Elise Marcotte wants to help other young athletes down the same road she followed to the biggest stage in sports.
The former two-time Olympian is spending her post-career time trying to use her own international experience to help grow the profile of the synchronized swimming by travelling across the country and working with various swim programs.
“My goal is to help the sport and make us reach a better level,” Marcotte said during a break in working with the Thunder Bay Synchro club’s junior team on Sunday morning at the Lakehead University pool.
“We need to have many kids to get good at the international level so my goal is to work with other retired Olympians to get in touch with the kids and show how it’s possible to make it there.”
Marcotte, 25, knows how important it is for the girls to have a role model in the sport.
Growing up in Quebec, she credited the tutelage of 2000 Olympic bronze medalist Lyne Beaumont as being a figure she looked up to.
Still, she’s not used to thinking of herself in that capacity.
“It’s kind of hard to see yourself as a role model, but I hope that’s the way I am for them,” Marcotte said. “For me, I’m just a normal person that shares my passion with them.”
Marcotte worked with Lisa Butler, the club’s head coach, to improve technique, acrobatics and make changes to the choreography.
This weekend marked the first time the two-time world champion medalist has been to Thunder Bay.
She said she was impressed city’s program and the number of girls involved and said it appeared to be a “healthy” club.
If nothing else, she wants to her story to instill the value of perseverance and dedication.
“That’s many years of training,” she said of her career.
“I started to swim just like that when I was five or six-years-old and I made my way through the national level and national teams and made it to the Olympics by working hard. When you work hard anything is possible.”
