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Émilie Mondor

Running Through Life...

Canadian athlete Émilie Mondor died tragically in September 2006. Culture.ca had previously met this young promising runner in 2004.

Canadians are rather sedentary. But not Émilie Mondor; she competes against the world's greatest athletes in the 1,500 and 5,000 metre events at cross-country and track meets.

This 22-year-old athlete grew up in an environment conducive to outdoor activities. The family home was surrounded by a forest that had cross-country ski trails in the winter and hiking trails in the summer; both of her parents were sports enthusiasts. "All of our vacations were spent skiing or camping. Physical activity was always considered very important," she recalls. Not that long ago when video games were not as popular as they are today, she used to play hockey and football with her neighbours, all boys. "We never played with dolls, we always engaged in very physical sports."

This in no way resembles the lifestyle of today's youth. "The under-15 generation is very sedentary. I am flabbergasted whenever I visit a school. I talk to my former teachers and they tell me that the kids are simply not willing to make an effort."

She opted for endurance running after having tried out all track and field events. "It did not take very long for me to decide to devote myself exclusively to middle-and-long-distance running. When I tried sprint racing, I felt as if I wasn't doing anything, as if I wasn't training. What I really wanted for myself was to train as hard as I could, until I was totally drained."

Émilie Mondor's willingness to run to the point of exhaustion is what enabled the Canadian team to finish third at the 2004 World Cross-Country Championships held in Belgium, a rather remarkable achievement. Émilie came 3rd in the 4-kilometre race and 8th in the 8-kilometre event; suffice it to say that the best cross-country and track runners in the world took part in both events.

"Cross-country running is very demanding physically. It is one of the toughest events in track and field. Having completed the 8-kilometre race, I now realize that it is one of the most demanding events of any sport. It is much more exhausting than a marathon, because it is in fact a very long sprint...Simply making it to the top 10 is extremely difficult given that Kenyan and Ethiopian teams include 12 outstanding runners."

She has great admiration for African athletes who can "run like animals" which, she points out, is a compliment coming from a biology student such as herself. "They are truly superior to us genetically,"she says, referring to the Ethiopians and Kenyans. "They represent several successive generations of children who grew up on farms and who continue to work physically all day and every day. They do not spend their time sitting in front of a computer screen. They are nearly perfect from a biomechanical standpoint. Furthermore, the capital cities of Ethiopia and Kenya are both located at high altitudes. These people have been born at high altitude since the beginning of mankind. Their red blood cells count is probably higher than ours."

Let there be no illusions about Canada's chances of ever becoming a world power in long-distance running—and not only as a consequence of morphological differences. "Running is first and foremost a lifestyle. Many aspects of Canadian culture will need to change if we ever hope to become a running superpower. The Africans who race against me do so as a means of survival. They know that, if they win a medal, they will be able to feed themselves and their families for the next three years. For us, it is simply a sport. If I were to stop running, nothing much would change. In those countries, high-level runners are as important as their King." Incidentally, four million people lined the streets of Addis-Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, to welcome their runners following the World Cross-Country Championships!

The vast majority of high-calibre Canadian athletes go totally unnoticed if they do not happen to be professional athletes. Émilie Mondor has her own theory on this. "Canada is a country that does not create heroes. Everyone is equal. That is what makes it one of the best places to raise a family, but probably one of the worst for athletes or artists, or for anyone who rises above the crowd."

According to Émilie Mondor, we are glaringly different from our American neighbours who adulate arrogant and confrontational athletes. "If Maurice Greene (the 100-metre champion) was Canadian, he would likely be one of the most despised athletes in the country given our cultural differences. We prefer athletes who are kind, attractive, humble, and who speak with the people. That's the Canadian way."

It is not surprising then that amateur Canadian athletes have such a hard time finding sponsors. "What is lacking in Canada is outside support. It is very difficult to find private sponsors. I am sponsored by Adidas International, a firm located in Germany." Her only Canadian sponsor is a British Colombia company specializing in natural products. 

Interview conducted in March 2004