The Olympic afterglow
The Canadian Olympic team came home with 18 Olympic medals. Concordia’s own Olympic athletes may not have earned Olympic gold, bronze or silver, but their gutsy performances earned them a lot of new fans, and they can look back with pride on an experience that few of us will ever enjoy: competing for their country at the greatest sporting tournament on the planet.
Fencing
Fencer Philippe Beaudry, a finance student at Concordia, was competing at the Olympics for the second time in London. He lost his opening bout in the sabre competition against Belarusian Dmitri Lapkes in the Round of 32.
“I fenced well. It was a good bout,” Beaudry said after the Games over the phone from Belgium where he is enjoying some time off before returning to classes. “I had a good start, and I was leading at half-time. The second half, he made some adjustments. I didn’t react, or change my tactics as quickly as I should have maybe, and he won the bout."
Beaudry had some great results prior to the Olympics, including a gold medal at the 2011 Pan-Am Games. He said he felt much more prepared, both mentally and physically, than he had when he competed in Beijing.
“It wasn’t as overwhelming as Beijing,” he says. “I knew what to expect. And I was very lucky that I had some family come over to cheer me on, so I had a lot of support.”
Although Beaudry didn’t achieve the result he was hoping for (earning a spot on the podium, or at least equalling his previous top-16 finish at the World Championships) the 25-year-old Montreal native says he had a great time competing for Canada in London.
“It was the end of a big journey for me. To qualify for a second time was a dream come true,” he says. “The Canadian support staff team was really great. We had a lot of support. Mark Tewksbury was a great chief. He put a lot of emotion into it, and made everybody feel like cheering everyone on; all the other Canadian teams. “
Now that the dust has settled, Beaudry will return to classes at Concordia full time, and take some time to enjoy other sports before deciding whether he’ll try to qualify for the Rio Olympics in 2016. “It’s four years of work, in those four years all you think about is qualifying,” he says. “I’m going to try and forget about fencing for a while before going back into it, and then I’ll decide.”
Wrestling
He may have lost his opening Olympic match against Turkish wrestler Ahmet Peker, but Concordia Stingers wrestler David Tremblay’s Facebook fan page was inundated with comments congratulating him on his great performance and encouraging him to look forward to the next Olympic Games.
“David, we are so proud of you! You are a great role model for us all,” wrote one fan. “Can't wait to see you in action in the 2016 games in Rio. Great job!”
Following his tough loss, Tremblay, the 2011 senior national champion and 2012 Olympic trials winner, thanked his legions of fans. “You have all touched me with your inspirational words of encouragement,” he wrote. “You have made my Olympic experience something more than sport."
It was the 24-year-old’s first appearance at the Olympics, and he faced a tough opponent in Peker, who was named the best junior wrestler in 2009 by the International Federation of Associated Wrestling Styles (FILA).
Peker managed a takedown in the final seconds of the first round to earn a point. Tremblay needed to win the next round to force a third. It wasn’t to be. Tremblay earned a point with a low ankle grab, but then Peker managed to force Tremblay out of bounds to earn the round’s final point. With the score tied, the round goes to the wrestler who scored last, which was Peker.
“The end result was not what I wanted, and not what you all expected,” Tremblay wrote on his Facebook page after the match. “But we can only do better from this performance in Rio 2016.”
The native of Stoney Point, Ontario, will return to Concordia this fall to continue his studies in leisure sciences. He will take up with wrestling coach Victor Zilberman, who was also in London as part of Canada’s coaching staff, and hopes to earn his fifth straight gold medal at the Canadian university championships.
Former Stingers wrestler Martine Dugrenier (BSc 02, GrDip 08) also competed in the London Olympics, losing the bronze medal match in the 63-kilogram freestyle event to Battsetseg Soronzonbold of Mongolia.
In her opening match, the Canadian faced her nemesis, Kaori Icho, who beat her in Beijing. Dugrenier dropped the first round to Icho, then surrendered a 1-0 lead in the dying seconds of the second round, losing the match.
