François-Louis Tremblay

François-Louis Tremblay
Personal information
Born	November 13, 1980 (age 43); Alma, Quebec
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	72 kg (159 lb; 11.3 st)
Sport
Country	Canada
Sport	Speed skating
World championship wins	2008-09 500m
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)	500 m: 40.684 (2009); 1000 m: 1:24.298 (2005); 1500 m: 2:13.803 (2004); 3000 m: -:--.---
Medal record
Men's short track speed skating
Representing Canada
Winter Olympics
World Championships
Goodwill Games

François-Louis Tremblay (born November 13, 1980, in Alma, Quebec, Canada) is a Canadian short track speed skater and five-time Olympic medalist who competed at the 2002, 2006, and 2010 Winter Olympics.

François-Louis Tremblay is one of only two Canadian men to win 5 medals at the Winter Olympic games, the other man being Marc Gagnon.^[1] At the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, Tremblay was a member of Canada's gold medal-winning 5,000-meter relay team. In Turin, Italy, at the 2006 Olympic Winter Games, he won two silver medals. He won an individual medal by finishing second in the men's 500-meter race and also took part in the men's 5,000-meter relay that finished second behind the South Korean team. He added a bronze medal in the 500 m and gold medal in the 5000 m relay in 2010.

Tremblay was the two-time world champion at 500 meters, having won back-to-back titles at the 2005 World Short Track Championships in Beijing and again at the 2006 World Short Track Championships in Minneapolis.

Career

Tremblay's career has been one as a prominent member of the Canadian short track team. The emphasis is particularly on team here as Tremblay has featured prominently as a member of the relay team helping it to a gold medal during the 2002 Olympics and a silver medal in Turin 2006. It was at the Turin Olympics that Tremblay won his only individual medal finishing 2nd behind Apolo Anton Ohno. Tremblay is currently second on the all-time medals list for Canadian short-trackers in medals received in the Olympics and World Championships, although 7 of his 9 gold members were either a part of the relay team or World Team Championships. He did win the 500m world crown back to back in 2005 and 2006, following with a silver behind teammate Charles Hamelin in 2007.

The 500 m has become Tremblay's premier event, one which he bloomed into late only winning his first individual world medal in the event in 2005. Despite his late arrival as an elite athlete of the event he has excelled at the event at a point in which most short trackers are considering retirement. Tremblay won the 2008-09 World Cup overall in the 500 m, and in the shortened 2009-10 World Cup season he finished a second overall in the 500 m to teammate Charles Hamelin again. Tremblay has continued to anchor the relay team together with Hamelin. After losing at the world cup event in Canada he made a guarantee of sorts saying "next time we're going to win...we're going to win the gold medal" in the relay at the 2010 Winter Olympics.

2010 Vancouver Olympics

At Tremblay's age of 29 these will likely be his last games and therefore his first and last games on home soil. In the opening heat of the 500 m Francois-Louis Tremblay broke Charles Hamelin's Olympic Record which had just been set the heat before. The record was now set at 41.397 seconds.^[2] On February 26, he won two medals in one night. He won a bronze medal in the 500 m, with his teammate Charles Hamelin winning gold. He then won a gold medal in the 5000 m relay along with Charles Hamelin, François Hamelin, Olivier Jean and Guillaume Bastille.^[3] With the two medals at the Olympics, Tremblay tied a record set by Marc Gagnon as the only Canadian men to win 5 medals in the Winter Olympics.^[4]

Personal

Tremblay's favourite hobby is playing guitar. He was a guest guitarist in Radio-Canada's TV show "Tellement sport" to play with the band Karkwa. He also played with Canadian rock legend Tom Cochrane in April 2010 as he performed the song Big League to honour the Canadian male and female hockey team.