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Stéphane Côté
Diane Roy prepares the future
Even if wheelchair athletics is an individual sport, one would have to say that Diane Roy and Sarah White are a team! And according to the triple medal holder of the Beijing Paralympic Games, that collaboration started a while back.
I had seen Sarah during the summer and her chair was on a pair of old wheels. I told her I had an old pair, but better than hers, so I gave them to her
, explains the national team veteran who took part in four Paralympic Games.
If the Hatley athlete did not hesitate to help out a relief athlete, it is mainly to give back to her sport; she knows very well the impact elite athletes can have on the younger ones.
That is the example I was given when I was young. In Sherbrooke, when I was starting out in athletics, I was rubbing shoulders with elite people like André Viger and Marc Quessy. And it was stimulating. So I think that if it was good for me, it should also be for others. They showed me the right things from the beginning and it is important because it lets the youngsters start off on solid bases.
Not only does Diane Roy believe in the importance of inspiring athletes, but the idea is even more important with young girls, since fewer of them compete in wheelchair sports.
Between girls
Not many girls race. And when they do, keeping them in the sport is difficult. Sarah has a good build for the sport; she is good, she’s petite and has potential. And I wish for her to like it, so I figure if I give her a good example, maybe she will want to keep going. On the other hand, she is at the age where she wants to try many sports and she might find one she will wish to practice in the longer term.
But Diane Roy should not worry too much. Her protégée is determined to train in anticipation of the Défi sportif races, doing two or three sessions per week on the stationary rollers.
Training on the rollers is rather dull, thank you!
Roy states laughingly, adding that one has to be terribly motivated to do that monotonous training.
Diane Roy believes that accumulating participations at events is how young sportspersons will come to adopt this path.
You have to compete to improve and it is even truer if you race in the same category as the best. That is what I like about the Défi sportif: new athletes often show up and it is one of the very few races in Quebec, so everyone gains visibility.
