Laurence Vincent Lapointe Interview
An incredible interview coming your way today as we speak with legendary Canadian canoeist and two-time Olympic medallist Laurence Vincent Lapointe about her extraordinary career and recent experience in Tokyo! We find out from Laurence how she got into the sport and why she continued to persist in a sport that she didn't exactly take to immediately. We also learn about the amazing barriers she had to break throughout her career in order to succeed and just why canoe seemed to be so anti-female for so many years. Added to this we also learn about how a simple kiss nearly destroyed her Olympic dream and how she felt becoming a viral star after the Olympics for simply not staying in her boat. It's one of our most honest and raw interviews we have ever done so don't miss it!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, an Olympics podcast coming to you once again today for an athlete interview. So excited to bring you today's guest, Laurence Vincent Lapointe, Canadian canoeist, who you may remember from the Tokyo Olympics, came away with a silver and a bronze medal, if you don't mind, in both the C1 and the C2 event. Of course, won the bronze alongside her teammate, Katie Vincent. And an incredible, incredible interview this one. This is one of the best interviews I think we've ever had on this show, because Laurence is just so honest and open about the journey that she went basically from getting involved in the sport to walking away with two Olympic medals. And it's an incredible story, because the C1 and C2 events made their debut in Tokyo. Women had fought for a very long time to be included on the Olympic program in the C events, and not only just in the Olympics, but to even have a world championships. Laurence competed in this sport growing up with no world championship, no Olympics, nothing to sort of strive towards on that major, major world stage, and just the fight involved to get the sport included. And then outside of that and her journey, because Laurence dominated the sport in the 2010s, you know, 13-time world champion, absolute dominant athlete. And when the Olympics finally became a thing, Laurence faced a little bit of an extra hurdle, which all I'm going to say right now, you can listen to this, what happened in this interview, it involved a kiss. A simple kiss nearly derailed her entire Olympic dream. Absolutely insane story to hear from her. And as you'll hear me say in this interview, I think her career and her life warrants a pretty darn good movie to be made about her. So I'm going to shut up, you're going to listen to me introduce her right now. Here is our chat with two time Olympic medal winning canoeist from Canada, Laurence Vincent Lapointe.
BEN WATERWORTH: So excited to be able to welcome our next guest to Off The Podium. We've spoken to a couple of athletes from the sport of canoe kayak, but we've never actually spoken to a canoeist. We've only spoken to the kayakers. So now it's time to talk to somebody about canoe, because I've had this explained to me, and it's exciting when I know the difference. But we'll get to that. But we are speaking today to an absolute legend of the sport recently back from Tokyo, where she claimed two medals, a silver and a bronze. And when you think about some of the most decorated athletes in the sport of canoe, this person's name comes up. Thirteen world championships dominated the sport for the last decade. And such an incredible journey and story to even get to the Olympics, when, of course, the sea events were included finally for females at the Olympic Games. It's a pleasure to welcome to the show the one, the only Laurence Vincent Lapointe. Laurence, first of all, welcome to the show. It's an honour to have you on the program today.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Well, thanks for having me.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's so exciting to be able to speak to somebody about canoeing, because again, who cares about the kayak? The canoe is where it's at, right? Like this is kind of the this is the harder one. Like it's more spectacular to watch. Like, you know, we're we're sick of those kayakers. Let's let's talk about the real version of the sport, right?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Oh, some people would argue against you on that one.
BEN WATERWORTH: But it's the thing that I always love about kind of watching either the canoe or the kayak events is just it's it's so entertaining and it's so such a physically demanding sport. And the thing that always fascinates me with with canoe is, I mean, I struggle to do things sitting down, let alone on my knees and like just the power and the ability and everything involved in this is just incredible to watch. And I believe you you didn't even sort of set out to be a canoe. You kind of, I guess, stumbled across across this in not the most usual circumstances. Tell us about how you even discovered the sport and started this journey.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, I mean, well, at first, it was because I didn't really want to go to summer camp anymore. You know, at that age, like 12, 13, I was sick and tired of summer camps. And my parents wouldn't allow me to just stay at home all day and stay in front of my computer. I wonder why. It was fun. But no, they wouldn't allow me to. So they asked me to find actually a sport of my of my own. And one of my friends and her sister were both doing canoe kayak at the time. So I decided to give it a try. And honestly, I was dead. I was insanely bad. I was like always in the water because I'm quite tall. I'm almost six foot tall, which is 181 centimetre. So it's kind of hard for me to have good balance because of my height. So I would always end up in the water every single day for like hours of the time. And I would get mad, frustrated every single day. I would leave pissed off from falling in the water so much. And then I'd come back the next day and just try again. So, yeah, that was not the best start, let's say.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, because I believe you sort of had some early Olympic aspirations, but it was, you know, another water sport, synchronised swimming. I mean, is this true and kind of what happened there? Did you pursue synchronised swimming and just canoeing was a better fit for you?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Well, so the thing is, well, like the Olympic dream was more of a, as a kid, like I saw the Olympics, I saw the girls doing synchronised swimming and I was like, oh, this is really cool. Like, I want to try this. Maybe, you know, maybe one day I'll do that. And honestly, from the start, I didn't really have a plan to go to the Olympic Games, even when I started canoeing. It was like if I really wanted to go for a sport which had Olympics, Olympics in that discipline, I would probably not have chosen canoeing because there was none for women. So honestly, yeah, I didn't pick my sports for the Olympics. But as a kid, I thought that was so cool. And I was just impressed and I kind of wanted to do it. But I didn't know the implications of all that was.
BEN WATERWORTH: When you are at that summer camp and you're doing the canoe, you're doing the kayak. I mean, was it something more so about the canoeing that appealed to you over the kayaking aspect? Again, was it more enjoyable? Like, did you find it sort of more suited to you? I mean, kind of what is the canoe aspect over the kayak aspect?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Well, my really, really stubborn self was just, well, first, I couldn't accept that my boat, the canoe, would beat me. And I mean, you know what I mean? Like, I couldn't accept to get defeated by a boat. And also, I was really so stubborn that in my head, I was like, no, I want to do canoe. And people would keep telling me like, no, don't do canoe, at least do kayak. You're not going to fall as much. But if you're going to do something like you should just do it. There's part all together. And I was just too stubborn. And I convinced myself that, well, kayak is boring. You're paddling on both sides. You know, there's more challenge in a canoe, you're always falling. And honestly, I just wanted to convince myself of a good reason to keep going, although it's so bad.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I mean, it worked out in the end, right? Like, it shows that that, you know, stubbornness can, you know, pay off basically with that. Because, I mean, outside of the obvious of when you're sitting, when you're kneeling, you've got different paddles, different style of boats. The physical demands of canoe, I can imagine, are a little bit more, more than kayak. I mean, are there other challenges outside of the obvious ones when it comes to the key differences between the two disciplines?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Well, well, it's pretty obvious when you say it like that, like position is completely different posture. But even the technique, we take inspiration from each other in how we approach the way we paddle, because, you know, maybe something in kayak is not going to be useful for canoeing, but maybe something might and vice versa. So it's as it's at the same time, really different and quite similar. So I don't know, it's so technical, like it took me years to get to the point where I'm at. And even now, my technique is far from perfect. And I don't believe anyone has perfect technique in the world, like close, but not perfect. So, you know, even 17 years in, I don't even know everything there is to know about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's good. I can tell you know more than I do. So, I mean, that's where we get you on the show to kind of teach us a little bit about that. But it's kind of one of those unique sports when you think of so many different, say, Olympic sports, where cycling, for example, you know, it's one sport, but mountain biking is different to track cycling. BMX, you know, is different to road cycling. It's a similar thing with canoe kayak, because you've got the kayak, you've got the canoe, and then outside of that, you've got the sprinting, and then you've got the slalom. It's kind of, it's sort of, it's all under that same banner, but obviously so different. I mean, do you kind of all, you're all teammates, you sort of still have that sort of camaraderie where you work together, whereas you can still sort of look at the kayak as I go, cool, they're my teammates. It's like different. You look at the slalom people, you're sort of under the banner. And we know what you're going through, even though you're in very different events.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, the thing is, honestly, sometimes it makes me mad, because on the political side of things, the way our sport is approached is as one big sport. Like you said, canoe kayak and sprint slalom is considered one thing. But there's no way I could just hop in a kayak, a sprint kayak, or even a slalom canoe or slalom kayak and just go with it. There is no way it would be impossible. And anyone from those disciplines, I don't think they could just hop in my boat and do it as well as I do. So it's like, it's always funny for me that we're considered one sport, and also we have the quotas that go with it. So since we're one sport, we have to share all the quotas. So when there's changes, for example, when they had to include us women's canoe, they had to remove some men's canoe race and a men's cag race. And I was just so sad to see that to include women, you had to remove men. And it felt like a little bit frustrating because I was like, how do you want to promote women's sport if you're going to make everyone resent women's sport for being there, right? Like don't include us at the depend... how do you say that? Like in someone's stead.
