An interview
by Saskia von Hoeven of the Netherlands
Jonathan Guilmette (27) and his Canadian relay
team took Salt Lake City’s Olympic gold medal in short track speed skating. He also was Vice-champion in the 500
m.
In February of [this] year Jonathan
will travel to Turin for his next Olympic Games. In September 2005 he qualified himself for Canada’s Olympic team,
and during this seasons final World Cups in Bormio (ITA) and The Hague (NED) his relay team definitively qualified for Turin.
They are, of course, going for GOLD.
Interviewing a sportsperson like Jonathan
is not something that happens every day. Therefore, I am happy that I could, and I would like to thank Jonathan a lot
for this great interview!
Interview with Jonathan Guilmette
Is this your first time in Holland?
Jonathan: No, this is already my 6th time in the Netherlands.
The first time was in ’96, in Leeuwarden. I have also been in Heerenveen, Zoetermeer and Amsterdam. In 2002 [was
here] in The Hague.
That is definitely more often than I expected! Have you seen anything else but the
ice tracks?
Jonathan: Only very little. The only thing I’ve seen
in Holland is a little bit of Amsterdam, and I’ve been somewhere very near Germany where our driver took us once.
[Other than that], it’s only ice tracks and airports.
How do you like the way the competition is set up and organized here?
Jonathan: The competition is organized very well,
most things are going right, only the ice is really bad. We've not had ice this bad since 2 years [ago] or so.
We’re training in Montréal, where the ice is always very good as well, so this is really unusual.
Do you ever miss home on long foreign trips like this one?
Jonathan: I do miss home a lot right now. Since September,
I’ve only been home for 3 weeks. First we were in Asia for 3 weeks for the World Cups, then I was home for 3 weeks
and now we’re in Europe again, where this is the 3rd week too. After awhile you really miss your friends
and family. And because of traveling and jet-lag and so[forth] you get very tired. I usually don’t get really
homesick, but now I do feel like going home.
What is it that keeps motivating you to go on with short track, even if things don’t
always work out the way you wanted?
Jonathan: You mean why I am still skating? It’s just
the fun I have in it, the fun of skating, competing, racing. Short track stays challenging, even if you belong
to the best, because then you have to try and stay with the best. Every year there are people who go, and new people
to race against. Meeting new people is fun, as well as just traveling the world. I never truly felt like quitting
short track, otherwise I probably would have immediately.
Do you have some funny story of something that happened during your short track career?
Jonathan: Let me think… Oh yes, the time when I was in
Russia for a competition. Something went wrong at the airport and I didn’t get my luggage for five days.
I had to borrow clothes from my teammate’s substitute blades. But that also makes short track so fun; you never know
what [will] happen on these foreign trips you make.
Who would you like to be for a day if you could?
Jonathan: Difficult question! I don’t know… I don’t
think I would want to be someone famous. It wouldn’t be nice because it wouldn’t be my life with all the
nice things, like short track.
Do you have any tips for younger short track skaters, who are now trying to achieve what
you already did?
Jonathan: There’s not really a big secret to short track.
Just keep training hard, and be lucky to have a good coach. Keep listening to you coach. I was lucky to have great
coaches over the years.
Jonathan, I wish you all the best, and good luck for your upcoming Olympic Games!
