Forever Fit
My Favourite Lifetime Athletes and Forever Fit Friends
Over time I've had the opportunity and pleasure of coaching many cross country skiers and competitive cyclists. Some went on to the provincial and national teams. Others, who had worked just as hard, never attained national status but learned through hard work that they were able to push themselves to their genetic potential. The work ethic and personal sacrifices they applied stayed with them through college and university or at their chosen careers. Sports served them well. Of all of them my favourites are those who made sport a healthy lifestyle and today still train and stay fit after their competitive careers are over. It's my pleasure to introduce some of them to you.
Anne-Marie Dozois
Anne-Marie road raced as a teenager. Her success was immediate. She eventually became an elite road racer, then a top 5 national mountain biker. When I was helping her with her training programs I use to like to call her "my little mountain goat" so great are her mountain bike climbing abilities. She retired from racing when the pressures of her career did not permit her the hours of training required to compete at the elite level. Still today her fitness is such that she could still race with the best of them if challenged. Aside from riding both road and mountain bikes, Anne-Marie is an accomplished cross country skier and active runner. A new hobby of late has been motorcycle trials. She sure has a great joy for life, is game to try almost any new sport and never seems to age.
Rene Dufour
We've known Rene since he was a junior competitor with the Viking Ski Club of Morin Heights. Today Rene still manages to train on a regular basis. He competes yearly in a half dozen or so loppets making the Gatineau Loppet his main yearly objective. He has also skied the Marchiolonga, Engadin, Birkenbeinerrennet, Konig Ludwig Lauf and Jizerska Padesatka in Europe and Scandinavia as well as the Kangaroo Hoppet in Australia. His technical skills are his strongest asset, excelling in both the classic and skating techniques. Over the years Rene has become a valuable source of information to local skiers in their choice of skis, waxes and clothing. His love of the sport is evident to everyone he meets and his enthusiasm is contagious. These past years Rene has taken up running and his first running challenges were two half marathons and then the 2008 Paris Marathon. In 2009 he also did the American Berkenbeiner. In 2010 he raced the Dolomitenlauf in Austria and quite a few North American Loppets.
Youri Juteau
Youri started racing for the xc-ski team I was then coaching when he was 13 years old. He was completely dedicated to his training and racing. In his late junior years he eventually had to cut back on his training and concentrate on his fulltime engineering studies. After graduating from university he moved on to cycling as a cat. 3 rider. His specialty became Time Trialing where he did very well. He later discovered roller blading and long and short track speed skating where he now excels. Youri has now undertaken his coaching certification process in speed skating so that he can share his knowledge and enthusiasm with others. He presently trains the master skaters for the Club des maitres-patineurs de Montréal at CPVMA Club. He has adopted the fitness lifestyle and intends to continue on as a master athlete.
Eric Kotlarsky
As a boy he was into all kinds of sports. Later on as a teenager he was an alpine ski racer. In all of these sports Eric always tried to excel and be the best he could. He set goals and was intense at trying to achieve them. Eric's bicycle racing career began later in life. One summer, while he was still Alpine racing, he decided to do a mountain bike race to help stay in shape for the following winter's upcoming ski racing season. What an eye opener that was! His endurance was way below par but he enjoyed it so much that he stopped alpine racing and started XC skiing to be better prepared for the next season's mountain bike races. His natural abilities on the bike, his great body strength and his "caution to the wind" style of riding helped him progress at a rapid rate. He had a short but successful racing career as a master rider. A lower back injury has prevented him from further racing but he rides and trains on a regular basis. Winter free time is spent cross-country skiing. Lately he has been concentrating on the classical technique. Eric's energy, astuteness and visionary qualities have served him well in his professional career in the sporting equipment industry.