BEN WATERWORTH: Instead of, yeah, like in places. I mean, this is one thing that we're learning a lot recently with so many of these different sports. And, you know, the way the Olympic program works is that on paper, it's, yeah, why isn't the women's C events in it? Let's just add them. But then it's kind of, there's always that, well, no, we can't just add extra medals. We can't just add extra athletes because then that creates confusion. So it's kind of almost that double-edged sword that, and particularly I can imagine, you know, it's always been on that fight, like why aren't the women's C events in Olympics? You finally get it. It's like, yes, here we go. But then it's like, there's that extra side of it where other people are going to miss out, which it does seem weird that way.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I know. It just makes me sad that I've seen so many of my male teammates that had to like give up on their dream because I was allowed to have my own. And I just like, yeah, you know, it leaves a bad taste.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was there? I mean, outside of, again, what we were just talking about in terms of the Olympic schedule is packed enough as it is, you know, they can't have the extra medals. But was there ever sort of a reason why that the women's events just weren't included back where the men's were?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: So many different reasons. And all of them were basically just like, not this, how do you say that? Fog, just fog to hide the fact that people didn't really want women's in my sport. But I've heard everything. I've heard like, oh, women's are not strong enough, or they're not good enough. They can't handle battling in those boats. And I've even heard the most frustrating ones were that women's reproductive organs might be affected by canoeing. I was told that. And even up until 2012, women's in some countries were still being told, yeah, don't do canoeing, you're going to get incontinency. And I was like, dude, sit on the toilet too long every day while watching, reading on your phone or playing a game, and you might get incontinency. So stop it. Like I can do anything else. Like I could do any contact sport or any like extreme sport and get injured really badly. And I could choose to do that tomorrow morning. But like you're telling me, I cannot do my sport because you worry that it might one day affect my reproductive organs, which not true, by the way. And I'm like, this is just fake reasons why I can't do it.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's so fascinating. It just sounds like that is an excuse that you would have given back at the 1896 Olympics or something like that, like not a sort of a more modern one. That's absolutely insane that that's a genuine reason people gave.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Oh yeah. Oh, I've heard it. I've heard it all. And like it started changing, I mean, so early 2010 and like early like that decade, people were still telling me that and it was, I heard everything I've heard. There was a judge line. So is that how you say that? The person who calls the start during a competition? I don't, I don't exist.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Judge the beginning. Yeah.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: So the starting judge or whatever in an international competition, forgot to close off his mic. And as we're getting on the starting line, I hear him complaining about women's canoes saying that we're unprofessional and this is a joke and this should not be happening. And I hear that through the starting like, like speakers, I'm getting ready for my race and there's this dude just bad-mouthing women's canoe in my face and I'm like, how am I unprofessional when you're doing this? You know, but I've heard it all.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, that's insane. I mean, fast forward slightly a little bit and we'll get to obviously Tokyo, but I mean, does that then add a bit of extra weight to those metals around your neck that you can kind of have that look at it and go to that guy who said that like, in basic terms, fuck you mate, look what I've got.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, I mean, throughout Maker, I've been lucky enough that like those bad things have lessened and lessened and also add so many positive encounters where people would come up to me and be like, I didn't know women's could be at battle like this. And I was like, yeah, we can, you know, we're good, we're strong. And I've also had like younger athletes, male and female, come up to me and be like, you're the reason I started battling. So, you know, to counterbalance all those bad experience I had before, I've had a lot of positive ones. But you know, you asked me if the weight of my medals is different for these games. It is, but not like the medals themselves are important to me because of what I went through in the last two years. But more than my medals, what I'm so much more proud of is the fact that we are allowed there at all, so it's not only the weight of my medals, but it's the weight of history being made. That's what's more important for me.
BEN WATERWORTH: Because we had a lot of coverage in Australia. The great Jess Fox, you know, had done so well on the world stage in the slalom and had done very well at the Olympics in the K events. And obviously, a lot of it was talked about her fighting for the inclusion of the C1 in the slalom to which he eventually won the gold medal in. So, I mean, we got a lot of publicity here about that fight and kind of everything around that. So it's kind of always interesting to kind of hear everything because I mean, when you win your first world championship gold medal, that's the first time that the C events are included at the world championship, right? So it's kind of like, yeah, so I mean, I can imagine that sort of throughout your career going up the ladder in the sport, it must be interesting to kind of be in a sport where there's not an official world championship or there's not like an Olympic event, like kind of, you know, going through that and then being a part of that fight to have it more inclusive as you were going through the sport.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, it's just, I honestly, when I was younger, I didn't really think about it because at first, like I said, I was not good. So I didn't even have a reason to think about the Olympic dream, as we call it. But I was just doing stuff because I liked it. I was having fun with my friends and just it was a fun sport, right? But at one point, when I realised there was the possibility of me going one day to bigger competitions, like when I, the first year qualified, I qualified for World Cups a week before we left and I finished racing and my federation comes up to me and they're like, all right, so Hans, you're aware that you know, you need to get your passport, you need to get your clothes ready. I was like, what? I didn't even know I was trying to qualify for World Cups. I raised because I like I raised because my coach told me like, oh, we have team trials, you know, I didn't even know what I was racing for, but I just did it. And we were leaving, no kidding, like six days later. I was like, what is happening?
BEN WATERWORTH: Did you have a passport? Like tell me you had one. All right.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I have travelled before, but yeah, it was just so, you know, sudden. But it's just now knowing that, like for me, it was not a goal because I didn't have the right to dream about that goal of dreaming of going to World Cups or World Championships or even training camps like somewhere else. And now I see the younger athletes, like the younger teammates that I have that are like 18, 19 years old, and they can be entitled to hope for this because now they have the chance to and they don't have to be told the same thing I was told, like, no, you shouldn't do canoeing. So it's so much cooler for me to know that, you know, they can dream because they're allowed to.
BEN WATERWORTH: So at that point, then, when you're not knowing you're qualifying for a world couple things like that, was it just, was it regional? Was it provincial? Like, were you just representing Quebec at like a national championship or kind of like, how did it work in Canada at that time?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: So team trials are basically everyone in Canada who wants to give it a go at like, it's not like it's not like national championships, but it is national and it's to each their own. It's not like club based, our national championships are club based, you race for your club, while like team trials are just do your best. And if you come like in the top, you'll be selected for like, competitions and stuff like that, or even the national team.
