BOURSIERS TEAM QUÉBEC : 28 ATHLETES HONOURED

The Institut national du sport du Québec (INS Québec) celebrated the retirement of 28 Team Québec bursary recipients at the Gala Sports Québec cocktail party, hosted by Roseline Fillion. Among the athletes honored, 15 were in attendance for the event, which drew more than 300 guests to the Marché Bonsecours on May 11.

The emblematic Team Québec jersey was presented to each athlete by Jean R. Dupré, Chairman of the INS Québec Board of Directors, and Isabelle Charest, Québec Sports Minister.

Jean R. Dupré invited the athletes to remain part of the sporting community:

For the greater good of our community, I hope you will keep a link with your sport. What you’ve experienced can be used to help us evolve, whatever form that may take. Stay close to us; Québec sport needs you,” he said.

Minister Charest, who has also been through the same process, offered some advice:

“You may have moments of vertigo and doubt. But what you have to remember is that everything you’ve acquired will follow you. […] It will serve you in whatever you undertake: resilience, the ability to overcome obstacles, self-knowledge, discipline, the ability to find one’s strengths, to introspect… We need all these qualities in a society, and you are extraordinary role models,” she emphasized.

Bruno Haché, goalball athlete, addressed the guests on behalf of his honoured colleagues, to talk about his experience after retirement from sport.

“Fortunately, there are resources available for support after a big transition like this. For me, over the past year, it hasn’t been easy. […] Even if you think you don’t need them, they do help, and the people around me see me changing, for the better. Because after such a career, you forget yourself, you give so much of yourself. It’s good to find yourself and reconnect with real things,” he testified.

The athletes honoured are:

– Aly Barghout – Olympic Wrestling
– Camille Bérubé – Para Swimming
– Mathieu Bilodeau – Athletics
– Lissa Bissonnette – Sprint Canoe-Kayak
– Alex Boisvert-Lacroix – Long-track speed skating
– Maïté Bouchard – Athletics
– Philippe Boucher – Cross-country skiing
– Naomy Boudreau-Guertin – Freestyle ski jumping
– Jules Burnotte – Biathlon
– Alyson Charles – Short-track speed skating
– Antoine Duchesne – Cycling
– Chloé Dufour-Lapointe – Freestyle moguls
– Laurent Dumais – Freestyle moguls
– Victoria Gareau – Short-track speed skating
– Valérie Gilbert – Freestyle moguls
– Bruno Haché – Goalball
– Audrey Joly – Artistic swimming
– Alexis Lepage – Triathlon
– Véronik Mallet – Figure skating
– Sophie Marois – Gymnastics
– Nicolas Masse-Savard – Swimming
– Sarah-Jeanne Meunier-Bédard – Beach volleyball
– Marie-Claude Molnar – Para-cycling
– Joseph Phan – Figure skating
– Eric Radford – Figure skating
– Camille Rainville – Short-track speed skating
– Samuel Reiher – Water polo
– Jordan Steen – Olympic wrestling

The Team Québec program was set up in 2003 to provide financial support for top-level Québec athletes and the coaches who train them. INS Québec is involved in the Team Québec program in a number of ways, including hosting the “Tribute to Retired Athletes”.