(Montreal) Alizée Brien has long been a high-level road cyclist. She hung up her bike in 2020 in order to concentrate her efforts on her studies at Polytechnique Montréal. Three years later, she is now studying psychology and preparing to represent Canada at the Pan American Games in Santiago… in rowing!
Over the last decade, Alizée Brien has mainly ridden in the pelotons in North America under the colors of the American team Tibco-SVB. She has several appearances in races in Europe and South America, in addition to having participated in the Junior World Championships in 2011.
How did she end up among the Canadian rowing elite? In a telephone interview from the National Training Center in Duncan, British Columbia, the Val-David athlete looks back on his sporting journey which was strongly influenced by pivotal life moments.
Alizée Brien began rowing in her last years of cycling, when she rode more on the provincial scene than internationally.
“I needed something new and I saw that I would not achieve my goal of going to the Olympics. My cycling coach at the time, Chris Rozdilsky, and two college friends who were rowers suggested I try rowing. It was more to take my mind off things, but I was still riding a bike that I wasn’t ready to let go. »
She obtained her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, began her “normal life” and worked as a junior engineer. No more sports, even at the recreational level.
Summer 2021 is a key moment for her. Drained by her years of cycling competitions, she is also going through a difficult time on a personal level. In moments of questioning like these, some experience them in a closed retreat or in therapy. For Alizée Brien, it was in the form of a solo cyclocamping trip in Newfoundland that she experienced it.
“It was a return on my own to what I was really passionate about and that allowed me to realize what I liked and what I didn’t like. »
It was when she was driving in less remote areas of the island that she had access to cellular network or hotel rooms. So she took the opportunity to watch the Tokyo Olympics on her cell phone. And it is at this moment that the appeal of high-level sport begins to be reborn.
“I thought I was watching the Games a little detached and thinking that I had tried hard to fulfill my dream of going there by bike. I thought I was ready to let go of this dream and that I was okay with it. »
When she returned from vacation, she contacted her former coach at the Montreal Rowing Club, Joe Rochon. Both sitting on camping chairs on the edge of the Olympic basin on Île Notre-Dame, Brien asks him: “Let’s say I tell you that I want to come back to rowing, but 100% to make the team national and go to the Olympics, would you tell me I’m completely crazy and I shouldn’t try? »
“He told me: ‘There is no guarantee (of success), but I am ready to embark on this project with you 100%. We can try.”[…] In the space of a month, I quit my job, went back to study psychology, moved and returned to rowing to try to get to the Olympic Games. »
In the summer of 2022, Alizée Brien “came out of nowhere,” as she puts it, when she won her two races at the Canadian Henley (the single scull and the Championship single scull), the Canadian University Championships, in addition to win the title of female athlete of the year on the circuit. The Canadian Championships followed in November where she placed fourth in the single scull A final.
Its results created a certain commotion in the rowing community which quickly gave way to healthy curiosity. “People are intrigued by my background and when they get to know me, they think it’s cool. There is a lot of support in rowing and I am not the only one with a particular background. »
At 30, the athlete feels that she now has the perspective to know what she wants. What she wants is a place at the Paris Olympics, even if she has not yet rowed a single stroke in a World Cup event.
The Pan American Games in Santiago do not count in the Olympic qualification process, but they will be an important step for her, as she will row in crew boats for the first time: the quadruple sculls and the eight. The one who will be the only Quebec rower in Chile knows that she must continue to progress in terms of her technique, where she is not yet at the same level as her teammates.
“That’s what blocks me the most. I have it in my legs and in my head, but I can’t go any faster because I don’t have the technical elements developed enough yet… but it’s coming! »
On the other hand, her cycling background means that she is already an athlete who can surpass herself in difficult conditions: “All the three or four hour bike races I have done in hail or at 3 degrees, now when I’m asked to do an hour and a half rain training in a boat, it’s OK. »
The rower also adds this feeling of lightness which is much more present than in her former sport.
“When cycling there was so much risk of falls and injuries, plus the issue of eating disorders. In rowing, if you capsize, it’s smooth. Before your race, you don’t have the stress of getting a plateau in the face or breaking a vertebra on a descent at 90 km/h. It’s just lighter. Rowing is also a much more inclusive sport for all body types and I find it to be healthier. »
He who risks nothing gains nothing and Alizée Brien embodies it well. Whether or not she achieves her goal of becoming an Olympian, she knows she made the right choice.
“Every day I almost pinch myself, I can’t believe it and I’m definitely where I want to be right now! I’m so happy to have the chance to do this. »
