|
Alexandre Despatie Profile |
|
-
Birth Date: June 8, 1985
-
Birth Place: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
-
Birth Name: Alexandre Despatie
|
|
|
Biography |
Alexandre Despatie is a French Canadian diver. He began
diving at age five (in his own backyard pool), and in the
2000 Summer Olympics finished in 4th place in the 10 metre
platform.
Alexandre first came to public attention at the 1998
Commonwealth Games with an extremely impressive gold medal
on the 10 metre platform (which included an unprecedented
score of perfect 10s). He was only 13 years old at the time,
and the achievement was recorded in the Guinness Book Of
World Records 2000.
At the Olympic games in Sydney in 2000, with a 4th place
finish at the 10-meter platform, he was offered the chance
to compete in the springboard event in those games as well
when one of the Canadian divers had to withdraw from the
meet due to complications with his citizenship, but declined
because he had not been training for that event.
He won the silver medal at the world championships in 2002
in Fukuoka, Japan in the same event, and in 2003 won a gold
medal at the World Diving championships in Barcelona, Spain
in the 10 metre platform. He recorded 107.1 for his last
dive, which set a new record.
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, Despatie won
the gold medal in the three-metre springboard event.
At the Olympics in 2004 in Athens, Greece, he won the silver
medal in the men's 3 metre springboard competition, but
finished out of the medal standings in fourth place in the
10 metre platform. This finish was contrary to expectations
going into the games, where he was expected to win silver or
gold in 10 metre platform and not place in the springboard.
In front of his home crowd at the World Aquatic
Championships 2005 in Montreal, he became World Champion on
the 3 metre springboard. He won with a world record score of
813.60 points, his "worst" dive being rated an average 8.5.
Alexandre followed up on that performance by winning the 1m
springboard, with a world record score of 489.69. His
victory meant that he had won FINA World Titles on both
springboard and platform.
Despatie successfully defended his three-metre springboard
title at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, again
winning a gold medal. He won 3 gold medals in Melbourne (1m
springboard, 3m springboard and 3m synchronized with Arturo
Miranda. He finished 4th in the 10m platform.
Despatie has a sponsorship agreement with McDonald's, and
acts as an "ambassador", doing television advertisements and
personal apperances.
Alexandre attends Collège André-Grasset and lives with his
parents in Laval-sur-le-Lac, Quebec. In an interview with
the CBC in the lead-up to the 2004 Olympics, he said he was
interested in acting and television/movie production, and
may pursue that as a career once he is no longer diving. |
|
|
|
