Interview with Peter Doucet

INTERVIEW WITH PETER DOUCET

“I’m incredibly proud of what TISC skaters accomplished at the Canadian Championships!” 

First, congratulation for your win in the 10km point/elimination race!

I wanted to win the overall Canadian Distance title. To do this, I know that I needed to set the tone in this race. The skaters who I wanted to beat, namely brothers Jesse Pauley and Jade Pauley, have been skating well this season, beating me in most races. Evidently, they would pose an important challenge.

When the race started, I set the pace early in the race. I started winning a few points, two or three in a row. If someone beat me to the line for points, I made sure I finished second to claim more points and show challengers that I was in the race. As difficult as it was, I came right back after each point I didn’t win to make a statement of strength and speed.

Soon I was out in front on my own. I was happy in this situation because I was claiming 2 points every point lap, solidifying my lead further. I was comfortable leading by half a lap. Eventually, Jesse Pauley caught up to me. Despite his presence, I still managed to win most points.

With two and a half laps to go, Jesse Pauley wanted to sprint for the finish. I knew I had enough points to claim the victory and I didn’t want to tire myself for the upcoming races, so I let him sprint away.

I was happy to finally win a distance again at the Canadian Championships, as Jade Pauley won all races in 2010. I didn’t know it then, but Jade Pauley would eventually win all the other races! Can you believe he’s won 9 of the 10 individual distances in the last two years at the Canadian Championships?!

How many medals did your club of Toronto win this week-end?

The Toronto Inline Skating Club fielded 20 skaters in these Canadian Championships. Medals were awarded in each division for 1^st place Overall and top- 3 in Sprint and Distance. TISC skaters earned 32 medals!

I’m incredibly proud of what TISC skaters accomplished at these Canadian Championships. I was impressed with our club’s solidarity, sportsmanship, work ethic, and performance.

At TISC, the last few years have been one of concentrating on good programming by providint well-planned practices, refocusing our club on recruiting younger skaters and helping them develop, facilitating healthy sustainable growth, and encouraging a philosophy of health through participation and love & freedom of the skating movement.

TISC has two official practices each week. For those practices, we use a 400-meter track that is big enough to run both our coached programs. One of the programs is run by Jesse Pauley. His program focuses on games and developing technique for youth. I run the program that caters to skaters who’s goals range from those who want to increase fitness to those who want to take their skating and racing to the next level.

Our practices focus on many aspects of skating- dry-land warm-ups, technique, strategy & tactics, relays, speed, endurance, sprints, and more!

Outside of these practices, TISC members network and train on trails in Toronto and Hamilton as well as on a flat 200-meter track in Toronto. Some skaters ride with cyclists while others do weights and plyometrics.

How is the track in Harriston?

Alex Perrie, who has been involved in roller sports and speed skating for many years, re-built a 200-meter banked track in his back yard in 2003. He originally built this track in 1998. After officiating at the World Championships in Oostende, Belgium in 2002, he was impressed with that track and built his track based on the track’s measurements.

He made the track wider than the track in Belgium. His is 6-meters wide I believe. Alex even built a ‘hump’ like that of the Colorado Springs banked track. He added a few additions to his facility over the years, recently adding 110-meter track for short track speed skating in the winter and roller in the summer.

Alex has always been welcoming to the skating community to use his track. He has let me and my friends skate there a number of times. I cannot remember any time that he asked for money. Maybe we should offer some!? Or buy him some beer?

He runs a club called Northern Roller Sports. The club caters to younger skaters.

Why is there no Canadian shirt for the winners, as there is in France for example?

It would be really cool if there was! As far as I know, there have never been any shirts for winners. Perhaps it’s because it has never been a custom to do so, maybe it’s because of the budget, or maybe no one has really though of doing that.

There are a few divisions at the Canadian Championships- 8 divisions in total for men and women. Maybe the organizers of the 2012 Canadian Championships in Montreal will propose to do this!

