Benoît Huot
Benoit Huot CM CQ (born January 24, 1984) is a Canadian Paralympic swimmer, who has won nine Paralympic Games gold medals for Canada, primarily in the freestyle and butterfly strokes.[1]
Hailing from Longueuil, Quebec, Huot was born with club feet, started swimming competitively at age 10 at the CAMO Natation club, where he is trained by Benoit Lebrun. In the beginning he competed alongside able-bodied swimmers and competed at two Quebec Games, earning silver in 1997.
Career[edit]
Benoit Huot made his international debut in 1998 as a member of Canada's team at the International Paralympic Committee world championships, where he won two gold and four silver medals. He added three more gold and three silver medals at the 2000 Paralympics and eight medals at the 2002 IPC Swimming World Championships.
In 2003, Huot was named the male athlete of the year with a disability by the International Commonwealth Federation.
In 2004, Huot grabbed five gold medals, one silver medal and three world records at the 2004 Paralympic Games in Athens.
In 2005, Huot won six golds at the Disability Sport England Swimming Championships. He then went on to take a gold and a silver at the inaugural Paralympic World Cup in Manchester in events that were swum just 15 minutes apart. This led the Swimming World Magazine to award him the World Disabled Swimmer of the Year award.
At the 2012 Summer Paralympics in London he won gold, silver, and bronze medals, giving him a total of 19 medals in four Paralympic Games. He was named Canada's flag bearer for the Games closing ceremony.[1]
Huot has served on the athletes' council with Swimming Canada, the Canadian Paralympic Committee and Commonwealth Games Federation.[1]
Awards and honours[edit]
In 2011, Huot was inducted into the Canadian Disability Hall of Fame.[2] In December 2016, Huot was named a Member of the Order of Canada.[3] In 2018, he was made a Knight of the National Order of Quebec.[4]
Robbery[edit]
On July 27, 2014, Huot's home in Longueuil was robbed. Among the stolen items were seven medals, including two Paralympic medals.[5] The athlete then appealed to the public Sunday afternoon on Twitter. The idea of never seeing his medals is "heartbreaking," he pleads. "Those medals represent a lifetime of work. Hours and hours of work to get them," said Huot in an interview.
As Huot's house was under renovation at the time, he was not there when it was broken into during the night from Saturday to Sunday. The Longueuil Police Department is continuing its investigation.
References[edit]
- ^ a b c Canadian Paralympic Committee (September 9, 2012). "Benoît Huot "The Shark" named Team Canada Flag Bearer for London 2012 Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony". Canada Newswire. Archived from the original on February 21, 2014. Retrieved September 9, 2012.
- ^ "Previous Hall of Fame Inductees". Canadian Foundation for Physically Disabled Persons. Retrieved 5 January 2018.
- ^ "Order of Canada's newest appointees include Paralympian, Supreme Court judge and astrophysicist". CBC News, December 30, 2016.
- ^ "Citation" (PDF) (in French).
- ^ "Cash reward offered for return of Paralympic swimmer Huot's stolen medals". ctvnews.ca. 6 August 2014. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
External links[edit]
- Benoit Huot - Cœur Handisport at the Wayback Machine (archived April 10, 2017)
- Benoit Huot on Real Champions at the Wayback Machine (archived September 27, 2007)
- Benoit Huot at the Canadian Paralympic Committee at the Wayback Machine (archived February 8, 2017)
- Benoit Huot at the Canadian Paralympic Committee
- Benoit Huot at the Commonwealth Games Federation (archived)
- Benoit Huot at the International Paralympic Committee
- Benoit Huot at IPC.InfostradaSports.com (archived)
- 1984 births
- Living people
- Canadian male freestyle swimmers
- Canadian male butterfly swimmers
- Paralympic swimmers for Canada
- Swimmers at the 2000 Summer Paralympics
- Swimmers at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
- Swimmers at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
- Swimmers at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
- Swimmers at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
- Paralympic gold medalists for Canada
- Paralympic silver medalists for Canada
- Commonwealth Games silver medallists for Canada
- Sportspeople from Longueuil
- World record holders in paralympic swimming
- Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Canada
- Medalists at the 2000 Summer Paralympics
- Medalists at the 2004 Summer Paralympics
- Medalists at the 2008 Summer Paralympics
- Medalists at the 2012 Summer Paralympics
- Medalists at the 2016 Summer Paralympics
- Sportspeople with club feet
- S10-classified para swimmers
- Members of the Order of Canada
- Paralympic bronze medalists for Canada
- Commonwealth Games medallists in swimming
- Canadian Disability Hall of Fame
- Knights of the National Order of Quebec
- Swimmers at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
- Medalists at the World Para Swimming Championships
- Paralympic medalists in swimming
- Medalists at the 2015 Parapan American Games
- Medallists at the 2006 Commonwealth Games