Quebec Sports Hall of Fame | Succeed despite everything

Nicholas Richard
The Press

“It looks like I still have the impostor syndrome,” Charline Labonté first said during the cocktail party that took place at the Metropolitan Anjou golf club before the ceremony. I look at the cuvée… it’s something! »

With her, Benoit Huot, Erik Guay, Georges St-Pierre, Martin St-Louis, Michelle Gendron and Olga Hrycak became immortals of Quebec sport on Wednesday.

Guay was equally impressed to be inducted alongside such big names.

Moreover, times and mores have changed since the first induction ceremony 31 years ago. Georges St-Pierre is perhaps the best placed to understand this, he who started mixed martial arts at a time when it was forbidden to practice them. “Being inducted makes me really proud. »

Smile at the detractors

All the athletes present at the evening started their careers with a catch on the clock. Or two.

Labonté evolved in a completely masculine world. Huot had to prove to everyone that he could break through even with a disability. Guay and St-Pierre have marked the history of disciplines that were atypical some time ago.

Now their names are part of the legend.

Labonté remembers her first life coach, in Novice C, who didn’t want her to play goalie because she was the only girl on his team. “Even today, I think back to that coach and I would like to see him again. Shake his hand and give him a smile,” she said with a laugh, three Olympic gold medals later.

St-Pierre has the same vision of things. However, it took him longer to realize it. If now it’s only the eyes of the people he loves that matter to him, one of the greatest fighters in UFC history says it wasn’t always like this. “There has been a big change in the way I see things. When I was competing at the beginning, what other people thought of me was very important. And after my retirement, I had something clicked. »

Benoit Huot, meanwhile, used the looks that were on him to change things. Very early in his career, the swimmer who won 20 Paralympic medals understood that his platform could advance the cause. Beyond the medals, his priority has always been to “spread the Paralympic movement”.

He explains that education and his role as an ambassador have taken a considerable place in his journey. While there is still “a lot of work to do,” this Hall of Fame induction may be confirmation that his goal of democratizing Paralympic sport has come to fruition.

No one is a prophet in his own country

Erik Guay rose to fame in Europe. During his career, he won two world championship titles and a crystal globe. The two highest honors after an Olympic medal in the world of alpine skiing. Even today, Guay humbly specifies that he was arrested in the street in Austria, his accomplishments were so grandiose.

However, despite himself, his prestige was less in his native province. Thus, being rewarded with such an honor confirms to him that even if he benefited greatly from his success on the other side of the Atlantic, Quebecers have always been behind him.

Now he wants to give back so that his compatriots can in turn reach the greatest heights.

“We have everything we need to compete with the big names in Europe,” he believes. We are proud to have a new World Cup at Tremblant. I think it will motivate our young Quebec athletes to prove that it’s not just in Europe that it’s happening. »

Ditto for St-Pierre, who was first elevated to the rank of superstar in Asia. When he returned to the Bell Center in 2008, he felt all the love that his people had for him: “It’s the most memorable moment of my career. […] When the announcer announced my name, I couldn’t hear it because the crowd was making too much noise. It was sick. It’s as if I was next to a loudspeaker in a nightclub and the vibration hit my skin. »