What will be the Canadian selection for the world championship?

As far as I know, there will be no Canadians at the 2011 World Championships in Korea. I suppose the main reason for this is it’s just too expensive for an event like this for skaters to pay for, especially when most of us will rank, at best, in the middle of the results.

You are also the webmaster of Speed Skate World and I guess you have many other activities. How do you do to achieve all this?

I’m a very organized person. Like a lot of people, I value the time I have, so I make optimal use of it.

I’m the President of the Toronto Inline Skating Club. In this role, I try to offer leadership and direction. The Club has a lot of well-intentioned people who are willing to work and help. I think these people are why TISC will continue to improve and grow.

I help with a few websites, including Roller Sports Canada’s website. I wish I had more time to work on RSC’s site because it needs a French component to it. As the web person for the Toronto Inline Skating Club, I answer a lot of e-mails- this takes a lot of time!

I also coach at the Toronto Speed Skating Club (short track). In this role, I have the wonderful opportunity to network with coaches who know and understand different things about skating than I do. Maybe these coaches know it or not, but they help me and teach me loads about skating!

Of course and important part of skating is training and racing! I love to go fast and I like to race. Evidently, training well and training right helps me get closer to my competitive goals. I have the good fortune that my girlfriend, Morgane Echardour, is also a competitive skater who is dedicated in her training.

Morgane and I compliment each other well. We focus on training hard and completing the training program that our coach (and mentor) Mike Murray assigns. We balance each other well. She helps keep me focused on what’s important and I help her see the positive side of things.

Outside of my skating life, I am a school teacher. I tell my students- and this is true- I have the best job on earth! The students I teach offer incredible truth, passion, and joy. They come from all types of backgrounds and they probably teach me more than I teach them!

One way I am able to accomplish more in skating is because I do not teach full time. I work 80% of a full-time job. So I take a salary cut to be more active in skating.

I love music- I wish I had more time to play and compose. Luckily, when I travel to compete at the Eastern Seaboard Series in Trexlertown, Pennsylvania, I am usually asked to sing the Canadian National Anthem. If Herb Gayle and Ross Creveling are there, we harmonize, we sound like amazing singers!

The last 1 ½ years have been incredibly difficult because I have been helping a close family member who’s life changed because of cancer. Since the illness surfaced, my priorities have changed and I haven’t been able to train as much or as well or to work on SSW.

Skating is less important in some ways, but it’s more important in other ways. It’s more important because I appreciate the freedom of choosing my own path in skating and in the solitude and silence in training so I can become at peace with my thoughts and gain control of my mind.

For now, the pressure of performing is left behind. There has been an edge taken off my performance because of loss of quality training time and focus, but I’ll never regret caring for and helping those I love.

Thanks a lot for having taking time to answer Peter… And good luck for what’s next!

Here a bit of info and a few pictures from today’s racing at the 2011 Canadian Outdoor Speed Championships.

Senior Men: Jade Pauley won the 300-meter & 1000-meter distances. Peter Doucet won the 10km points/ elimination. Jesse Pauley finished 2nd in all three distances.

Senior Women: Morgane Echardour won all three distances today. Martine Charbonneau has two seconds and Shannon Hegarty has a 2nd in the 300-meter.

Freshmen Girls: Amanda Tickner set a record in the 1500-meter. Eric Sanchez won the 300-meter time trial.

Freshmen Boys: Juan Diego Zuluaga is in the process of re-writing the record book- at 13- years of age and clocking a 300-meter time trial in the 27′s

Junior Men: Christopher Fiola won all three distances, placing ahead of Alex Rudy by .05-seconds in the 300-meter time trial.

Junior Women: Paisley Perrie won all three of today’s distances, with a 300-meter time in the mid-30 seconds.

Juvenile Boys: VRL’s Xavier Charron continues to improve, looking comfortable winning his category’s two distances.

Links

All the results on SpeedSkateWorld

Written by Vincent Esnault
Photos : all rights reserved