Alexandre Despatie
Encyclopedia
Alexandre Despatie is a Canadian diver
from Laval, Quebec
. He was the World champion at the 1 and 3 m springboards from 2005 to 2007 and is the first, and so far only, diver to have been World champion in the three categories (1, 3 and 10 m platform). He is also a 36-time Canadian senior diving champion. He was born in Montreal
, Quebec
, Canada.
Despatie began diving
at the age of 5 in his own backyard pool.
He 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-metre 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 2001 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, followed by three gold medals at the 2003 Pan American Games
in Santo Domingo
, Dominican Republic
.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics
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 result 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 3 metre springboard.
In front of his home crowd at the 2005 World Aquatic Championships 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. Despatie followed up on that performance by winning the 1 m 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-meter springboard title at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
in Melbourne
, and also won gold medals on 1 m springboard and 3 m synchronized with Arturo Miranda
. He finished 3rd in the 10m platform.
Returning to Melbourne, this time for the 2007 World Aquatics Championships
, Despatie went head to head with the best divers in the world, including the top-ranked Chinese diving team. Finishing 8th in the 10 m tower event and winning silver medals in the 3 m event and the 3 m synchro with partner Arturo Miranda, Despatie proved that he is still one of the best divers in the world.
At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he claimed a silver medal
in the 3m springboard event and finished in 5th place
in the 3m synchro event.
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games
. Alexander got 3 gold medals for Canada, in the 1 meter and 3 meter springboard, and 3 meter synchronized springboard dive. He thrilled Canadian audiences and made himself one of the best divers in the world. This also brings his total medal count to 9 medals.
. 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, although he is also known to support groups and aspiring divers and to help them fulfill their dreams through private contributions to youth diving leagues. He has held diving clinics which aim to give young divers lessons and valuable experience. Young divers who have been involved include Sam Hood (from Perkiomen Valley High School in Arizona), Ryan Fagan (from Thomas Jefferson High School in California), Dean Frias (from Theodore Roosevelt High School in Texas), Cassidy Krug (from Montour High School in California), Katie Lewis (from Central Bucks East High School in Georgia), and Grace Coyle (from Pocono Mountain HS in Pennsylvania).
In August 2006, Despatie started shooting his first feature film in Montreal. The movie, a teenage romantic comedy called À vos marques! Party! (On your mark! Party!) was released in Quebec in March 2007. Despatie played a small but important part of a diver who is the friend and confidant of a young female swimmer. Quebec actress Louise Laparé coached Despatie for his role and told a Montreal newspaper that the popular
He has since moved towards a career in broadcasting, joining the broadcast team for Canada's French-language television coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver
during a brief break from training for the 2012 Games. He co-anchored the coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies alongside legendary Quebec hockey commentators Richard Garneau and Pierre Houde
, narrated numerous athlete profiles, and took viewers on a tour of Granville Island
, where many francophone musicians performed during the Olympics.
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
from Laval, Quebec
Laval, Quebec
Laval is a Canadian city and a region in southwestern Quebec. It is the largest suburb of Montreal, the third largest municipality in the province of Quebec, and the 14th largest city in Canada with a population of 368,709 in 2006...
. He was the World champion at the 1 and 3 m springboards from 2005 to 2007 and is the first, and so far only, diver to have been World champion in the three categories (1, 3 and 10 m platform). He is also a 36-time Canadian senior diving champion. He was born in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada.
Despatie began diving
Diving
Diving is the sport of jumping or falling into water from a platform or springboard, sometimes while performing acrobatics. Diving is an internationally-recognized sport that is part of the Olympic Games. In addition, unstructured and non-competitive diving is a recreational pastime.Diving is one...
at the age of 5 in his own backyard pool.
He first came to public attention at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
1998 Commonwealth Games
The 1998 XVI Commonwealth Games were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 11 September to 21 September 1998 making it the first Asian country to act as host and the last Commonwealth Games for the 20th century. A record 70 nations supplied 3638 athletes...
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
2000 Summer Olympics
The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...
in Sydney in 2000, with a 4th place finish at the 10-metre platform
Diving at the 2000 Summer Olympics
At the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, eight diving events were contested for the first time due to the inclusion of synchronized variants for each of the traditional events...
, he was offered the chance to compete in the springboard
Springboard
A springboard or diving board is used for diving and is a board that is itself a spring, i.e. a linear flex-spring, of the cantilever type....
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 2001 in Fukuoka
Fukuoka, Fukuoka
is the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture and is situated on the northern shore of the island of Kyushu in Japan.Voted number 14 in a 2010 poll of the World's Most Livable Cities, Fukuoka is praised for its green spaces in a metropolitan setting. It is the most populous city in Kyushu, followed by...
, Japan in the same event, and in 2003 won a gold medal at the World Diving Championships in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
, Spain in the 10 metre platform. He recorded 107.1 for his last dive, which set a new record.
At the 2002 Commonwealth Games
2002 Commonwealth Games
The 2002 Commonwealth Games were held in Manchester, England from 25 July to 4 August 2002. The XVII Commonwealth Games was the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the UK, eclipsing London's 1948 Summer Olympics in numbers of teams and athletes participating.After the 1996 Manchester...
in Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, Despatie won the gold medal in the three-metre springboard event, followed by three gold medals at the 2003 Pan American Games
Diving at the 2003 Pan American Games
This page shows the results of the Diving Competition for men and women at the 2003 Pan American Games, held from August 6 to August 10, 2003 in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic...
in Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
, Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
.
