Making the impossible look easy is part of Cirque du Soleil’s enchantment.
A group of Canadian swimmers hope that getting touched by Cirque du Soleil’s magic will be part of a winning formula that produces podiums finishes at next summer’s London Olympics.
A dozen members of the national swim team will spend several days at a training camp in Las Vegas next month where they will meet with coaches and performers involved with the world-famous entertainment company.
Annamay Pierse, a world-record holder in the breaststroke, has attended Cirque performances. She’s come away not only amazed at the athleticism but awed by the mental discipline involved.
“They have to be the top athletes around,” Pierse said in an interview Wednesday. “The way they can do 400 shows a year and always perform.
“They have to do it properly otherwise it’s dangerous. That has be hard mentally, let alone physically. Just seeing how they can do that might help out with my training in my year coming into the Olympics.”
At first glance it might be difficult to draw a parallel between competing for an Olympic medal and the gravity-defying stunts and body-twisting movements performed at the various Cirque du Soleil shows.
Pierre Lafontaine, Swimming Canada’s chief executive officer and national coach, believes there’s a perfect connection.
“Their business is performance on demand,” said Lafontaine. “Every day they have to be the best in the world.
“It’s the attention to detail on a day-to-day basis. We are going to meet with their coaches and their artists. We are going to attend their training sessions, talk to them about performance on demand.”
Get daily National news
Line Giasson, Cirque du Soleil’s senior casting director, said the Montreal-based performance company is excited about the opportunity.
Cirque employs about 1,300 performers from around the world. Of those, around 50 per cent are former world-class athletes including 23 former Olympians.
“It’s giving back,” said Giasson. “We are taking lots of athletes from around the world.”
This won’t be the first time Cirque du Soleil has lent a hand to Canadian Olympians.
Members of the long track speedskating team spent time with Cirque coaches and performers in Las Vegas prior to the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Coach Marcel Lacroix has no doubt that contributed to Lucas Makowsky and Dennis Morrison being part of the team that won the gold medal in the men’s pursuit in Vancouver.
Lacroix said the skaters saw how the Cirque performers were able to eliminate distractions and concentrate on the job at hand.
“Cirque du Soleil is extreme but they are the same as us,” Lacroix said. “They just need to focus on the execution, nothing else.
“They didn’t focus on the crowd, they didn’t focus on if I fall I might die. They were just focusing on the execution of the performance.”
The swimmers are expected to spend time with performers from the show KA. The production is an innovative blend of acrobatic feats, dance and martial arts.
Giasson said there is an intense mental preparation for the show.
“An artist has a routine he has to put in place to perform,” she said.
Pierce said honing your mind can be as important as strengthening your body when looking for an edge in the water.
“Swimming isn’t a life or death situation, but in a race you need to perform,” said the Edmonton native who has battled illness and injury the last year.
“To be a top athlete it takes everything. It’s always the people who have that mental edge who break through.”
Giasson said the Cirque performers will also benefit.
“They could have some exchange on the way they train, how they prepare,” she said. “There is gain on both sides.”
Other swimmers attending the Sept. 6-10 Las Vegas training camp include Ryan Cochrane, an Olympic bronze medallist who won two silver medals at the recent world swim championships in Shanghai, China; Martha McCabe, a bronze medallist at the world championships; and Julia Wilkinson, a Canadian record holder in backstroke and the individual medley.
Besides workouts in the pool, the swimmers will do some rock climbing in Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas as a team-building exercise.
Cochrane’s bronze medal in the 1,500 metres at the 2008 Beijing Games broke an eight-year Olympic drought for Canadian swimmers. The team won four medals at the world championships.
Lafontaine said the time spent working with Cirque du Soleil fits into the team’s London training motto of TNT, which means “Today, Not Tomorrow.”
“Olympic medals are an offshoot of a tremendous preparation where the outcome is a great performance at the international level,” he said.
“For us partnering up with an organization like Cirque du Soleil is very much building on TNT. Make today the most important day of your preparation.”
Giasson said Cirque will be thrilled if it can add to Canada’s medal haul at the Olympics.
“There is always satisfaction when there is a Canadian going to the Olympics and having a medal,” she said.
“If we can be a little part of the success of someone … we will be proud of that.”
Comments
Want to discuss? Please read our Commenting Policy first.