Canadian figure swimming great Frechet admires Simoneau's gold – Winnipeg Free Press

Swimmer Sylvie Frechette barely endured the uncertainty until Canada's Jacqueline Simoneau was crowned world champion at the world championships in Doha, Qatar.

Frechette, the last Canadian to win gold in the women's individual freestyle event at the worlds, served as a remote analyst for Radio-Canada on Tuesday and was only able to watch live coverage of the duet and team events.

The seconds he waited for the individual results to be updated online felt like minutes.

“You should have seen me sitting at the table and just hitting refresher, refresher, refresher,” Frechette said with a laugh.

Finally, the finishing order was approved. Simoneau ended Canada's long drought by climbing to the top of the world podium in the discipline for the first time since Frechette's gold in Perth, Australia in 1991.

“Thirty-three years? It seems like a good year to take the job,” Frechette said Wednesday from Mont-St.-Anne, Que. “That and who's better?” I love Jacqueline. I love it very much. I admire his character, work and career. He is just a wonderful person.

“So I said, ‘You know what, girl. You take the flame for the future and hopefully it won't be 33 years (until the next gold).

Simoneau, from Montreal, topped the overall difficulty and execution categories with a score of 264.8207. Greece's Evangelia Platanioti is 11.5374 points behind in second place.

“He will be a world champion for the rest of his life,” Frechette said. “But what he has given to our sport and our country is priceless. It's amazing.”

Frechette scored seven perfect 10s and set the record total score at the 1991 Worlds. The native of Montreal was 23 years old at the time, four years younger than Simoneau is now.

“It was a long time ago, but the feeling is still there,” he said.

Frechette was awarded silver at the Barcelona Olympics the following year, but her medal was later upgraded to gold when the International Swimming Federation admitted a scoring error.

He also won team silver at the 1996 Atlanta Games. Frechette was inducted into the Canadian Sports Hall of Fame in 1999.

“Being a world champion for me, I really wanted it, but I didn't expect it to be so difficult,” he said. “Suddenly you realize you're up there. You are alone.

“There's only one person on top and all of a sudden it's me… I'm so humbled.”

After watching Simoneau perform, Frechette described the level of difficulty as “sky high”.

Frechette said, “He didn't breathe through the entire routine.” “So he took it all out. It was like, “I win or I lose.” What works and what doesn't. So he had everything to lose and everything to gain at the same time. You know, he did it.

“I'm so proud of him and so happy for him and the whole community.”

It was Simoneau's second World Championship medal. She took silver behind Platanioti in the women's individual technical competition on Saturday.

For a Canadian team with so many young, talented swimmers, Simoneau's achievement will have an immeasurable impact, Frechette said.

“I think they have a guide now,” he said. “There are some of them. They have a mentor who dips in the same pool as them. He guides them.

“They thought they were working hard. Now they know what hard work is.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on February 7, 2024.

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