BEN WATERWORTH: And is it a region based thing in the fact that say, a lot of the canoes are coming from Quebec, you know, is it kind of is there a certain an East versus West kind of divide that you got some people, maybe a lot of people over in BC, and then they all come together? Like, what I guess the question is, what sort of other regions where the canoes are coming from in Canada?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Oh, so in Canada, it's pretty crazy how there is a big canoe gear community all in the East side of Canada and a much smaller community in the West side. So we do have a few athletes sometimes that are that are from Manitoba, Alberta, pretty rarely. And then we had a guy on the national team during the Olympics that was from BC. And we saw we trained in BC, so we saw a few, a few athletes there, like a club and everything. But honestly, it's surprisingly East, Eastern Canada.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I find that interesting, because when I was living there and sort of was doing some sports media work, it's kind of it's fascinating that there are so many sports where there is a bit of a divide, like kind of like you get a lot of athletes coming from a certain part of the country. And like, it's, we kind of have that in Australia, but it's, it's not really that way. So I kind of found that uniquely Canadian, it was interesting.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: In Canada, like it seems, at least to me, that Western Canada in the rowing water sports and stuff, they're into rowing, not canoe gags.
BEN WATERWORTH: I lived in Victoria, right near the lake where they did a lot of rowing. So I was, I was a witness to that a lot. Yeah, exactly.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: So it's like one side is canoe gag, the other side is rowing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, which, I mean, the thing that we like to joke about during our Tokyo coverage, you know, it's always like, the first week is all about rowing in Australia, like, you know, we get all excited about the rowing and then the canoe kayak happens and we're literally going, why does this not get more attention? Like, it's kind of like this is treated like it's the ugly redheaded stepchild of rowing, but I'm sorry, this is more exciting than rowing. Like you guys are going forward, at least, you know, those guys are going backwards. So it's kind of it's it's it's just always fascinating to me that it just almost gets passed over because at least in Australia, it's like rowing is where it's at. Screw those guys. But then we do so well in the canoe and kayaking and people realise how awesome this sport is.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, yeah. You guys usually do pretty well. Yeah, canoe gags. I don't even know why.
BEN WATERWORTH: We got two goals. We got one in the sprint and one in the in the slalom. So we'll take that. So yeah, that kind of works that way, which so when you're progressing through your career, at the World Cups, at the World Championships, and all of a sudden this becomes a thing. I mean, do you sort of remember that World Cup you're talking about, your first World Championship, you're wearing Team Canada clothing, you sort of can almost go back to that moment where you're watching an Olympics, oh, that would be cool. And maybe, you know, it didn't really kind of go off that. But I mean, what's that moment like when you realise you're now representing your country on the world stage?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Um, I don't know, like the first time I ever went to my first World Cup tour, I just was so giddy all the time. I was smiling, like the head coach called me, like gave me the nickname Smiley, because I was always like I had cramps in my in my cheeks, like little cramps, and I was just very happy. I didn't even realise the pressure of racing internationally, of representing Canada. I was just so excited. And then when I came back from my first World Cup tour, World Championship, I came back and people were like, Oh my god, you're so amazing. I was like, I'm the same person as I was two weeks ago. Like I haven't changed at all. Exact same person. And it was really funny because to me, it was almost as if nothing had happened because I did it. And it was really cool. But I came back and I was like, yeah, yeah, just, you know, same person. But people were like, just crazy about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: And do you feel that same way too, then, like when you can literally say you're a world champion, like that first time you are the best in the world at something, no one can take that away from you.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Well, at the time, you know, when I said that there were, there were so many negative comments, there was a lot that I was being told about like, oh, we know you won because there's no competition. I was told that, you know, it's kind of discerning to know that like people believe that, yeah, you were the best, but the best of the worst, right? So it's kind of sad. And now, like nowadays, it's so much different for me, because, you know, it actually amazes me that I was able to be part of the best even up to now, like it was not just sheer like, look, it was like hard work and talent and everything. But yeah, now, when I come back, I know I'm part of the best and no one can take that away from me. But yeah, then it was quite sad because I was excited. But some people were really bad about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I think again, just reflecting on that, I think your resume speaks a little bit highly that it wasn't just like, oh, I just won that one race because there was two people in it. Boom, like you've gone on to win a few more since then. You've kind of backed up those credentials, you know, right?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I mean, I believe I have so 12 senior world championships titles, like winning titles like gold, then one under 23 championships, gold medal. And then I have a couple of gold medals from World Cups that I don't know exactly how many because I haven't counted them all. And then I have a few more gold medals.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know you've got a few when you've lost count, right? Yeah. Like I can see here and tell you how many times we have charted in the top 50, because it's only happened maybe once. Where you say, oh, yeah, a few, I don't know how many, but they're in a draw somewhere, sure.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It's more than one. It's more than one, I know, but I don't, yeah. And then I have two Olympic medals, one silver and one brown, so, yeah, it's gone on for a long, I'd say.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's kind of like, I mean, I'm sure that's how Michael Phelps feel, right? Yeah, I think I won a couple of Olympic medals. Do I? I don't know how many. There's a few. Just, you know, back the truck up, we'll kind of see that. Which the fascinating thing, though, you're talking about the world championships and then the under 23 world championships. Yeah, you won senior world championships before you then won an under 23 world championship. How does that work?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: There was none.
BEN WATERWORTH: Like, all right.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: For canoe, for women's canoe, it started with senior world championships before that, or even more like juniors and new two, three world championships. So that's why I won those first, and then I went on to win.
BEN WATERWORTH: I assume we go the other way around that have like an under 23 before they then introduce it, like, that's that's fascinating that like, I can't imagine many sports like that has happened before. That's very unique.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: That's kind of part of why people were telling me like, oh, there's no competition.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, well, again, open the draw, show them kind of when it goes to that, when it comes to, you know, I love kind of learning in sort of, you know, both rowing and canoe kayak, you know, obviously you have everything from, you know, singles in rowing, you've got eights, obviously, you know, canoe kayak, you've got, you've got four. Do you work out that your specialties kind of rely maybe more on a C1 and then all of a sudden you add the C2 to the program because you have a teammate, a coach says to you like, have you tried this or is it kind of you just, you just do both and kind of you can work your sort of training and your competitions around doing both the C1 and the C2?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, I mean, in our sport, it is mostly single, right? We almost always train in single boats. And then once in a while, we will do crew boats. So maybe it depends twice a week, three times a week, depending some people when. So when we qualify, at least for women's canoe, that's how we work, because most of us will, we don't have that much opportunity to do a lot of crew boats during races. So we do have to like prepare for single and prepare for double, but we mostly prepare for singles. But for example, like kayaking or even canoeing, even for guys, they don't have like C4, they have like C2 max. Two is the number of people in the boat. So canoe two places.
BEN WATERWORTH: It works well. Easy when you know that, right? The C stands for canoe, K for kayak, like, yep, it's less confusing than the rowing. Again, rowing stupid. If you don't know that there's one with two oars and one with one, like it's easy to explain in canoe kayak.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, well, for us athletes, it's C for canoe and K for kayak, and then you add the number of people in the boat. So I do C one and C two.
