“The team is there to perform, but have fun, as well. We aren’t looking to go to the Games, but to have a great weekend and get some experience for next year.”
Photos by: Alexis Leblanc-Bazinet
Things are different for CrossFit Brossard this year.
In October, Alexis Leblanc-Bazinet, a team member in 2012, broke his wrist falling from a muscle-up. Rachel Leblanc-Bazinet faced her toughest year at university and chose to focus on her education.
Athletes Alexandra Bergeron, Pascal Baillargeon and Alexandre Beaulieu, who each had to travel significant distances to train in 2012, left Brossard to train at CrossFit St. Jean, a nearby gym. While they have the Brossard team rooting for them, they aren’t competing for Brossard.
The only returning members to CrossFit Brossard’s Regional team are siblings Claude, Rachel and Alexis Leblanc-Bazinet. New team member Myriam Arpin has competed as an individual at Regionals in past years, but the other new members of the team have never competed at that level.
Owned by the Leblanc-Bazinet family, CrossFit Brossard finished seventh in Canada East in the 2013 Open.
Dionne Keaven, Bryan Judd and Michel Martin are the male athletes on the 2013 team, and are all well rounded, Alexis says.
On the women’s side are Claude, Genevieve Boucher and Arpin.
“Claude will bring a lot of gymnastics skills to the team, while Myriam can bring all the strength, but she has a little more difficulty with the gymnastic movements,” Alexis explains. “Genevieve is more overall; she can lift weights and has all of her gymnastic skills, as well. So together, they can do nearly anything.”
Despite the change in the roster, the Brossard team still features the same strengths — a focus on strength and gymnastics skills — and challenges — arranging schedules — as it did in previous years.
Claude and Myriam are nurses in the emergency room, Michel is a police officer, Keaven and Genevieve are firefighters and Bryan works in the shipping industry. They all have strange schedules, making it hard to train together, but they are able to do so at least two times a week.
While they may not be as competitive as they have been in the past, CrossFit Brossard still has a drive to compete.
“I think the team just wants to finish all of the events, and not receive any DNFs,” Alexis says.
The alternate on the women’s side for Brossard is Danielle, mother to Camille, Rachel, Claude and Alexis. She finished a close 21st in the Masters 50-54 Division, and will head to Regionals to support the Brossard team instead of the Games.
The Brossard team is keeping perspective, knowing this year will be a bit different.
“The team is there to perform, but have fun, as well,” Alexis says. “We aren’t looking to go to the Games, but to have a great weekend and get some experience for next year.”
