Alexandre in the arms of Toni Ali, from England,
(bronze medal at 3 meters)
photo by : Frank Gunn, Canadian Press

Here is what I found in The Edmonton Sun and on CNN after Alexandre won the GOLD MEDAL at the tower at Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games on Septembre 20, 1998.

Thirteen-year-old diving phenom from Montreal overwhelms Games field with record score to win gold medal

Monday, September 21, 1998, By James Christie

Kuala Lumpur
Alexandre Despatie wants to be an astronaut. For now,he'll have to settle for being among the stars of sport.

The 13-year-old diver from Montreal, who only was given permission to fly off the 10-metre tower this year, overwhelmed his competition with a Commonwealth record score in taking the gold medal in tower diving Sunday.

As the Grade 8 student stood on the uppermost podium on a hot, sticky night, he was handed the gold medal and a stuffed orangutan mascot. Drowning in the depths of a team uniform too big for his 5-foot-1, 98-pound frame, Despatie seemed as charmed with the toy as with the triumph.

"You've got to have some fun. If you don't have some fun, why be here. There's no point," he said.

Despatie won with a score of 652.110 points, a margin of more than 46 points over Australia's Robert Newberry. The youngster's broad smile of braced teeth contorted into a tearful cry as he realized it was over. Tony Ali, England's three-metre bronze medalist rushed up to hug him, picking Despatie off the pool deck. Then he was engulfed by adoring teammates, including Edmonton's Eryn Bulmer, who earlier had won the women's three-metre springboard bronze, and Montreal's Myriam Boileau who'd taken bronze.

He's impressed with the fact that so many of the Commonwealth's top divers have come up to introduce themselves and believes "we'll be friends for a long time."

But two years down the road, when Despatie climbs the tower at the Sydney Olympics, friendships will be on hold. He may be the man -- or boy -- to beat.

Despatie will spend the next two years building a higher degree of difficulty into his program. While he undoubtedly got some marks here for cuteness, it will be an entirely different scene when the rest of the world's best are in the field. Canada has never won a medal in Olympic men's platform diving. The closest was a fourth-place finish by Alfie Phillips, later a great curler, in 1932 at Los Angeles.

Asked if he believed he could best the Commonwealth field, Despatie said: "I have to believe it, because I dived my best . . . I didn't think I could [before] because I saw the other divers dive. I knew they were pretty good."

But he took a lead in the morning optional dives and it gave him confidence to carry through at night. Ali, who adopted him as a friend and gave him advice, urged him to stay relaxed. Even as Despatie stood on the tower preparing for dives, he'd lead the applause for the previous diver's effort, enjoying the event as spectator and participant.

"I just told myself to keep going. Don't change nothing and you're going to win," he said, though he said he didn't watch his point total on the scoreboard, only his position. His execution of his dive list was so good he had the top score on four of the six dives for the evening.

Despite his age, Despatie is something of a veteran. He began in the sport at age 5, diving in a backyard pool. He asked his grandmother if she'd give him some scores. "She always gave me some 10s, always."

At 5½ years old, he was taken to the Club Aquatique de Montreal, expressed his desire to learn the sport and began formal training.

"None of this is by accident," said national coach Mitch Geller. "His coach, Michel Larouche, has methodically developed him from the first day. "You can't call anyone a `natural' in this sport. None of the movements in diving come naturally. His coach has taken care of every detail."

Canada finished with two gold, two silver and three bronze in six men's and women's diving events. Bulmer's three-metre gold expunged a disappointing bronze in the one-metre event.

"I didn't come here to finish third," she said. She was able to compose herself after missing a back 2½ somersault in pike position, to come back with two high-scoring dives, including a reverse 2½ somersault with 1½ twists.

In her earlier event, a bad dive put her off for the rest of her program.

