children to all kinds of sports. Despatie learned to golf at a young age and was a competitive alpine skier until he was 12 and decided to focus on diving.
His sports hero while growing up was American diver Greg Louganis, who won gold medals at the 1984 and 1988 Olympics. Despatie remembers signing his school papers as “Alexandre Louganis” and he watched the movie Breaking the Surface: The Greg Louganis Story more times than he can recall. As Despatie moved his way up in the world of diving, he got to meet Louganis and they became friends.
“It’s a special thing to call your idol a friend,” Despatie said. “We’re still in touch today and send each other texts every once in a while. He’s just a great man. That guy is one of the reasons why I wanted to become the best in the world.”
When asked what the highlight of his career was, Despatie said winning an Olympic medal — never mind two — is something every athlete dreams about, but added that earning two gold medals at the 2005 FINA World Championships in Montreal in front of friends and family has to top the list.
Despatie has kept busy since hanging up his Speedo, working in broadcasting on TV and radio — in both English and French — while also doing keynote speaking. He said the only thing he really misses from his diving days are his old friends and the travelling.
“The diving community is a really tight one,” he said. “A lot of people ask me if I miss the sport, if I miss competing. But I really don’t. This chapter of my life is behind me and I’ve shut that door, which is OK. It just means that I retired for the right reasons at the right time and I was ready to take on new challenges. Broadcasting and being able to be on the radio and TV gives me the same type of emotions and excitement that I used to get through sport. So it’s a great thing for me, I think, not to miss the sport.”
It was quite a journey from that backyard pool to the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame. It’s also a very well-deserved honour.
Bravo, Alexandre!