BEN WATERWORTH: Easy.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, but so for kayak counterparts, sometimes if someone qualified strictly in crew boats, they'll train strictly in crew boats unless their teammates are busy doing their singles, then they'll do also singles. But yeah, most of the time, we train in singles and then do some doubles.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then of course, you've got freaks like Lisa Carrington, who we always just need to bring up when we're talking to canoe kayaks, you know, she's from New Zealand. We don't generally talk about them in positive light, but hey, I'm not going to not talk about Lisa Carrington in a positive light.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: She's just amazing. She's just that good that you cannot not talk about her.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. I mean, when New Zealand has somebody that good, you have to talk about it because it's rare. So it's kind of, you know, it goes in that way. I mean, I can imagine she looks like an incredible person. I mean, sort of we all obviously know, like sort of what we're talking about with the Olympics is always a difference between a world championship. Are there C4 events for women in world championships or is that like a men's based one? Because I would love to see a C4 kind of, I can imagine that would be epic.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, actually, very recently, like two weeks ago, I think one or two weeks ago, there were the under 23 world championships, and my teammates did an IC4, so a C4 for women.
BEN WATERWORTH: How do you balance a boat in that aspect? I mean, I've seen how you celebrate after an event and you fall in the water. The balancing aspect is fun, right? But like a C4, like in full pelt sprint, like how the hell do you all stay in unison to stay up standing?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: You just follow the person in front of you and you just hope. No, no, it's a joke. The thing is, like, it depends because usually you would want to have a person on the right and a person on the left because it's easier to steer if there's like counterbalancing from the steering on both sides. But as we've seen with my teammate, we both battle on the same side. So she as the person in back needs to steer double the time, but we still manage to make it work. But the funny, funny thing is, you don't always have the right number of rights versus lift. And my teammates during the U23 World Championships two weeks ago, they had to race three lefts and one right. Because there was just not enough like to make two, two. So they had like two people on the same side, one on the other side, and then the fourth person on. Yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: And so you could have a race where you've got, say, in a C4, a boat with three rights and a left, and then another one's got two rights and two left. Like does it have to all be the standard or can you sort of have different boats with different styles?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It doesn't have to be. It could be four lifts if you somehow made it work. But that would be almost impossible because steering would be very, very hard. Three is like the maximum you can have on one side versus the other. But yeah, we, you know, there's no restriction about that. I've been, like in the past, I had other teammates and I had one that was also on the same side as me. And we had people complain on videos of ours that we were world champion at the time with my other teammate. And people would write on our posts like, oh, this is so unprofessional. Like, dude, like doubles, double left, two on the same side. This is bad. And I was like, we just won world champions. Like what you want us to do. There's no one on the right. We can only do double left.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hands of canoe seem a bit mean.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It was not just only men in canoe, it was just, it was just like people, honestly, mostly men, but mostly older people. And, and just canoe gag were from around the sphere. It was not all like our counterparts, no, they were actually pretty positive and supportive.
BEN WATERWORTH: I am, yeah, I'm lost for words on some of this. I mean, I'm thinking of certain like, you know, things that always seem to get complained about. I'd never pictured canoe would be up there. It's kind of one of these ones that people are so sort of on that. I mean, when it comes to sort of having those pairings, obviously, you know, you go on to win the bronze with Katie, but she's obviously a competitor for you in the C1. I mean, kind of what's it like when you're trying so hard in a C1 to beat her, then all of a sudden you've got to work with her in a boat, probably like, you know, the next race or however it works.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It's quite hard because it's all about being professional because some people you will be friends with and some people you won't be friends with. And you have to make it work no matter how. So example for with Katie and I, like we work well together, but the thing is, we're not like, we're not really close. So when we're outside of training, we don't hang out together, like unless unless there's just two of us and then we'll be like too lonely if we're not together. But yeah, I mean, you just make it work. It's our not only our sport and our passion, but it's also like kind of our job to be professional in what we do. So we just make it work and yeah, and it works.
BEN WATERWORTH: I mean, yeah, it does again, a piece of jewellery around your neck probably signifies that aspect of it. I mean, always like to learn from our guests, particularly from sports we haven't really talked to many athletes from is the training aspect. And I mean, look again, armchair, you know, expert know nothing about the sport really outside of what I see in an Olympic Games is I can imagine it's a very upper strength, you know, upper body kind of with the power that you guys have to have sort of when you're in an event. But outside of that, I mean, kind of what are you working on when you're in a gym? Like kind of what are the key aspects that really make you a strong canoeist?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: So I feel like our sport is all about like, there's a lot of different cross trainings that you can do, because it's not, it's not all about the arms. It's not all about the legs. It's not all about the trunk. It's a lot about technique. So no matter how strong you are, if you have no technique, you're not going to be good. And there's just so much you can do it. That's why the best in our sports are not the best at like 17. It's pretty rare. For example, the USA girl that won in our race at the Olympics, she's really good. And she has great techniques, so props to her. But usually, the technique and all the experience comes later.
BEN WATERWORTH: She's about 19, isn't she?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: She's 19, yeah, exactly, and I'm 29. There you go. I'm old. But yeah, I mean, I personally cannot run because I always have bursitis in my knees. I just have to be careful about that. But I do love swimming and then biking. And we do weights at least three times a week. And we just train everything to make sure that not only like our sport is very one-sided with always having the same size, but we have to make sure everything is balanced, everything is strong, so that when we get in the boat, we can do the technique without having to like deal with lack of power.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then when it comes to things like race strategy, obviously, I can imagine it's maybe a little bit different from the C1 to the C2 when you buy yourself and you've got a teammate. But I mean, is a race strategy in an event that's what, 200 metres, just go hammer and tong? You've got no real strategy in that, like just go all out and hope that you cross the line first. I mean, is there a strategic side to a 200 metre sprint like that?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It's pretty much like you said, straight up go and just do as good as I can and not die and not panic. If, for example, someone's catching up during the last few metres, just keep focus and keep going hard. That's basically my race plan for 200, because it's so short. But then for 500 and with my teammate, we really do have to make sure that we have a race plan. And it's funny, because I don't know if you've seen our C2 500 race in the Olympic Games. You've seen it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I actually caught a bit of it just during the Olympics, but I actually just in the lead up to this, I watched an interview that you two did, and then kind of they were showing the replay of it. So, yeah, no, just rewatched it.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: The thing is, at halfway of the race, we were fifth on an eight boat race, right? Fifth on eight boats is not bad, but it's not great. It's not what we wanted to do. And our race plan was to just give everything we had left in the last 200 metre, and like halfway is 250. So 250 before the end, we're fifth. And then the last 200 were like, all right, this is it. We were giving everything we've got left because it's the end of the games. We just push. And I did not even think. I just followed the plan, followed my teammate because she always talks to me during the race. And we pushed so hard and we made it on the podium. And that was wild. That was crazy. When I passed that line, you know the beep that we heard during the races? Sometimes you think it's only on TV, but we also hear them on the line.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, you do hear it. Oh, I always thought that was just a sound effect.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It depends when and where, but during that competition, I heard it. So I heard one beep and then two beeps and then we passed. And I was like, we made it. But my teammate didn't really realise that the beeps were happening. So she turned her head and then she saw we were in front of the other boat. And we were like crazy. That was insane.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to ask about the talking aspect, because like, is it just like a go word? Like when you sort of say, like, put everything, you know, everything that's like, OK, you've got a buzzword, like push. Like, I don't know. Like, is that kind of that keyword?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, we have keywords and she's the one who's able to duck. Honestly, I'm always too winded out to be able to say anything. But yeah, she she'll be like everything from the start till the finish of the race. There's something we have a cue almost every 100 metre, if not every 50. Like, it depends where.
