August 7, 2004
Diving into a pool of gold
Sport's `a way of life' for world champion Despatie
Montreal teen talks about his shot at Olympic glory
MONTREAL�Alexandre Despatie is looking for the "blue spot."
That's what you call the pool when you're plummeting off a diving board while somersaulting and twisting through the air at 35 kilometres per hour, or 9.8 metres a second. You have half a second to get it right, maybe a bit more if you're lucky. You don't want to get it wrong, because the water feels like a wall when you hit it.
The reigning world champion on 10-metre tower and World Cup titlist on three-metre springboard, the 19-year-old Despatie knows well the feeling of a good dive.
It may happen in a split second, but it flows. There's no rough movement. Everything is smooth.
"You can't count because it's so fast," said Despatie, who won last year's worlds with a dive never before performed in competition. "The only way you can do it is train it and learn to spot and see the water and learn to see the blue."
And so that's what Despatie is doing with great relish on this day at the Claude Robillard Centre, as he trains in the practice pool from the 1976 Montreal Olympics with the vaunted CAMO Diving Club.
The concept of fatigue does not seem to exist for the compact diver. One minute Despatie is emerging from the pool and towelling himself off, the next, he's already bounded back up the 44 steps to the top of the 10-metre platform and is chomping at the bit for his turn.
For a young man with an artist's temperament and a deep passion for his sport, a dive is never just a dive.
"I'm trying to express myself," he said. "I'm doing what I love. It's a way of life for me."
Christiane Despatie, clad in pajamas and slippers, opened her door early one morning to get the newspaper and found herself staring into a phalanx of TV cameras.
The Despaties knew right then life would never be the same.
"That was a hurricane," said Pierre Despatie, Alexandre's father. "For us, that was a nightmare."
Their son, at age 13, had just won the 10-metre gold medal at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Malaysia, a feat that put him in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest-ever male winner of an international diving event.
The Wonder Boy era had begun and, really, hasn't abated since. This is one prodigy who has refused to be crushed by the weight of expectations, a useful trait heading into the Athens Games where he is a strong medal contender in both individual diving events.
Despatie gives the impression of being remarkably unaffected by it all. When a visiting journalist arrives at the pool, the diver makes a point of walking over to shake his hand and thank him for coming, a classy gesture that an athlete bombarded by requests in an Olympic year doesn't have to make.
His fellow athletes adored him like a kid brother when he was a phenom he inspired the mothering instinct in the older girls � and that hasn't changed with his ever increasing success.
"Alex is amazing. I love him to death," said teammate Blythe Hartley. "I think he's the most talented diver I've ever seen, really. I think he's a great kid, he has such a great attitude. I just look at him every day and he loves the sport, he absolutely loves it and I admire that so much about him. And I think that's why he's so successful because it comes from his heart. I don't think that you can beat that."
Ask his longtime coach Michel Larouche about Despatie's best qualities and the one he values most has nothing to do with how many revolutions he can do in the air.
"Alexandre is thinking mostly about the others," said Larouche. "He's always willing to help anybody, anytime."
He has been known to offer his own spot in one of his events to fellow divers who didn't make the team. He also has friends among all the competing nations and will play host to several Chinese divers, including his biggest rivals, in Montreal after the Olympics are finished.
"I'm a very intense person, very emotional, kind of like an artist," said Despatie, whose best friend, fellow diver Arturo Miranda, is 14 years his senior. "I'm very open-minded and very generous. I like to give. ... I think I'm a good friend to have because when I love someone it's true and I'll do anything for them."
Despatie still lives at home with father Pierre, who's in the sportswear business, mother Christiane, a golf instructor, and sister Anouk, 21. They never had to push the kid. The drive came from within.
For his parents, the most important lesson to convey had nothing to do with winning.
"Since he was very small, we taught him how to lose first, not to win," said Christiane. "You don't have to learn how to win. You really have to learn how to lose. Losing is what makes you better. Accept failure and then forget it."
It's not always been an easy lesson for a perfectionist to absorb.
Despatie mentions he's got an appointment to take care of his legs after practice, and one envisions the intense physical therapy required when the body takes such a pounding.
"I'm doing the laser thing for hair removal," said Despatie nonchalantly.
Aesthetics have become a bigger part of the game than ever in men's diving. Not only is the hirsute look passe, but the divers must hone their bodies to the point it looks like their Speedos are painted on.
Despatie was on the Atkins program for about eight months before switching to a more regular diet several months ago. At 5foot8, his ideal weight is around 165 pounds.
"It's very important for me to look cut because you want the judges to see your muscles and see the definition," he said, adding he doesn't mind the laser treatments, even if it does take eight sessions to do the job. "It is part of the deal. But for myself, it's not hard, because I hate body hair, anyway."
A charismatic young man with tousled black hair, he's sporting a bit of growth under his chin a l� Leonardo Di Caprio. It's not hard to picture him in the role of an actor, something he wants to pursue when his diving career is done.
His favourite movie is Scarface. He's watched it about 20 times.
"I know a lot of it by heart," he said. "I think it's just a masterpiece. The acting is perfect."
Despatie's best performances for now, though, are confined to the diving board. His is a life chiefly of hard work, discipline and sacrifice, not an easy route when you like to party as much as the next teenager.
"It's very tough saying to a girl, for example, `I don't think we're going to get involved because I'm not going to be seeing you a lot this year or my head has to be focused 100 per cent on Athens,'" said his mother, Christiane. "Or `Guys, I'm not going for a beer tonight because I have to go to bed early to train tomorrow morning.'
"It's a question of passion. It runs into your veins. If it doesn't do that, you don't get where he is. Absolutely not."
To those who know him, Despatie is an easy read. When he's unhappy with his performance, you can see easily. He can be thousands of miles away when he telephones, but Christiane knows how he's dived by the way he says "Hi Mom."
The thing with Despatie is he's often upset with himself even when he's on the podium.
"Even though people say I've won a lot in my career so far, I was never satisfied with just winning," he said. "Because there was always something that I could have done better. And I think that's what makes me the diver that I am, that I don't get satisfied very easily."
His greatest asset can also be his biggest liability. He is hard on himself to the point it hurts his performance, as was the case during the three-metre event at the recent Olympic trials where his position was assured but he desperately wanted to please the crowd at the Pan Am pool in Winnipeg.
"He gets mad at himself," said Larouche afterward. "He gets frustrated. He gets to the point where he's ashamed of himself and churning inside in a negative way."
The diver who best controls his emotions will likely triumph in Athens.
Despatie had mastery over his at last year's world championships in Barcelona, where he became the first diver off the 10-metre platform ever to nail a back 2 1/2 somersault with 2 1/2 twists to score two perfect 10s and 107.1 points, the highest-scoring dive in history. The 3.8 degree of difficulty was the highest in the event.
He's been extremely careful in talking about his prospects of winning Olympic gold, but admits he's thought about it.
"I know myself," he said. "Of course, I would be very happy. That would probably be the top that I can do. But I'll wake up the next morning and I'll tell myself there's more to do now, there's still more to do, I can always do better."
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