Athlete profile: Nicolas Fontaine

Posted: Tue February 3, 1998 at 5:00 PM ET

Athlete notes

Fontaine enters Nagano as the world champion, the 1997 overall World Cup title-holder, and a man looking for redemption...after winning a silver medal in Albertville, where aerials was a demonstration Events, Fontaine finished in a disappointing sixth place in Lillehammer..."In Albertville, it was the first time I was performing a triple with four twists, and I got lucky to land them," says Fontaine. "The '93 season was really bad for me (he finished eighth in the overall World Cup standings) but I won the first two World Cups of the ‘93-94 season and the expectations were high. I was still not really confident at the time (of the Lillehammer Games) -- Philippe Laroche (the 1992 Olympic champion) was a lot better than me. It was really hard for me to imagine winning the Events with him there"...after the 1994 Winter Games, Fontaine put together a four-year plan to reach the top of the aerials world in time for the next Olympics..."I just wanted to improve," he explains, "and I decided right then and there to do two triples with quad twists"...Fontaine had to endure two relatively sub-par seasons but peaked one year ahead of schedule..."The two previous years (‘94-'95 and ‘95-'96) I could do no better than third," says Fontaine, who was hampered, in part, by a broken ankle suffered at a ski show in London in November 1994, causing him to miss the first two months of the World Cup season. "I sat down and thought why cannot I do better? It was a confidence problem"...once Dr. Fontaine had made his diagnosis, the treatment was obvious -- "I realized that I would only win doing two triples (with four twists)," he says. "When I push myself to the maximum, I can win"...Fontaine used both his full-double full-full and double full-full-full in competition throughout last year, including at the World Championships in Nagano, where he nipped American Eric Bergoust for the title..."I usually do the full-double full-full first because I have more confidence in it and I like to take the lead," says Fontaine, who had a 10-point lead entering the second jump at last year's Worlds. "I need more power when I do the two twists on the first flip"...earning the title of "world champion," besides bringing Fontaine more notoriety in Quebec and sponsorship stability, fulfilled a lifelong dream..."I never really felt 100 percent part of the "Quebec Air Force," says Fontaine, referring to the moniker given to 1980s Quebecois aerials luminaries including Laroche and his three brothers, and Jean-Marc Rozon, the 1988 Olympic winner (when aerials also was a demonstration sport), "because they were all world champions. Now people are looking at me like Philippe Laroche"...Fontaine names three heroes -- Laroche, with whom he used to room on the road, Rozon, and current teammate Lloyd Langlois, who also hails from Magog -- and has tried to take positive attributes from each..."I've tried to take the best of all three," says Fontaine. "Jean-Marc trained more than everybody, Lloyd has a lot of guts and is very confident even if he doesn't train so hard, and Philippe is very quiet but very strong mentally. There are not so many jumpers from Quebec but every jumper does something special"...entering the Olympic season, Fontaine is content with his jump repertoire and is focused primarily on sticking his landings, as well as having as much fun as possible..."Right now, I'm enjoying the sport more than I ever did," he says. "Now I know I'm going to land on my feet, before I didn't know when I would be on my head and when I would be on my feet. But, the more you win, the more you want to win, it's like a drug"...Fontaine's father, who sells construction materials, used to work as a ski teacher and introduced Nicolas to skiing when he was five years old...his mother is an architect...Nicolas the skier could never keep his feet on the ground for long -- "I always liked doing flips and all" -- and his father built him a jump in the backyard of the family home...Nicolas saw freestyle skiing for the first time when he was eight years old by going to a ski show organized by Rozon in the streets of Sherbrooke, Quebec...when he was around 10 years old, Fontaine went to a show in Montreal and witnessed Langlois trampolining...Langlois later came to Fontaine's school in Magog and began giving the kids trampoline lessons..."He always made me stay after the other kids because he wanted to coach me more," recalls Nicolas...he watched the 1988 Calgary Olympic competition, won by Rozon, in a hospital after a friend had a serious aerials accident..."I was so excited for Jean-Marc," says Fontaine. "I called him the next week to tell him I won a provincial competition but then I remembered he won the Olympics"...he spent one whole year, over 1989 and 1990, training in Florida while working for $35 per day at Sea World..."That was the year I really improved," says Fontaine who worked with Rozon there. "I wasn't winning any regional competitions before I left but I came back and won the Canadian Championships in 1990"...besides expanding his jumping vocabulary, Nicolas learned a whole new language -- English..."I didn't know a word of English before going to Florida but I had to learn it pretty fast," he says...Nicolas has an older sister who is married but still lives near him in Magog, and a younger brother, David, who is a member of the national development team and hopes to make the Canadian World Cup team next season...Nicolas is a computer fanatic -- he carries a laptop with him on the road and would like to get involved in computer programming after he completes his competitive freestyle career...his ultimate goal is also to help add a new generation to the "Quebec Air Force"..."I really love the life I am leading now and I want to introduce more kids to freestyle skiing," says Fontaine. "I bought a trampoline and with my sister I want to start giving trampoline lessons to children in Magog. I think there are a lot of kids who will be interested in that"...