BEN WATERWORTH: But yeah, can we share any of those words or are these like very secretive that you don't want you to compete with them?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: No, it's just it's not necessarily the words that are secret. It's just the placement. But like, for example, the start, we start with three strokes and then she goes up, but then she goes up again. And that's pretty unusual because usually you do one start and you just go for it. But we, since we're double on the same side, we kind of need a second, second cue to like get us even faster. And yeah, usually it's just all her. Like we both know the race plan, but she is calling them to make sure we're on point at the same time, at the same place.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just while we're on the topic, I loosely mentioned before, but I have to bring it up, the little viral moment where you get a bit overeager and fall in the water afterwards. I mean, you know, it happens. I can imagine you said before when you started that you often didn't stay in the boat. I mean, does it bother you sometimes people remember your Olympics a little bit more for falling in the water rather than coming away with two medals?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Oh, they don't only remember it that way better. They also like right off as it happened, people would be like, you're viral, but not for the race. It was all for falling in the water. You know, my dream as a kid was to do synchronised swimming. There you go.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, I like that. That kind of was actually funny. So we're generally a co-Canadian Australian production, and my Canadian co-host couldn't join me today for this. But when I was sort of, you know, saying to Colin, like, yeah, you know, we're interviewing Laurence, getting questions and that sort of stuff. The first thing he says, ask him about falling in the water. Literally the first thing he says to me is that.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It's just very funny. It's just so what happened is I'm super excited as we pass the line because I hear the beeps. I know we're third and she sees that we're third and she had to make sure. And then we both get so crazy, but she stands up in the boat and she starts like almost dancing behind me. During a 500 metre, it's like for me, it's the hardest race because I push so hard with my body and my legs that after the race, usually my legs die. Literally, most of the times after our races, she has to almost bring us all the way to dock because I just stops working, my body stops working and she's standing up and I'm bed. So I'm like, can you sit back down? So she puts back her knee in the boat. But then we both at the same time without really telling each other, tried to go for a high five. She tries to go for my shoulder and I tried to back hand behind my hip. I tried to bring back my hand. And as I do that, I lose balance as she's trying to just tap me on the shoulder. And everyone thinks she pushed me, but I'm like the dumb whale. It just felt like I was falling like a whale and I just lost balance and fell and everyone's like, she pushed you. She actually followed me in the water because I fell. Wow.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know what I appreciate about that story is that you probably are now getting used to explaining the technique behind why you fell in the water more so than the technique that won you an Olympic medal.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, a little bit more, but that's okay. It's also part of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Now, two things. I want to come back to you, the C1, but just two things in the lead up to the Olympics. What was that moment like when you found out that officially you could become an Olympian, that the events had been added to that calendar, I think was at 2017 when they sort of announced it? I mean, what was that knowledge now that, hey, this is a possibility. I can become an Olympian now.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Well, it was in the talks for a long time. It was in works behind the scenes and politically. I knew some people were debating it. But when I was actually coming back from a competition, from World Cups and during my flight, I didn't know, but it happened during my flight on the way back home. And as I landed, I got back in the car with my parents. And on the way home, my mum's like, I have a good news for you. They just included women's canoe in the games. And I was like, oh my God, just so much relief. Just like, okay, okay, nice. Now, you know, now it's my chance. It just felt very relieving.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which then on the flip side of that, obviously, with what happened beforehand, it nearly kind of got taken away from you. Now, for maybe sort of listeners that are not sort of aware of what happened, essentially, this all brought it down to you tested positive for a banned substance.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yes.
BEN WATERWORTH: It wasn't that you took the banned substance. It essentially came down to you kissed your boyfriend at the time, I believe. And then that kind of led to you testing positive. I mean, I can't even imagine what that would be like. But to have it, boom, here it is. You become an Olympian, you're on that path to take it away. And you just you're so unsure of how this has even happened.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah. So yeah, that was in 2019. That was after that was two years after being told that women's canoe would be included. And that was also the year I was supposed to qualify Canada, because in I don't know, like each sport is different. But for canoe kayak, you qualify your country first. And then the year of the Olympics, you can qualify within your country to decide who's going to take the quota. So I was actually a few weeks off before World Championships, which would allow me to qualify Canada. And yeah, I was just doing a training camp, doing training stuff. I would see my boyfriend like he slept in my apartment every night, because obviously we've been together for years. And yeah, like right before World Championships, maybe two weeks later, not even a week before, I get this crazy email with like a lawyer letter, basically that tells me you're being suspended because you have an adverse finding in your urine sample from that day. And I was like, is this like a gag show? I couldn't believe it. It's so crazy that my first reaction was actually disbelief. This must be a joke. Someone's trying to pull a really bad prank on me. And well, after that, I realised it was true, and it was so insane. I was sent back home, and I couldn't tell my teammates until it officially came out. And I was just so devastated. I couldn't raise, I couldn't even talk to my teammates. I couldn't be allowed to see my coach. I was literally put aside because I was suspended. Suspension means you cannot be associated in any way with your federation, your teammates, or anyone. So yeah, I was put aside. I was very, very lost, and I didn't know. I had no clue. At first, I was like, could it be from something I ate, from something I drank? I've been with the guy for years, right? Remember, I've been with my ex for a long time at the time. I had no reason to think he took anything weird, right? So I look around what I ate, what I drank. I asked, like, everything to be tested. And I personally, I went through a lie detector test. I also got my home hair tested, which I don't know if you know a little bit about, like, how bad substance work, but they can, they can, like, stay in your hair. And, like, you're able to say with the length of each hair, like, when the bad substance came into your body. But it has to be for use. And my, what happened with me is that it was such a small contamination that it didn't show at all in my hair. So I'm like, I tested my hair, came back negative, means I didn't take it to, like, for doping, but it still came in my body, because if not, my urine test would not have been positive. And I was looking everywhere. Like, when you see needle in a haystack, it was worse than that. And, like, a few months later, at one point, I'm like, we've gone through so many different avenues, and there's nothing. And I was, like, talking with my ex, my now ex, and I was like, you know, you were the closest person to me. Like, we already tested my hair. Maybe we should also test yours, because if you somehow got contaminated and we see it in your hair, maybe that would give me, like, a place to look at, right? If it might be in your, like, eating or drinking, that we might find it. And his hair actually came back, not only positive for, like, traces, but actually positive for usage on a few months. Yeah. Yeah. And so, I was so mad, but also so relieved. It is the worst, like, the craziest, like, mismatch.
BEN WATERWORTH: Mixed emotions at the same time. Yeah.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It's so crazy. How are you the most pissed you've been in your life, but also the most relieved, right? And, well, it was still not done at the time, because I had to go through my hearing and everything, and I, like, I had to have him testimony, like, justify. But, yeah. I was able to go through the hearing, and even the scientist was like, yeah, there's nothing else that could have happened. That's what happened. Like, she kissed him, and she got contaminated that way, because it was insanely small. It was like the smallest contamination they had ever seen.
BEN WATERWORTH: I've always imagined that as an athlete, the amount of times you're getting drug tested, that you would be paranoid already. Like, what if I take something that I don't realise what's in it? And things like that. And then to have that happen for something you probably could never even imagine, it's possible that you could test positive by kissing someone.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I haven't had anyone in my life, either romantically or physically since then. And it's not really hard to know why, right? I have absolutely no trust. I was with someone for over five years. And I was contaminated by that person. And now I'm like, I couldn't even try to meet someone on Tinder. I would have no way of knowing.