"I felt a little anxiety, but I tried to stay loose and relaxed," she said. "This competition was really important to me, because it's a Games, and at a Games there are so many distractions. To be able to do it here, to put a bad dive behind me, is an important experience. I wanted to show people I can do it under pressure."

Of Despatie, she said he was "phenomenal. I've never seen anything like him."

on

Might mite diver takes Games by storm
Canada's Alexandre Despatie, 13, beats big boys for diving gold

By Rosie DiManno
Toronto Star Sports Columnist

KUALA LUMPUR - Boy oh boy oh boy.

Hard to get beyond that basic description of teensy, darling Alexandre Despatie, Canada's 13-year-old dynamo and dynamite half-pint Commonwealth Games gold medalist diver.

The child - less than 101 pounds of fun, allegedly 5-foot-1 but who's kidding whom? - blew away the big-man field here last night, tumbling and somersaulting and twisting his way to the top step of the podium before a crowd that drew him to its collective maternal/paternal bosom: cheering madly, even more so when their own Malaysian judge awarded Despatie a perfect 10 for his fourth plunge.

The kid's never been at an international meet before.

He's missed the first three weeks of school back at his Montreal Grade 8 class - "that's okay, I don't mind missing school.''

And he's become the little brother to the rest of the Canadian athletic delegation here.

But not just the Canucks. Humongous Tony Ali of England, bronze medalist in the three-metre springboard, picked up Despatie after the final marks were flashed on the scoreboard, then swept him on to his broad shoulders as the boy burst into, well, boyish tears.

Meanwhile, the Australian diving crew salaamed Despatie, in a Mike Myers' we're-not-worthy imitation.

This cute act might not last long. If the bilingual Despatie - youngest member on the Canadian team here - keeps creaming the adults off the 10-metre platform, he'll probably start to lose his elfin charm as far as the opposition is concerned.

But for now, on this night, Despatie was golden and beloved.

``I knew I was in front but I didn't know I was that far in front,'' crowed Despatie, his coffee-bean eyes widening as he marvelled at the emphatic 46.6 edge in points he scored over silver medalist Robert Newbery of Australia - and this despite the fact Despatie more or less cocked-up his third dive.

The boy with the mouthful of braces and the pre-pubescent body led from start to finish. He was also remarkably poised, standing up there on the top of the tower, such a tiny figure.

Throughout the event, Despatie constantly clapped his hands in enthusiasm as his teammates performed their dives, acting very much like a kid at the neighbourhood pool, applauding his buddies.

But he was all calm, focused business when he prepared for his own dives. And never more so than just prior to the sixth, final plunge.

By then, he would have had to belly-flop in order to lose the gold, but that is always very much a possibility in this sport. (Except national coach Mitch Geller claims Despatie has never ``wiped out'' on a dive.)

``I just told myself, keep going, don't change anything,'' Despatie recounted to reporters, describing what was going through his mind whilst teetering at the top of the tower for Dive 6.

Yet there was no aura of disbelief over what he'd just accomplished - the youngest gold medalist diver ever at the Commonwealth Games.

(No Canadian male has ever won this sport at the Olympics, by the way. Closest was Alfred Phillips who placed fourth in the three-metre event in 1932.)

``I have to believe it,'' said Despatie, with a shrug. ``I did my best and that's what I expected.''

This is not arrogance. This is merely the disingenuous, natural confidence of a boy-child who has yet to experience disappointment or defeat. Perhaps that will come.

``He doesn't realize what he's doing,'' said coach Geller. ``It's still all Disneyland to him.''

But Geller, who's been watching Despatie since the boy walked in unannounced to the Claude Robillard Centre in Montreal as a 5-year-old, was left near speechless after the competition.

``Oh my gosh,'' Geller said. ``That was spine-tingling.''

``He's the next world champion right there,'' said Australian Shannon Roy, who won the three-metre event on Saturday.

``He's got talent and composure. He's got everything it takes to be a world champion. He's the most deserved winner of the whole meet.''