At the 2004 Summer Olympics
2004 Summer Olympics
The 2004 Summer Olympic Games, officially known as the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad, was a premier international multi-sport event held in Athens, Greece from August 13 to August 29, 2004 with the motto Welcome Home. 10,625 athletes competed, some 600 more than expected, accompanied by 5,501 team...
in Athens, Greece, he won the silver medal
Diving at the 2004 Summer Olympics
At the 2004 Summer Olympics, in Athens, eight diving events were contested during a competition that took place at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, from 20 to 28 August , comprising a total of 125 divers from 30 nations.-Men:-Women:-Medal table:-Participating nations:Here are listed the nations that...
in the men's 3 metre springboard competition, but finished out of the medal standings in fourth place
Diving at the 2004 Summer Olympics
At the 2004 Summer Olympics, in Athens, eight diving events were contested during a competition that took place at the Olympic Aquatic Centre, from 20 to 28 August , comprising a total of 125 divers from 30 nations.-Men:-Women:-Medal table:-Participating nations:Here are listed the nations that...
in the 10 metre platform. This result 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 3 metre springboard.
In front of his home crowd at the 2005 World Aquatic Championships in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, 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. Despatie followed up on that performance by winning the 1 m springboard, with a world record score of 489.69. His victory meant that he had won FINA
Fina
Fina may refer to:*Fina, a character in the Skies of Arcadia video game*FINA, the International Swimming Federation*FINA, the North American Forum on Integration...
World Titles on both springboard and platform.
Despatie successfully defended his three-meter springboard title at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
2006 Commonwealth Games
The 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia between 15 March and 26 March 2006. It was the largest sporting event to be staged in Melbourne, eclipsing the 1956 Summer Olympics in terms of the number of teams competing, athletes competing, and events being held.The site...
in Melbourne
Melbourne
Melbourne is the capital and most populous city in the state of Victoria, and the second most populous city in Australia. The Melbourne City Centre is the hub of the greater metropolitan area and the Census statistical division—of which "Melbourne" is the common name. As of June 2009, the greater...
, and also won gold medals on 1 m springboard and 3 m synchronized with Arturo Miranda
Arturo Miranda
Arturo Miranda is a Canadian diver and former vice-champion of the world in the synchronized springboard.Miranda finished in 5th in the synchronized 3m springboard event at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing with former world champion Alexandre Despatie. He was born in Havana, Cuba.- External...
. He finished 3rd in the 10m platform.
Returning to Melbourne, this time for the 2007 World Aquatics Championships
2007 World Aquatics Championships
The 2007 World Aquatics Championships or the XII FINA World Championships were held in Melbourne, Australia from 17 March to 1 April 2007...
, Despatie went head to head with the best divers in the world, including the top-ranked Chinese diving team. Finishing 8th in the 10 m tower event and winning silver medals in the 3 m event and the 3 m synchro with partner Arturo Miranda, Despatie proved that he is still one of the best divers in the world.
At the Beijing Olympics in 2008, he claimed a silver medal
Diving at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Diving competitions at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics were held from August 10 to August 23, at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre.- Competition format :The following events were contested by both men and women in Beijing:...
in the 3m springboard event and finished in 5th place
Diving at the 2008 Summer Olympics
Diving competitions at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics were held from August 10 to August 23, at the Beijing National Aquatics Centre.- Competition format :The following events were contested by both men and women in Beijing:...
in the 3m synchro event.
At the 2010 Commonwealth Games
2010 Commonwealth Games
The 2010 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games, were held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 2010. A total of 6,081 athletes from 71 Commonwealth nations and dependencies competed in 21 sports and 272 events, making it the largest Commonwealth Games till date...
. Alexander got 3 gold medals for Canada, in the 1 meter and 3 meter springboard, and 3 meter synchronized springboard dive. He thrilled Canadian audiences and made himself one of the best divers in the world. This also brings his total medal count to 9 medals.
Personal life
Despatie attends Collège André-Grasset and lives with his parents in Laval-sur-le-LacLaval-sur-le-Lac
Laval-sur-le-Lac is a small neighbourhood on the western-end part of Laval and was a separate city until the municipal mergers on August 6, 1965.- Geography :...
. In an interview with the CBC
Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, commonly known as CBC and officially as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian crown corporation that serves as the national public radio and television broadcaster...
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, although he is also known to support groups and aspiring divers and to help them fulfill their dreams through private contributions to youth diving leagues. He has held diving clinics which aim to give young divers lessons and valuable experience. Young divers who have been involved include Sam Hood (from Perkiomen Valley High School in Arizona), Ryan Fagan (from Thomas Jefferson High School in California), Dean Frias (from Theodore Roosevelt High School in Texas), Cassidy Krug (from Montour High School in California), Katie Lewis (from Central Bucks East High School in Georgia), and Grace Coyle (from Pocono Mountain HS in Pennsylvania).
In August 2006, Despatie started shooting his first feature film in Montreal. The movie, a teenage romantic comedy called À vos marques! Party! (On your mark! Party!) was released in Quebec in March 2007. Despatie played a small but important part of a diver who is the friend and confidant of a young female swimmer. Quebec actress Louise Laparé coached Despatie for his role and told a Montreal newspaper that the popular
He has since moved towards a career in broadcasting, joining the broadcast team for Canada's French-language television coverage of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
during a brief break from training for the 2012 Games. He co-anchored the coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies alongside legendary Quebec hockey commentators Richard Garneau and Pierre Houde
Pierre Houde
Pierre Houde is a Canadian play-by-play sports announcer for RDS. He has announced broadcasts of Montreal Canadiens games since 1989. Over the years he was partnered with Pierre Bouchard and Yvon Pedneault. Since 2007, his partner has been former Canadiens player Benoit Brunet...
, narrated numerous athlete profiles, and took viewers on a tour of Granville Island
Granville Island
Granville Island is a peninsula and shopping district in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is located in False Creek directly across from Downtown Vancouver's peninsula, under the south end of the Granville Street Bridge....
, where many francophone musicians performed during the Olympics.