BEN WATERWORTH: Even on the side of things, which I can imagine that as soon as it emerges, no doubt in the media that you've tested positive, straight away, that's the headline. And then straight away, people form an opinion. Oh, well, she has a drug cheat. That's straight away. So then you're fighting against yourself that you're innocent. You're fighting against finding it. And then no doubt when you come back to, I mean, I'm sure there are still people out there who remember your name, remember the headline, and they still probably think, oh, well, she has a drug cheat, but they don't know the full story. So, I mean, all those things you've got to overcome, I mean, does that spur you on even more to kind of just prove those doubt that you already had clearly with this entire journey you got to that point to just show everybody just, wow, like, this is wrong. What's happened?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, honestly, after that, like after getting cleared, I was so I was very transparent with the process and everything with my lawyer, with my I had an agent that followed me through this because she believed in me. And people actually people who knew me were like, there is no way the hunks we anyone if anyone else, we were told anyone else asked out, we might be inclined to believe it, but not you like, just why would you? And and I was like, thank you for believing in me. But it was like kind of blind faith in me. And I was kind of like, I was so happy, but at the same time, I wanted to prove them right for believing in me, right? But we were very, very transparent through the whole thing. Like at the beginning, when I came back, I was like, I have no idea. We will do everything we we can to find how it happened. And then after that, we get everything. And there was a documentary made on this back in Quebec, which is in French. Sadly, it's not easy to broadcast everywhere. But everything we did to find how it happened is in the documentary. So after that, I was like, OK, now that the documentary is out, if people want to get a better idea on me, they can watch the documentary. And even then, if even then they still believe I did it and I'm a cheater, I cannot do anything to change their mind. And I don't care. At that time, I was really just like, I'm clear, I can paddle again, I can go back to my life, and I don't really care about people who still believe I did it. But yeah, at first, some people just straight up wrote to me on Messenger and be like, you're worse than Lance Armstrong. Wait, was it Lance who did this? You're worse than Armstrong, you're worse than Ben Johnson, you're worse than all those insane cases of cheating. I was almost compared to Sochi by myself. It was so crazy. And I was like, I think you're not comparing the right thing there, okay?
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm saying with everything that you've had to face, there's a movie in this. You talk about a documentary being made. I'm just seeing that there needs to be sort of a movie made about your journey. Come on.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Some people have asked me if we could write something about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, get on board that, you know, like jump on that.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, but it's quite fresh. I kind of want to like let myself live a little bit, you know, go back to school first before having people relive it all. Yeah, it was crazy.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which then we always like to find out sort of about those Olympic experiences outside of the competition, you know, being in the village, kind of soaking all that atmosphere up. And I can imagine that adds a bit of an extra layer of kind of, you know, achievement when you're in Tokyo, when you arrive and you're getting ready to compete, you see the rings, you see all that sort of stuff with everything that you've gone through to get to that point.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Honestly, the moment it hit me the most was not even well, okay. It hit me really hard when the day I was officially allowed to go. So when I was selected, I got my jacket.
BEN WATERWORTH: Beautiful, beautiful jackets. I am so jealous of the Canadian.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Like it depends which one, but I just got this standard red jacket, Canada, and I just put it on and I got this like full body shiver. It's like, you know, like the, how do you say that? Goosebumps. Yes, full on goosebumps. And just like, oh my God, it was so exciting. But then when I got to the games, I was like, yeah, I'm at the games. But I never got that realisation that I am at the games until literally the starting line of my semi-final in C1. The second day of racing, like I raced on the Wednesday. Wait, no, I think it was Wednesday. And then on Thursday, I'm on the starting line, about a hundred metres before my line. And I look around me and I'm like, I'm at the Olympic Games. I'm in the games. And I just started not freaking out, but I was so happy. I was just overwhelmed by just being happy and content with where I was. That on the starting line, my parents said that they saw me smile. They were like, Oh my God, she's being way too overconfident. But I was not overconfident. I was not concentrating at all. And one of my worst races, I just could not focus. I came third in the semi. And then I had to re-race like a few hours later. And then I just got on the line on the final and I was, I was still happy. I was still feeling that bliss, but I was way more like concentrated. So when I started, I just gave everything I had.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it sort of worked out for you.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: But it's a weird moment, you know, to realise on the line that it's happening.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it, I mean, I always am intrigued to hear about the value and the power of, of winning an Olympic medal. I mean, you know, as we were discussed, 12 time Senior World Champion, you know, one time, you know, 13 World Championship gold medals, multiple World Cups, so many you can't even count. But does an Olympic silver medal in some way, again, through the fight that you had to do to just even get to an Olympic Games, does that almost hold, it does hold more weight and value?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It tastes so much better. I haven't tasted it, though. But I mean, like, so much more because I've had throughout my career to, like, realise at one point that each new race was a new beginning. I can just take the new one as the continuation of the previous one, because at one point that's kind of what happened in my career, because everyone would tell me, like, oh, we know you keep winning just because you're you, and there's no, like, we know you're going to win. And so at one point, I got a lot of trouble with my mental preparation in, like, 2015. And after that, when I came back, I had to, like, really be, okay, this is a new race, this is a new beginning. But it was kind of difficult when it was just world championships, world championships, world championships. But going to all of the games and also after my suspension and after COVID hit, and just going for the games, that was literally a new beginning. And this, like, I had worked for months with my mental preparation guy to be sure that I would be focused throughout my race. If someone was trying to catch up, I would not panic. I would just keep palling until the end and give everything I had. And all of those months of preparation, they really paid off. And that is why, even though I didn't come first, the silver that I won at the Olympic Games is so much more worth it to me than all of the other ones.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then you add an extra one a couple of days later, right? You get two of them.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Two days later, I had the other one with my team in, but that was just the cherry on top.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which I always like to ask our medallists. I mean, it's still obviously very fresh. I can't imagine you haven't stopped showing it off. But what have you done with the medal? And do you sort of have both of them? I should say, do you sort of have a plan to just put them in the drawer with the hundreds of other World Cups? Or are you going to put these on display one time to be like, hey, look at these two Olympic medals?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Well, right now, I mostly always travel with them. Like right now, I have them in my apartment right here. But whenever I go to events, I bring them. Because I know people like so it's funny because some people, when they come back, they're like, I cannot show them out too much. They're going to get broken. They're going to get like scratched and everything. And I'm like, well, what's the point of hiding my medals so that they scratch? Who's going to see them if they like, if I had to hide them, right? Like, how can I share them? And so that's why I bring my medals everywhere. They are scratched. They are very, very scratched. And the bronze medal, which actually is not bronze, it's like the copper is, it's a copper plating, has actually already started oxidising.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I was going to ask something about that, because wasn't there some stories emerging about certain Olympians, their medals were like chipping or something was like going on? So I don't know if that was just the gold. Some were saying that there were some issues and that the IOC were having to like fix their medals. So I don't know.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I don't know if my medals are looking banged up.
BEN WATERWORTH: But that's what you want. You want them to kind of like.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Honestly, my mum was worried. She was like, oh, they're going to be scratched. Be careful. And I'm like, yeah, who cares? People can see them. People can share them with me. And that is way more important to me. There was a kid the other day who touched my medal and he dropped it on the ground and it was asphalt. It's okay. It's high. Don't worry. I was really worried. And I was like, it's okay. It's okay. The kid is happy to touch it. The parents are happy. We took a picture with it. It's fine. It's just a medal. It's a piece of...
BEN WATERWORTH: It's those moments I like. I remember as a kid, there was an Olympic parade where I grew up in Hobart. I think it was after Atlanta. And I've got a photo of me as a nine-year-old wearing an Olympic bronze medal, because we had a swimmer who won a bronze medal. And then after Sydney, when we had the Welcome Home parades, again, I've got photos of me touching an Olympic gold medal. You just remember things like that, because it's just kind of like, wow, I got to hold or wear an Olympic medal, and I may never achieve one myself. But I guess it's that joy you see from these kids who are seeing it, and maybe inspire them, maybe back to what you're saying about inspiring the next generation, that one of these days it's going to come on CBC at night. Here's a picture of 12-year-old Julie that she got inspired by Laurence, and now look at her, she's winning an Olympic medal herself. Maybe.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Honestly, I do that because I remember as a kid, there were Olympians who took the time to either help me on the water or share their medal with me or just share their experience with me. One of my mentors actually is a man who did canoeing in the, I think, 1990, sorry, 1992 Olympic Games, I think. I'm not 100% sure, but when I was younger, he would come to the club, paddle beside me, and just be patient with my very tippy self. I would always be in the water, but he was so patient and took the time to give me some technique that no one else would give me because I was too bad. And that really changed things for me as a kid. So I'm like, if I can even do that in a small, even a small percentage of what he did for me by showing them my medals, this is already so, so important. But that's why I do it, because I don't care my medals. They're going to get scratched. Who cares? Who's going to see them?
