For former Olympian, winning silver becomes golden moment
Synchronized swimmer Valerie Hould-Marchand, who won silver at the 1996 Olympics, shared the story of her journey to the Games at a Chamber of Commerce Brantford-Brant luncheon on Wednesday.
Now retired from her 15-year career in the sport, Hould-Marchand is one of the Olympic athletes working for RBC as a community ambassador.
In addition to her Olympic silver, Hould-Marchand won gold medals at the 1999 Pan American Games, the 1998 Commonwealth Games, and the 1995 junior world championships.
"When I was a child I couldn't live without synchronized swimming," Hould-Marchand told an audience of women who are part of the Chamber of Commerce Women in Business committee. "I was part of an all-female sport that made me what I am today."
Hould-Marchand, 31, was born in the small community of Riviere-du-Loup, Que. Her father was a swimming instructor who introduced his infant daughter to the activity.
"When I was three months old my father dunked my head for the very first time and I cried. So began my love of the water, I guess."
It was watching Carolyn Waldo give a gold-medal performance in synchronized swimming at the 1988 Olympic Games that inspired an eight-year-old Hould-Marchand to pursue her natural athletic abilities.
"By the time I was eight, I was talking about it (the Olympics) every day and drawing pictures of me at the podium."
Her family moved to Quebec City so that Hould-Marchand could have access to facilities and coaching. In a sport dominated by taller women, the young athlete's mother devised a way to make her daughter "look bigger in the water.
"She had me swim to operas - big, loud, violent singing. It got me noticed right away. It made me look more mature."
Hould-Marchand said that being invited, at the age of 14, to a three-month Olympic camp, where hopefuls train to determine whether they can qualify for the Games, was thrilling. She also had to quickly learn English because the camp was in Edmonton.
"I watched a lot of soap operas because they say the same things over and over."
Qualifying for the Canadian Olympic team was unbelievable, she said.
"I was in the presence of such important people in my sport. Here were these elite women who welcomed me into a very secluded environment.
"But no one goes to the Olympic Games to get silver. I was a little disappointed. But our team all joined together to sing O Canada, half in French and half in English and we all cried. That was our golden moment.
Pics French Swimmer - News
What else would you expect from someone who became a synchronized swimmer on the French national team after watching Esther Williams movies as a girl? "She was a little bit plumpy, which was lovely," Madame Minister says of the '50s movie star,
This former French Olympic Swimmer won three medals at the 2004 Athens Games, including a gold in the 400 meter freestyle. There was also a bit of a scandal surrounding Manaudou in 2007, when naked images of her found their way onto the Internet after
PARLEZ-VOUS FRANGLAIS?: Ruth and Eddie in the country kitchen of what friend s call their French g�te . A THEATRICAL couple gave the outbuildings at Oakworth Hall a French gîte-style conversion. Sharon Dale reports. Pictures by Tony Johnson.
In 2008 she posted some pretty fantastic pictures of herself on Facebook and by 'fantastic' I mean 'so racy that they were deemed too raunchy for Swimming Australia, with all of the swimmers ordered to block public access to their Faceook profile pages
I was a little disappointed. But our team all joined together to sing O Canada, half in French and half in English and we all cried. That was our golden moment." Hould-Marchand now coaches synchronized swimming at the University of Toronto.
French Swimmer Laure Manaudou May Retire After Slow Times, Sex Scandal
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Pics French Swimmer - Bookshelf
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