Dugrenier won her repechage match against Sweden’s Henna Johnansson, which put her in the bronze medal final against Soronzonbold. Despite having hold of the Mongolian’s leg several times, Dugrenier could not manage a takedown, and was forced out of bounds and onto the mat. In the second round, Soronzonbold spun Dugrenier onto the mat to earn the round’s only point and the bronze medal.
After the match, Dugrenier expressed frustration that even though she was the more aggressive of the two, her opponent got the better of her.
“This bronze medal I lost in two rounds, but it was from my attacks, it was not from her attacks,” she told Arthur. This fall, Dugrenier will return to her role as an assistant coach with the Concordia team.
Table Tennis
Canadian table tennis champion Pierre-Luc Hinse, an anthropology student who transferred from the University of Ottawa and will begin classes at Concordia this fall, also competed in the Olympics.
In the singles competition in London, Hinse lost a tight match to Latvian Matiss Burgis, 4-3.
Hinse earned his spot on the Olympic team after beating American Timothy Wang in the final match of a qualifying tournament in April. He also represented Canada in London during the team event alongside Andre Ho and Eugene Wang. The event consists of four singles matches and one doubles match. The 24-year-old Gatineau native played in a third and decisive doubles contest with Ho against Japan, losing 3-0.
Judo
With his first bout scheduled for the following day, judoka Sasha Mehmedovic, an education student at Concordia, opted to skip the Opening Ceremonies at the London Olympics. “I stayed back, and tried to rest and stay focused,” said the 27-year-old who also competed in Beijing in 2008, where he finished ninth.
Feeling more prepared and relaxed than he had four years ago, Mehmedovic was hoping for a medal in the 66-kilogram category, or at least a top-five finish. “I went in there fully focused, confident, and I did the best I could. But it didn’t come out as planned.”
The veteran fighter beat his first opponent, Carlos Figueroa of El Salvador, 10-0 in the preliminary round, but then found himself up against medal favourite and defending world champion Ebinuma Masashi from Japan.
Mehmedovic had fought Masashi before and felt prepared to take him on, but the Japanese judoka came out strong and outfought the Canadian to advance, eventually winning the bronze medal.
Although he was disappointed by his result, Mehmedovic says he had a great time at the London Olympics. “Overall, the atmosphere was amazing,” he said. “The highlight was being with my team and soaking up the whole Olympic experience.”
Ever since Mehmedovic’s family fled war-torn Yugoslavia when he was eight, judo has played a major part in his family’s life. Teaching the sport was his father’s first job in Canada. Mehmedovic took to judo as a youngster, and by the age of 12 had set his sights on the Olympics.
With his loss to Masashi in London, Mehmedovic lost his status as a carded athlete, and his funding, but the veteran judoka says he’s not about to give up on his dream of an Olympic medal. “I’m not ready to retire yet, so I’m going to have to figure something out. Maybe I’ll get a job or something.” In the meantime, he’ll return to Concordia as a full-time student in the fall.
Finance student Sergio Pessoa lost his first match in the men’s 60-kilogram judo competition at the London Games. Pessoa, ranked 15th by the International Judo Federation’s Olympic rankings, was one of the most promising members of the Canadian team.
After receiving a bye in the first round, the Montrealer lost to Kazakhstan’s Yerkebulan Kossayev in the Round of 32. Neither judoka registered a score in regulation, nor the three minutes of extra time. The round ended in what’s known as "hantei," which is the majority decision of the referee and the two corner judges, and the three determined Kossayev to be the winner.
Speaking with the press after the match, the 24-year-old vowed to return for the Rio Games in 2016.
This story has been updated to include athlete Sasha Mehmedovic.
Related links:
• “Concordian goes for gold at London Olympics” — NOW, July 27, 2012
• Pierre-Luc Hinse competes at the North American Olympic Trials