BEN WATERWORTH: And then the movie comes out, and then it's even more inspirational, right?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: They're going to need some props.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. Now, before we close it off with a series of kind of get to know your questions, two quick fire questions for you. One, the obvious question. I've got to ask it. Everyone's asked it to you, and you're probably sick of answering it. But Paris 2024, are you aiming? Is that the goal kind of to go to another Olympics?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I have no idea.
BEN WATERWORTH: No idea?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Because after the last two years, after the last two years I've had with my suspension, COVID, and so many different things, I need a break right now. I just got into my new program. I'm in Physiotherapy and University, and honestly, it was my first choice. So I was super excited to just sit down for a bit, study instead of stress about performance. And I just need a few months to decide how it's going to go.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right, I'll tick that cliche question off. All right, there we go. I got that one. But the other one I want to ask. Now, maybe this might be one of our questions, and I get to know you thinking about what you do in your spare time. But I believe you're a bit of a fan of painting and knitting, which is this true? And it's so like, what are we painting? What are we knitting? Is it kind of, you know, a secret to kind of, you know, what you're putting out there?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, honestly, it always depends. But to me, I love being like doing manual work. Either that or just like the straight up boring answer of watching shows or playing games on my computer. But I do enjoy knitting a lot, but mostly during the winter, because, you know, it's a cold time.
BEN WATERWORTH: It gets a bit chilly in Montreal, right?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I have so many different scarves that I've made in the last few years. But, you know, a new one every winter.
BEN WATERWORTH: I have to have a quick question on Montreal. I was talking to you off air about a big fan of the city. Now, I'm a big Formula One fan. Have you ever been to the race? And if so, what do you sort of think of the Formula One, if you've ever actually been to it?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I haven't been to the Formula One. I've seen NASCAR, though. It's really funny. But yeah, no, I haven't. Like, we paddle. The funny thing is we paddle where the Formula One is.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to say, because it's right next to the circuit, isn't it? The Montreal, the rowing course, which is the thing that the thing that I will say about going to the Montreal Grand Prix is that I've never seen a city get so behind a race. Like, I go to the Melbourne Grand Prix generally every year, and Melbourne gets behind it. Don't get me wrong, but it's not the same as it was 20 years ago. Whereas, when I went to Montreal, I mean, there was like three city blocks shut down for a festival. The whole city was involved, and the most efficient transportation and just like the thousands of people that they get to and from that circuit in such an orderly manner, like props to Montreal, the best Grand Prix I've ever been to.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I'd say you were lucky to get efficient transportation. But yeah, we do get behind a lot of things, you know, like for hockey, for example, we get so crazy about it, and it's just, I don't know, we do enjoy that kind of stuff, so we get behind it and we're proud of it, so we celebrate.
BEN WATERWORTH: Am I allowed to ask about the Habs? Or is it still a bit of a source point? No, you can ask.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I mean, it's good, like it's the best place they've done in like years, decades. I don't know how long it's been, but it's been a while, and we've come...
BEN WATERWORTH: 28 years, I believe, since not only Canada, but also the Habs won a Stanley Cup, so nearly 30 years. So, yeah, as everyone says, next year is our year, so we'll see.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I'd say we have a very good chance, but we'll see.
BEN WATERWORTH: Cross those fingers. Now, as I said, we wrap up every interview series of sort of fun get to know your questions. Now, these were Team Canada questions that they gave athletes ahead of Rio and Pyeongchang. Now, as far as we are aware, they didn't do them for you guys because there's nothing on the website. So, we're a bit disappointed that they didn't do it. Now, I always like to try and get an athlete from the same sport, and we're going back to our man Cameron Smedley here, a paddler. Now, is Cameron someone you know, like, as a fellow Canadian paddler? I think he's more of a, I think he's a slalom athlete, not a sprinter.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, I cannot say the name rings a bell, but I'm also really bad with names. So, unless he was in my face telling me, yeah, you know me, I'd be like, oh, okay.
BEN WATERWORTH: Might have to track down Cam to get him on the show to see that. But let's start off with if you could choose any Olympic host city, where would it be?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Well, for the games we just had, Tokyo definitely couldn't have been done anywhere else, I believe, because the way they were organised, even with COVID, I don't believe anywhere else could have done it as good. Everything was on point. Just to let you know how on point it was, one of my teammates, one of my friends from a different sport, she was telling me that one day the bus driver was panicking because he had to leave one minute late. They were on point. Everything was so well managed. I cannot say outside, but within the village, within the activities of the Olympic Games that the athletes were part of, everything was managed so precisely.
BEN WATERWORTH: That's incredible.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I don't see how it could have been made with COVID, if not for Tokyo and the Japanese people.
BEN WATERWORTH: I like that bus driver. I like it when someone's concerned about being one minute late. That's my type of person. Yeah, the weirdest instruction a coach ever gave you was?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It's just, there's so many things. One time I had to practise without putting any power, any weight on my front foot. So I had to act as if there was like something under my foot, which there wasn't, but like imagine there was an egg and you're going to break it. That was weird. I really didn't like that feeling.
BEN WATERWORTH: Geez. Didn't work. Did it help at all?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Not exactly, but I don't even know what he was trying to do. I was quite young at the time.
BEN WATERWORTH: This is why I love this question, because we find out from so many people that sometimes coaches just give confusing instructions that to this day people don't understand.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: So yeah, that's why I've taken the time as I grew older to like ask, to rephrase whatever I didn't understand. And now like I could explain to someone any other way. Like if, if I try to explain something, I can explain it many different ways because I've been through that before. So it's useful.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look at it. I like that. Your favourite workout is?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I enjoy sprints a lot because they're fun. But outside of paddling, I love swimming. I would swim anything, anytime, any day.
BEN WATERWORTH: Perfect. I like that answer. If you could have lunch with any one person, who would it be?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: That's a difficult one. I never know what to answer. Well, since we talked about her earlier, I'd say Lisa Carrington. She's a cool person. We could chat, just sit down.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah. That'd be a good lunch, I think. That would work very well. Your favourite sandwich is?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I love breakfast sandwiches with eggs and ham and cheese.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, one thing I loved when I was living there is bagels aren't really a big thing in Australia. You got to struggle to find one, but Tim Hortons' bagel and it had the bacon and cheese on it was pretty darn good. I quite like that. And I've got to show my stereotypical living in Canada. Let's go to Timmy's, right? So we have a lot of good breakfast foods here. Yeah, definitely. If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I just think I would like to fly. Yeah, because I mean, whenever I think about it, it happens, you know, sometimes you'll geek out about a subject and you'll be like, what would I like? I really am a firm believer of non-going in the past, because if I could time travel, I would do the same things, exactly the same way, because I just believe my life could change that much. People find that a bit crazy about me, but I don't have a regret in my life. There's one thing I regret. It's just not buying a Chinese chef knife, a Chinese-Japanese chef knife, when I went to Japan three years ago. That's the only thing I regret. I don't even regret everything that happened throughout my career, because I'm like, I'm the person I am right now, because that happened.
BEN WATERWORTH: What was about this knife? What was so special about this knife?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I was in the market, a really nice fish market, and I saw this really nice knife. I didn't have money on me. There was an ATM like two streets away. I could have gone to the ATM, and now I regret that one.
