August 3, 2004
Alexandre Despatie prepares to dive for gold
at Olympic Games in Athens
Donna Spencer
(CP) - It's not easy growing up and trying to be the best in the world in something at the same time.
Ever since Alexandre Despatie wowed the diving world by winning a Commonwealth Games gold medal at the tender age of 13, he has felt the weight of expectations. But his own expectations have been the heaviest and managing them is really the only obstacle to him winning a gold medal at the Olympic Games in Athens this summer.
"You get to a certain level, top three in the world, the difference is in the head," Despatie said. "Physically we're all pretty much the same. It's really in the head, how you react to different situations, how you approach the meet."
Now 19, Despatie is easily the most talented diver Canada has ever produced. Not only is he the world champion and a gold-medal contender on the men's 10-metre tower for the Olympic Games in Athens, but he has come on strong in the last couple of years to become a top-ranked springboard diver as well.
Canada has never won an Olympic medal in men's diving, let alone two. Despatie, from Laval, Que., could do something special in Athens.
"It's something unique we have at the moment," his CAMO club coach Michel Larouche said.
"He's probably the only one who has the potential to win a medal in both. All the others are specialists."
Despatie was barely held off the Olympic podium in Sydney four years ago when he finished fourth on the tower at the age of 15.
He still has the compact, graceful body that lends itself to diving, but Despatie is more muscular and powerful now, which has helped him become a world force on the springboard.
Despatie is that rare combination of extreme talent, work ethic and desire in one package.
"He is beyond blessed," teammate Christopher Kalec said. "He just doesn't make mistakes. It seems his body knows what to do. He trains hard and he loves it.
"We get off the plane after a 35,000-hour flight and he's like 'let's go to the pool.' That will take you so much further than people who just come and train."
And Despatie knows where his head has to be in Athens. He must turn the tap off on his hopes and dreams and think only about his performance.
"If I get all excited about medals, that's all I'm going to think about at the Games. I will screw up if I do that," he said. "I have to think about what I have to do to get the medal and then we'll see what happens.
"The most important thing is to focus on that little thing I have to do on that specific dive. Focus on the technical aspect that's going to make the difference in the dive."
Despatie's main rivals on the tower will be China's Tian Ling and Hu Jia as well as Australian Mathew Helm, Leon Taylor of Britain and Rommel Pacheco of Mexico.
In the springboard he will have to fight off Russian Dimitry Sautin, one of his heroes, Peng Bo of China and another Russian, Alexander Dobrosok.
It will be easier for Despatie to focus in Athens than it was for him at the Canadian trials in Winnipeg in June, where he was not satisfied with his performance on the tower despite winning it handily. He tends to perform better internationally than domestically.
"It's a lot easier for him to get in the right state of mind internationally than nationally because this is his country and he wants to show everybody how good he is," Larouche said. "He's doing too much."
Despatie became frustrated during a training session at the trials when he kept missing a reverse three and a half on the springboard. He got out of the pool and seethed while Larouche lectured and waved his arms for over half an hour, trying to bring him around.
Despatie has not grown into a prima donna, but he can be hard on himself to the point of being counterproductive.
"Whenever I get really pissed off, my attitude totally changes," Despatie said. "There's nothing to do to get me out of it except for stopping and starting again later."
The next day, he nailed that dive for perfect scores of 10 from the judges.
Despatie has time on his side as he's not going to Athens feeling this is his last shot at a medal.
"I'll be there for another four years in China and I might even be there in the next one after that," Despatie said of future Olympic Games. "Of course, it would be great to have it now, but if there's one thing I'm learning, it's not to rush things and not to expect too much too fast."
Despatie trains twice a day, two three-hour sessions with an hour's break in between with the CAMO club in Montreal. He averages about 300 dives a day during training.
He was attending CEGEP, which is junior college in Quebec, but has taken this year off to prepare for the Olympics.
He lives with his parents, mother Christiane, a golf instructor, and Pierre, a businessman in ski wear, in Laval. His older sister Anouk is a former diver.
Despatie has earned some perks and financial help along the way. He's had a sponsorship deal with McDonald's Restaurants since he was 14 and he's also sponsored by General Mills, which puts his picture on cereal boxes.
And this year, he's struck a sponsorship deal with Chrysler and was expecting the arrival of a Jeep Liberty prior to the Games.
In the days leading up to Athens, Despatie likes to be with people who love him no matter how he performs, because it gives him some relief from the hype and expectations.
"Right now, the most important thing for me is to spend time with people I love," he said. "Whatever, we do, even if it's nothing, it's really important to me because they can take my mind off of this. They can make me forget."
And outside the pool, he likes to do what any teenager would, which is hang out with his friends.
"My friends never talk to me about diving," he said. "What I like about that is that I never have to tell them not to talk about diving.
"They just know. I come back from a meet, they say 'How did it go?' 'Pretty good.' 'OK, what are we doing tonight ?"'
But in an Olympic year, there isn't a whole lot of that.
"My biggest sacrifice is time with my friends," Despatie said. "The last couple of months, every time I have to leave for a meet they're like 'What? You're leaving again ?'
"It's hard, but I have a path and I'm going to follow that path to the end."
A quick look at Alexandre Despatie, a medal contender in diving at the Olympic Games in Athens :
Age - 19
Hometown - Laval, Que.
Events - 10-metre platform, three-metre springboard, synchronized 10-metre tower (with Philippe Comtois).
Did you know ? - Despatie was a competitive skier before breaking into the international diving scene.
put on line by SVP
