Gatineau sprinter—and Canada’s fastest woman—heading to Paris Olympics

Article content

Audrey Leduc, the fastest woman in Canada to run the 100- and 200-metre sprints, used to be afraid of the starter gun. Later this summer, she will be heading to Paris to make her Olympic debut.

Leduc, who has set two Canadian records in the last two months, was raised in Gatineau and began running track in 2009 when she was 10 years old.

While she played soccer for a while, she eventually stopped as track “slowly and naturally” took over.

Article content

“When I start something, I will always try to do my best and do it seriously,” said Leduc.

The 2024 Summer Olympics will run from July 26 to Aug. 11 in Paris, France. Leduc qualified for the 100- and 200-metre sprint events after winning both events at the Canadian Track and Field Olympic trials in Montreal last weekend.

The Canadian Olympic Committee officially named her to Team Canada on Tuesday. Other members of the athletics team from the National Capital Region include Eliezer Adjibi, Lauren Gale and Jacqueline Madogo.

Looking ahead to the Games, Leduc said she has already surpassed her goals, originally aiming to reach the 100-metre world ranking. She’s currently ranked 38th.

Nicknamed “Lightning Leduc,” the sprinter crushed the Olympic standard at a meet in Louisiana in April, running a national record of 10.96. A month later, she ran another national record of 22.36 in the 200 in Georgia, beating the Olympic standard of 22.57.

The 100-metre relay team, which included Leduc, qualified for the Olympics at the World Relays in the Bahamas in early May. Leduc is slated to run with the team in Paris.

Article content

“It’s exceeding what I was expecting for my first experience at the Olympics,” said Leduc, who’s also a business student at Laval University. “It’s still the beginning of the season so it’s nice to be able to run that fast and just build on that to be faster for the Olympics. I just need to be grounded.”

Aside from competing, Leduc said she’s most looking forward to trading pins with other athletes at the Games.

“It’s a bit funny, I love doing those things,” Leduc said. “I’m looking forward to that but also just the experience of the (athlete’s) village, just wearing all the clothes from Lululemon, all of that, just all of the experience.”

Having always watched the Olympics on television, Leduc says she doesn’t see runners from other countries as models or idols.

“When I’m gonna go there, they are gonna be competitors, so I just want to beat them,” Leduc said, adding that she’s more excited to cheer on the other Canadian athletes performing at the Games. “I’m excited to be able to maybe see those athletes in person and just make it real.”

Annie Prescott, Leduc’s mom, said she and her husband found out their daughter set the Canadian record in the 100 while participating in a curling tournament.

Article content

Watching the race on her phone, Prescott said she was “jumping all over the place” when she saw the result. Recalling that it was hard to focus for the rest of the bonspiel, Prescott said she still can’t remember if her team won the game they were playing at the time.

“Everybody could see that something good was going on because I’m not an extraverted person,” said Prescott, who will be travelling with her husband to watch their daughter at the Games, like they’ve done for her track events for years. “No matter what, we’re proud of her. She just has to do her best.”

Former competitive badminton players, Prescott said she and her husband always encouraged Leduc to take part in activities. The sprinter always had natural talent, skating by two years old and playing soccer a year later.

“She started walking at nine months so we knew that she had physical capabilities,” Prescott said. “She was running all over the place.”

While she started strong, winning an award for athlete of the year for her age group from Athlétisme Québec during her first year of competition, she struggled a bit when she was a teenager, always being the “tiniest” one. By 15 years old, however, Audrey caught up to the other girls and was back as “part of the top three.”

Article content

“When she was really young, she was afraid of the starter gun,” Prescott said. “She was really young compared to the others and sometimes it was pretty loud.”

The fastest woman in Canada, Leduc said she’s not dreading competing against quicker athletes from other countries.

“It’s nice because you can try to just be better and faster by competing against faster people so you can just improve yourself,” Leduc said, adding that her goal is to make it to the next round in each of her events. “Once I will be in the final, just run the fastest I can, enjoy it.”

Article content