BEN WATERWORTH: And it wasn't an opportunity in Tokyo? I guess you couldn't really go explore.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: No, we could go outside of the village at all. And I can get a chef knife anywhere.
BEN WATERWORTH: I was going to say, if there's any Japanese listeners, they can maybe send you one.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, that's why I say that a little bit as a joke, but as a power, time travelling will not be the thing, because for me, I believe firmly. So yeah, flying is pretty cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I think go with the time travel just so you can get the damn knife. That's all I'm saying. I've enjoyed this chat, Laurence, but now I'm just so concerned about this knife. Come on, I want you to have it.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I got a really cool knife right here. It's just a bit poor, but it works really well. No worries.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, the best candy in the world is?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I really, I'm kind of like really into Skittles. I don't know, like sweet and sour. I just like that kind of stuff.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, I feel that Skittles should be answered more, but they sadly don't. But no, I'm all on board the Skittles train. Absolutely.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: Might have already touched on this. We kind of just talked about the Canadians a little bit. But as a kid, your favourite sports team was?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Favourite sports team? I didn't watch a lot of the sport as a kid, but I'd say just the synchro swimming girls that I saw that inspired me to start doing sports.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nice. I loved during Tokyo the fact that they had that new camera angle where it was kind of the water line, which was just amazing to be able to really see just everything that they're doing underwater. It was just amazing.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: You would be surprised. I've seen so many different ways that cameras work before, and there was one that always fascinated me, and they had cranes at four corners of the basin, and there would be a camera hung by wires that would literally be in your face, about one and a half metre in your face, a giant, giant camera. Sometimes it would be about almost a metre long, the setup, the giant thing, and it's in your face, and you have to focus and battle like that. It's not like a drone. It's in your face. And that was really cool shots, honestly, but I don't remember seeing much of those setups.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we have those sort of cameras during some of our football events. I call them Spider Cam, and I always wonder. I was watching the swimming during Tokyo, and you see them as well, and you're like, what happens if it breaks, and then halfway through, it hits an athlete, and that costs them a medal? What do you do?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Honestly, I have no idea, but it probably happens that some things happen. Yeah. You know, I always see.
BEN WATERWORTH: In Formula One, they've had advertising hoardings fall down on the track, and a car's crashed into it and crashed out because of an advertising hoarding, so things like that can happen.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I always say, you know, the Olympic Games, they are one race at one time and one place. If you weren't the best last week, it doesn't mean anything because during the Olympic Games, maybe the wins are going to be different. For our race, the whole two weeks we were there, it was a crazy side win. And side win is really, really bad for canoeing because you have to steer. So if you're paddling on the right side, for example, with right win, like in the Olympic Games, if you're paddling on the right side, it's easier. You don't need to steer as much. If you're paddling on the left, which I am, it's harder. So sometimes people are like, yeah, but you could have won that race. Dude, the win was a right win. That's what the games were. I had to deal with this and I came second. This is amazing. So it's like something happens and you have to deal with it. I just hope nothing as bad as a camera falling on an athlete.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't want to jinx that like that, you know, but I mean, having said that, I think that athlete would go down in history, right? Like has the athlete got stopped by a camera?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Knock on wood.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Your favourite sports movie is?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I really like, what's her name? Is it Sandra Bullock, the sports movie about...
BEN WATERWORTH: The Blind Side?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yes, exactly. I'm not into much about like sports movies because, I don't know, I'm more of an action movie rather than just sports or... I don't like romantic comedies, I hate them.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you have an action style? Like are you an Arnie person, you know, sort of more so modern day with like The Rock or someone like that?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, I like action movies. I like like trailers sometimes and I... it's cliche and boring, but I love hero movies. They're just cool.
BEN WATERWORTH: Nothing wrong with that.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: They're just fun, but yeah, no, I don't... Yeah, but The Blind Side is a good one. Like it's more than just the sport, it's really good to see the relationship between peoples and how the characters grow up.
BEN WATERWORTH: Got Sandra and Oscar. So they were doing something right with it. So there you go.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: It's a true story, isn't it?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, it is. It is indeed. And the guy, the footballer, I can't remember his name, but he went on to win a Super Bowl, didn't he, with the Ravens, I think, off the top of my head. So yeah, so always happy endings. If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I've heard one. I have a few places. I love Tokyo so much. First, it's an amazing, amazing place. Japan is great. So if I could go back there, I would. But I don't know if living there would be fun. I would probably choose somewhere warm. I missed training in the warm during the last winter, so I would probably choose somewhere warm.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, just saying, if you move to Tokyo, they could get that knife. I told you, I don't need it anymore. No, come on. You do. You want that knife. Like you would trade an Olympic medal for that knife. It's that precious.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: A friend of mine wanted to, like, send me a link the other day about, like, finding Japanese chef knives.
BEN WATERWORTH: Laurence, before we let you go, if people want to stay up to date with you, sort of what you're up to, anything along those lines, social media, website, where can people sort of stay up to date with you?
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Yeah, I'm mostly on Instagram and Facebook at Laurence Vincent Lapointe. But honestly, like, it's cool. I haven't been as busy on my social medias. But yeah, I'd be glad to see people there, and they can hit me up if they have questions. I'll be glad to answer.
BEN WATERWORTH: You've been busy, so I think you kind of got a very good excuse for that. Can I just say, it has been such a pleasure chatting with you, learning about your story, just everything that you've sort of gone through to get to this point. And such an amazing chat. Congratulations, of course, on the two. Let's hope for many more. I'm saying this now. I know you're not thinking about Paris. I know you want to take a break. But, bugger it, Brisbane, 2032, it's only 11 years away. Come to Australia, you can do that. But, Laurence, seriously, 11 years is nothing.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Sorry, 11 years away, I'll be 40. If I'm still paddling, it's going to be tough a little bit. But I've seen it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Go for it. We had an equestrian rider for Australia at 62 who just won a silver and a bronze medal at his eighth Olympics.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Canoeing is a different sport.
BEN WATERWORTH: You can put a horse on the boat, add a bit of, you know, difference to it and really show them off.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: I've paddled with my dog in my boat before. He could be my new teammate.
BEN WATERWORTH: Work your way up. You want to talk about going viral. If you went to the Olympics with your dog in the boat, you win the Olympics. Like, simple.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: The thing is, yeah, my dog is a little bit old. I'm not going to put him through, you know, Brisbane and the veneers. It's a bit late. Like, it's a bit far.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just say never say never. Laurence, thank you so much. An absolute pleasure to chat with you. And yeah, we really appreciate your time on the show today.
LAURENCE VINCENT LAPOINTE: Thank you.
BEN WATERWORTH: And a massive, massive thanks there to Laurence. Just an incredible story, really, of everything that happened. It's gonna make me rethink kissing people now, and I'm not even an athlete. Maybe I already do rethink kissing people, but just insane to learn that that happened, and that nearly these medals that she's walked away from couldn't have been a thing based on something as simple as giving your boyfriend a kiss. So amazing to think that, but we really do thank Laurence for her time, and such a pleasure to be able to chat with her on the show today. Moving forward, more great episodes coming your way. You want to stay up to date with who we've got on the show, what's coming up. Simply hit us up on social media, Off The Podium, on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. And of course, if you want to subscribe to our channel on different podcasts and platforms. Off The Podium, Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, Stitcher, all the ones out there. Search for us to subscribe, listen to the old episodes, listen to the new episodes, and leave us some feedback. We'd love to hear what you think of the show. Once again, thanks to Laurence. Thanks to you for listening. My name is Ben. This is Off The Podium. We'll speak to you next time. And as always, go left.
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