Vincent De Haître (born June 16, 1994) is a Canadian dual-sport athlete competing as both a

speed skater Speed skating is a competitive form of ice skating in which the competitors racing, race each other in travelling a certain distance on Ice skate, skates. Types of speed skating are long-track speed skating, short-track speed skating, and marath ...

and

track cyclist Track cycling is a bicycle racing sport usually held on specially built banked tracks or velodromes using purpose-designed track bicycles. History Track cycling has been around since at least 1870. When track cycling was in its infancy, it wa ...

who has been in sport since 2000. After competing at his second Olympic games in PyeongChang De Haître made the switch back over to track cycling where he has been competing as a member of the Canadian national team since the fall of 2018 in an effort to qualify for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.

Career

Speed skating

De Haître started in speed skating competing in the

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...

Concordes speed skating club. He looked up to fellow Olympian and Gloucester teammate

Ivanie Blondin Ivanie Blondin (born April 2, 1990) is a Canadian speed skater. She primarily skates in the long distances of 3000 m and 5000 m and the mass start event. Blondin won a silver medal in the mass start event at the 2015 World Single Distance Speed ...

who would sometime compete at the club in her national team uniform to which De Haître looked at as inspiration. He won a silver medal in the 3000m relay at the

2011 Canada Winter Games The 2011 Canada Winter Games were held in Halifax, Nova Scotia, from Friday, 11 February 2011, to Sunday, 27 February 2011. Bids Four bids (all from Nova Scotia, as it was that province's turn) were made for the games, and eventually Halifax was ...

and made his

World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the name is ...

debut in 2013. De Haître qualified to compete as a member of Team Canada at the

2014 Winter Olympics The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially called the XXII Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Sochi 2014 (), were an international winter multi-sport event that was held from 7 to 23 February 2014 in Sochi, Russia. Opening ro ...

Sochi Sochi ( rus, Сочи, p=ˈsotɕɪ, a=Ru-Сочи.ogg, from – ''seaside'') is the largest Resort town, resort city in Russia. The city is situated on the Sochi (river), Sochi River, along the Black Sea in the North Caucasus of Souther ...

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, by winning the 1000m event at the Canadian speed skating trials and finishing third in the 1500m. Along with the 500m race he set three personal bests by a significant margin to qualify. De Haître was the youngest speed skater for team Canada at the 2014 games and surprised himself by qualifying, he said that he was looking ahead to the 2018 games in PyeongChang and not

. De Haître qualified to compete for

Canada at the 2018 Winter Olympics Canada competed at the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, from February 9 to 25, 2018. It was the nation's 23rd appearance at the Winter Olympics, having competed at every Games since their inception in 1924. Canada competed in all ...

Cycling

As a junior, he raced for the Ottawa Bicycle Club's Junior Team in both roads and track disciplines coached by Don Moxley, a team which produced several provincially and nationally successful junior cyclists. On the track, he won the 1 km time trial at the 2013 Canadian Track Championships over

Zachary Bell Zachary "Zach" Bell (born November 14, 1982) is a Canadian former professional racing cyclist, who competed professionally between 2005 and 2015 for the Jet Fuel Coffee–Sympatico, Rite Aid Pro Cycling, , , , , and teams. Born in Whitehorse, Yu ...

. During the 2014 Canadian trials in

Aguascalientes Aguascalientes, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Aguascalientes, is one of the 32 states which comprise the Political divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. At 22°N and with an average altitude of above sea level it is pre ...

, Mexico, De Haître broke the Canadian record per kilometre. Also in 2014, De Haître competed at the 2014 Commonwealth games in Scotland, where he finished fourth in the team spring and seventh in the per-kilometre event.

Personal life

Born in Cumberland, Ontario, De Haître attended

École secondaire catholique Béatrice-Desloges École secondaire catholique Béatrice-Desloges (ESCBD, Béatrice-Desloges Catholic High School) is a French language high school in the community of Orléans, in the eastern part of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The school also houses a community chi ...

, a catholic French art high school, and subsequently attended the

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

to pursue a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree while training with Canada's national long-track team.

Personal records

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:De Haître, Vincent 1994 births Living people Canadian male speed skaters Canadian male cyclists Speed skaters at the 2014 Winter Olympics Speed skaters at the 2018 Winter Olympics Olympic speed skaters for Canada Cyclists at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Commonwealth Games cyclists for Canada Cyclists from Ottawa Speed skaters from Ottawa World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships medalists Olympic cyclists for Canada Cyclists at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Canadian sportsmen